New-York tribune., 1910-06-05
THE PIANOFORTE.
Continued from second page.

+;ons of art which made perspective "Si' up
de1ineation of actualities), was susPeNU
front of the player by band from IN
aiao 10Th hands are occupied in playing upon
the right hand striking the strings with On
| instrument apparently about foot iohs' ."o
| ...i,,, cbeckine the vibrations of the
strings ,,,or II
IF this instrument was really dulcliier' -
NAV stand as the true prototype among INC ~
| ilized ancients of the modern pianoior'e' ,
in shane with many names. II mas ii'eu III
dav It is still popular In the orient II 10 '
Persian santir: it was the Greek psaiterioi'' an
| its sa was general throughout Europe as carry
40 the sixth century The Italians called 1t
| the dolcimelo. compounding the WORD OUT VI tno
Iatin dulce and the Greek melos. The ruder
Germans. taking suggestion. probably from
the motion of the players hands, which sus-
gested that Of the butchers in the prepafa.,oD
of their favorte Wand. called 1t Hackpretl' lil.
is cbopping board. By this time tIe iii''i -
had attained it's present forh' ooN "a
boards pierced on the top with souhu hoe'' --N
| ing wire strings stretched over prluseS' Pi"s
unon with two hammers with siehuer iiSiu
a-,5 oor,, beads Once it was played upon Win
two sticks slightly bent at one emu Al@'h-n
n,oneatea head. one side of which was coVereu
.ritb cloth Rv striking the wires with the cioth-
od surface soft effects were obta1ned-a
| noteworthy device in this history for IL sus-
eested the pianoforte to the mind OF one OF i'S
| inventors Its capabilities may be stuoieo W
dav in the music of the ubiquitous gypsy panu
Wa have now seen something of the origin
and growth of two of the vital principie9 VI .
modern pianoforte-the principle OF VlDralins
string as medium of tone generatloh anu oi
blow AGAINST the string as means OF tone pro-
duction For a third Distinguishing prihcipio'
that bv which the two media are brought into
| he
AGAIN he into the classic past The Keyboard
was borrowed from instruments OF the organ
kind and its antiquity cannot clearly De deter
mined Organs were the possession OF Doth
Cracks and Hebrews before the Christian era,
and their existence in anything beyond the SIM
plest FORMS as exemplified in the syrinx, pre-
supposes some contrivance for admitting and
excluding wind from the pipes at the will OF the
PLAYER At first and even after the instrument
got into literature this contrivance may have
been a series of rods which could be drawn forth
and pushed back under the mouths of the pipes,
but in the sixth century "a. d. Cassiodorus, In
a commentary Psalm cl, wrote description
of a pneumatic organ which leaves doubt
that the commentator was familiar with some
thing like our key action He mentions the
presence in the interior Of the instrument OF
movements of wood which are pressed down by
the fingers of the player" in order to express
keyboard was invented, but certain 1t seems
that the organ keyboard was too cumbersome
a contrivance to be applied to stringeo instru-
ment for several centuries after the beginning
of the Christian era. This application, in the
form Of interest to us, took place about the
eleventh century, and the instrument to which
keys were then applied a scientific rather
than a musical instrument. 1t the mono
chord, which had been used in the mathematical
determination Of the relation of tones ever since
the time of Pythagoras-that is, ever since the
sixth century before Christ AS its name indi-
Gates the monochord had but single string.
This was stretched over two bridges, a sound
box. By stopping this string in the middle the
octave of its fundamental tone was produced;
two thirds gave the fifth, three-fourths the
fourth, and so on, the harmonic interval being
umerical ratio. 1t a simple matter to add
x;-..>Es to the monochord to facilitate its manip-
rss .s in the comparison of intervals. and two
:, ikdretical writer's in the second century a D.,
AItstides Quintilian and Claudius Ptolemy, refer
to an instrument having four strings tuned in
unison which used in the study of tonal
-ctios 1t customary to attribute near
=. ID inventions in music to Guido d'AreZZo
sfs monk to whom we are indebted for our
sofia syllables. He is credited, too, with having
applied keys to the mOnochord which, on being
pressed down, lifted bridge against the string