The Rise of the Piano.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 4

The Rise of the Piano.

How it Grew to its Present Proportions. The piano, a 3 we see it to-day, is the growth of centuries of invention. In its infancy it was a harp with two or three strings. From time to time more strings were added, and after a while the cithara was born. The cithara was in the shape of the letter P, and had ten strings. It took many centuries for musicians to get the idea of stretching the strings across an open box, but somewhere about the year 1200 this was thought of and the dulcimer made its appearance, the strings being struck by hammers. FJor amothor hundred" years these hammers were held, in the hands * of'the' player, and' then a genius invented a keyboard, which,' being 'strulok by the fingers, moved the hammers. This instrument was called a clavicytherium, or keyed cithera. This underwent some modifications and improvements from time to time. In Queen Elizabeth’s time it was called a virginal. Then it was called a spinel:, because the hammers were covered with spines'of quills,' which struct: or caught the strings of'wires and produced tbe sound. From 1700 to 1800 it was much enlarged and.' improved, and called a harpsicord, and this was the instrument that Lady Yyashington, Mrs Hamilton and the fine ladies of our revolutionary times placed on. In 17.1 b, Bartolomeo Cristoifoli, an Italian, invented a Ley or key-tioard, such as we have now substantially, which caused hammers to stride the wires from above, and thqs develop thy piano. In the past lfiO s yqars therq jijj np t rqusical which has sq completely absqrbqd the lyy-eptiye faculty of man as the P’auo. At the present day th e upright piano hqs the fiejd qlrqost entirely to and has reached sqch a. high grade of perfection in afaapq, tone and apD<*— there would appear ” - --‘ rauC9 that further *—- be u 0 possibility of ..improvement.—Musical Courier.