Books › A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904 › scan 120
Scan 120
A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1instruments dynamic expression—i.e., the power of producing either a loud or a soft note, as the performer desired—was impossible. We know that the clavichord and the virginal were in use in 1400, the two types continuing to be made until the beginning of the last century. Recognising their imperfections, it seems strange that they could have outlived the invention of the pianoforte proper by more than a hundred years.
3The mechanical principle of this instrument is easy to understand. It is that of a free balanced hammer; in effect mechanism assists in doing just what the wrists of the dulcimer players perform. These men can just touch the strings, or hit them a severe blow, then immediately raising the hammer-stick so as to allow the string to sound freely until its vibrations come to an end. Thus piano forte (soft-loud), which we obtain now through the hammer with its escapement mechanism, exactly expresses what was achieved thousands of years ago by the dulcimer players. There have been doubts as to who first planned out this hammer with its graduated blow and immediate release so as to allow the string to vibrate freely. Various claims have been made for the invention. It was the opinion of the late A. J. Hipkins, than whom no greater authority on the history of the pianoforte ever lived, that it must be credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian harpsichord maker, and the date of 1709 is assigned to the invention.
5Considering that the balanced hammer device meant all the difference between formal and artistically rendered music, it seems strange that the invention did not become immediately popular and spread widely. Yet it was not so. Frederici introduced it into Austria in 1758, Zumpe to England in 1760, and Erard to France in 1777; but the principle was the right one. As time went on composers and players appreciated this; makers vied with one another in perfecting the hammer mechanism and making it obedient to the fingers of the players. Then with a new instrument of greatly extended compass new music arose; the old types of plucking
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