The Piano.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 43, 23 October 1902, Page 15

The Piano.

The piano is an invention about 200 yearß old, 1 says a writer in the New York Evening Post. ' Like most other inventions it is an evolution ; it comes from the psaltry or harp by way of the barpischord, the clavichord, and the pianoforte — or piano-e-forte which is loft and loud. It was on the harpischord that Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, and the eminent composers of that day expressed their compositions. This instrument was like a harp enclosed in a box. with a mechanical device by which the manipulation of a keyboard plucked the wires. The resulting tone has been described as "a scratch with a sound at the end of it." ' The inventor of the piano waa a Florentine, one Cristof ori, who lived about 1709. He conceived the idea of having the wires Btruok with a rebounding hammer, instead of being scraped on plucked. A soft blow made the soft tone and a hard one a louder tone ; hence the name. The soft pedal and damper was the invention of an Englishman named Broadwood ; an Irishman conceived the idea of building it upright, and Jonas Chiokering, of Boston, worked out a lot of details and made the piano more like what it is to-day. ' John Jacob Astor brought the first piano to the United States. This was in 1784. He had a lot of difficulty in keeping the wires from rusting during the ocean voyage, and when they got here the the drier atmosphere of New York made the woodwork shrink and crack. This led to the making of pianos in the United States. • Philadelphia ib the cradle of the American piano. The year before the Declaration of Independence John Behrent built a piano in that city. Ten years later New York started the industry, and that oity now leads the world as a piano-manufacturing centre. A great business depression in Europe in 1825 drove a lot of pianomakers to this country, and resulted in a wonderful stimulns to the business. ' The iron frame on which the wires of a piano are strung sustains a tension of 30 tons. The invention of this frame was what made Stein way and his instruments. He worked and studied for six years in all the principal foundries of Europe. Previous to his invention, 12 tons had been about the limit of the frame tension. • A complete revolution in the Btyle of pianoß has taken place in this country Bince 1866. Up to that time nearly all were square pianos ; now 97 per cent, are uprights. Until 1896 there were two " schools of piano building." One was the Boston, and the other the New York school. Each had its own theories as to frame and action, and clung to them with obstinacy.'