Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-07-06
SLOW EVOLUTION OLA PIANO.
Its Nucleus a One-Strinsed instrument Some
5000 Years Ago.


5000 Years Ago.
Anton Rubinstein, the great Rus.
sian pianist, is credited with having
i said that the piano is the greatest ol
all instruments, for it is a musical
entity" said he, and all other instru.
ments, even including the human
voice, are to certain extent fragmen.
tary." He also declared that in the
last century science had done less 10,
musical instruments than for any
other branch of industry; at the same
time, the development of the piano
has been highly interesting. Its
nucleus was little box over which
were stretched strings-in fact, one
string only was used by the Egyptians
5000 years before Christ, and the
notes were regulated by q movable
bridge. Then came the; monochord
used by the Greeks and attributed tc
Pythagoras in the sixth century, b. c..
and up to 1000 A. d. the monochord
WAS used in all ch urches to teach choir
singers the eight tones"
From the crude instrument was de-
veloped the citole, the dulcimer and
the rsaltery. Besides these were the
harpsichord, the clavitherium, the
clavichord, the virginia. and the spinet
All these were stringed Instruments
The clavitherium had keys; the
clavichord had dampers and points OF
Quill or hard leather which rose and
"plucked" the strings.
A Venetian named Spinetti is said
to have invented the spinet in the
sixteenth century, which followed the
virginia., on which Queen Elizabeth
played. The harpsichord had two
rows of keys, for which Bach and
Handel composed in the seventeenth
century. There is an interesting COL
lection OF harpsichords in the South
Kensington museum, one of which is
dated 1855.
The dulcimer, whose strings were
not like the foregoing, "plucked," but
struck by leather-headed hammers
held in the hands. closely resembles
the "cymbal" which is used in Hun.
garian orchestras Of the present time.
From the dulcimer it was q shor I
step to the piano, and its invention is
attributed to B. Cristofori, or Crista.
fale, OF Florence, Italy; ]. G. Schroter,
a German, and Marius. Frenchman,
early in the eighteenth century. The
strings were struck by small fiat ham
mers and they were mounted in an
oblong box, in shape similar to the
old-fasllioned square piano, with the
colors OF the keys reversed-black for
the natural and white for the sharps.
Schroter, the German, about the time
invented similar instrument, and is
said to have presented model OF his
invention to the court of Saxony in
1717. His ideas were again improved
upon by q. Silberman, who achieved
considerable success with the first
"wing-shaped" piano, Or" fortepiano,"
as it was then called, John Sebastian
Bach played upon one Of these instru-
ments.
Pianofortes were made in London
by NJ. Zumple, a German, in l766,
and have been steadily improved upon
since that time. Mozart played upon
pianos made by Johann Stein and
Antoine Walter, and Nine. Streicker,
who was STEMS daughter. made the
pianos upon which Beethoven played,
one of which is preserved in Windsor
Castle.
The first pianos known in America
were imported from London in 1884
by John Jacob Astor, but as they
could not stand the rigors OF the
climate they soon became ruined.
This fact led to the attempt to build
pianos in this country, and in the
early part of the present century up
rights made their appearance. A
"stone pianoforte," formed of series
OF fiints and other stones of various
sizes, collected in France and arranged
by M. Baudre, was played on by him
at the royal institution ON March I6,
1866