Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-02-21
ORIGIN OF THE PIANO.

E. H Krehbiel, in his just published
work, THE Pianoforte and Its Music"
(Charles Scribner's Sons), gives an
interesting sketch of the origin of the
piano. He says it originated in three
places at practically the same time,
200 years ago, and continues:
THE three men to whom / have left
the honor of being Independent in
ventors of the pianoforte are the It'll
ian Rartolommeo Cristofori; the
Frenchman, Marius, and the German,
Christoph Gottlieb Schroeder 1t is
in the highest degree probable that
efforts had been made in the direction
in which these men labored a long
time before they came forward with
their inventions. The earliest use of
the word pianoforte Cor. literally, pi-
ano forte) as applied to an in
strument of music, antedates the ear
liest of these inventions by Ill years,
but the reference is exceedingly vague
and chiefly valuable as indicative OF
how early the minds of inventors were
occupied with the means for obtaining
soft and loud tones from Keyed IN
struments. Cristoforfs invention takes
precedence of the others in time. This
had been established after much con-
troversy. beyond further dispute. In
700 he exhibited specimens of his
harpsichords, with hammer action,
capable of producing piano and forte
effects. to Prince Ferdinando del
Medici. of whose instruments of music
he was custodian at Florence, and
two years later-that is, in l1ll-hls
invention was fully described and the
description printed. not only in Italy.
but also in Germany. II embraces the
essential features of the pianoforte
action as we have il today-a row OF
hammers. controlled by keys. which
struck the strings from below.
The author makes a most entertain
ing comparison of the Cristoforl pl-
anoforte in the John Crosby Brown
collection of pianos in the Metropoh-
tan museum, New York-one OF the
very first pianos ever made-and
dating back a couple of hundred years
and the modern concert grand made
in America. by way OF illustrating the
tremendous progress made IN the
art of pianoforte production. He says:
''The modern giant is eight feet ana
ten inches long and five feet wac.
The weight of its metal plate is go
hounds. which is probably more than
the weight of the Christofori instru-
ment in its entirety. The total weight
is l.O4O pounds. II has a compass
of seven and a half octaves. SO keys.
against Cristofori's four and half
octaves.. 81 keys. Its range extends
10 KEYS above the top note OF the
Cristofori instrument and Is below
the bottom note The longest string
of this modern grand piano is six
feet. seven and one-half inches in
length. the shortest four and one-half
inches; but the longest string of the
grand consists of steel core TWO
milimetres thick, wound with wire
thicker than the thickest strings OF
the Cristofori, so the modern string
is in all five millimetres thick. one
or two octaves of these bass strings
contain enough metal to string the
Cristofori instrument throughout. The
thickest string on the Cristofori Is
smaller in diameter than the thinnest
string on the other. The triple uni
sons on the grand which produce the
lowest note of the Cristofori are
wound and two millimetres thick. The
highest note of the Cristofori has a
string five and a half inches long
on the grand and exerts strain OF
10 pounds for each if its three uni
sons. A few such strains would crush
the frame of the Cristofori pianoforte
like an eggshell. but it is not more
than the hundredth part of what the
modern frame is called upon to en-
dure."