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The New Encyclopedia Of Music And Musicians, 1929
28 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1light and the tone sweet and refined, analogous to that of the claviichord, while the English action was strong and the tone more sonorous, analogous to that of the harpsichord. The former was associated with a line of piano-players deriving their tradition from Mozart. The latter is associated with the Clementi line. Just before 1800 the elder Érard began piano-making at Paris, becoming equally famous with Broadwood, and several makers became notable in Germany. In addition, several ingenious inventors appeared in America, leading to the founding of the Chickering business in Boston in 1823. The great Steinway firm in New York was not established until 1848. By about 1860 all the elements of the modern form had been perfected.
3The mechanical problems of the piano lie mainly in the action and in the stringing and its attachments. Although the piano outwardly resembles the harpsichord and inherited from it its general frame and its broad soundboard under the strings, yet the method of tone-production raised serious mechanical questions. Part of the problem could not be solved until altogether new materials were available.
5From the first it was clear that the action required a hinged hammer so adjusted to the key-tail as to be thrown freely against the string and to rebound instantly, whether or not the key is at once released. This involved the delivery to the hammer-shank of a thrust proportionate to the pressure at the key and some form of escapement by which the hammer should free itself from that thrust. At first hammers were tried striking from under the strings, with later experiments with over-striking; the latter was soon given up, but reappeared in the later uprights. The Viennese action had the hammer-butts at the back and the heads toward the keyboard, while the English action reversed this arrangement (as is now universal). The nicest ingenuity has been required to perfect the escapement and its connections, including (from 1821) the double to:m that permits repetition of the tone without fully releasing the key. When one considers the enormous increase in strain upon the action involved in the advance from the light demands of 18th-century playing to the ponderous effects of modern pianism, the question of making the action fully responsive is seen to be extremely intricate.
7But the problem of the stringing was even more difficult. If a tone is to be elicited from a string by a hammer-blow, the string must not only be of metal, but must be under high tension. The early strings were made of iron, whose tensile strength could not be increased beyond a certain point. Piano-making was revolutionized from 1835, when steel wire began to be made. To-day the wire made for pianos is the finest product of its kind, both in strength and in texture. But improving the strings and raising their tension involved endless experiments with a framework strong enough to hold them, with bridges properly disposed to raise them above the soundboard. All the early frames were made of wood, iron bars not being introduced till 1808. Only after 1820 was a rigid plate for carrying the strings perfected, soon followed by a frame cast in one piece. This use of metal in the frame, combined with the use of steel wire in the strings, was the basis of the universal gain in both tone and durability from 1850 onward.
9Incidentally, various other details were perfected, the compass of the keyboard being extended to six octaves in 1794 and to seven in 1824, the 'loud' and 'soft' pedals being introduced in principle before 1790, but later improved in action, and the 'sustaining-pedal' appearing in one form in 1862, etc. Most important of all were the improvements in the making of the hammer-heads, which now include layers of special felt, laid on under tension.
11Among the parts of the action and frame are the following. The raising of the key-tail by the pressure of the finger actuates a complex mechanism known as the hopper, which both delivers the thrust to the hammer and lifts the damper from the string, besides having a check to catch the hammer on its rebound. For each key of the keyboard there are 75-100 distinct pieces of wood or metal required. The number of strings in a grand or upright is now usually about 225, since all the main portion of the compass is trichord; in a concert-grand their united pull on the frame amounts to nearly 30 tons. To withstand this pull and distribute it advantageously, the lower strings are now arranged to cross part of the others (overstrung), while long braces extend above them from end to end to counteract a tendency in the plate to buckle. At their further ends the strings are hooked about pins in the string-plate, while at their forward ends they are fastened to tuning-pins set in the wrest-plank, at both ends their vibrating-length being fixed by their passing over bridges most carefully disposed. Underneath them is the soundboard, which in modern pianos is elaborately constructed so as to have the maximum of strength and sonority, since upon this depends the essential quality of the tone. The pedals usually provided are the loud or damper-pedal (holding the dampers up so that tones are prolonged and also reinforced by sympathetic resonance), the soft or shifting-pedal (making the tones less intense by interposing a soft substance between hammer and string or decreasing the play of the hammers or shifting the keyboard so that the hammers strike only one or two of the unisons) and the sustaining-pedal (holding up such dampers as happen to be raised at the moment when the pedal is applied).
13Pianos have probably always been tuned in equal temperament.
15The piano stands with the organ and the violin as one of the instruments of highest importance in the development of musical art, besides being the chief means by which music has attained its extraordinary popular dissemination. Since 1800 piano-music has been the most frequent form of composition. Virtuosity upon the piano is more common than upon any other instrument. The piano-recital or concert is one of the most frequent forms of musical entertainment.
17Although the piano-tone is essentially a percussive tone and diminishes if prolonged, yet its quality has been so greatly enriched and given so much sustained sonority that it has extraordinary value in blending with the voice and in simulating orchestral effects. It is therefore infinitely useful in vocal accompaniments and in all sorts of instrumental ensembles (as in piano-trios, piano-quartets, etc., as well as in concerto-form with the orchestra).
19One who plays upon the piano is a pianist, and the art of such playing, or its practice or method, is often called pianism. A small piano is a pianette or pianino, sometimes a cottage- or cabinet-piano. One who manufactures pianos is a piano-maker and one who cares for their tune and repair is a piano-tuner. A school where piano-playing is taught is a piano-school.
21For piano-player, player-piano, and street-piano, see Automatic Appliances.
23Pibcorn, Pibgorn. An old Keltic instrument of the clarinet-class, with a cylindrical tube of bone, a bell at each end of ox-horn and a small reed of straw. There are usually 7 finger-holes. Its popular name is hornpipe, whence possibly came the name for the dance so called. G.
25Pibroch. An irregular set of variations developed from a theme or melody, executed on the bagpipe, usually to excite the martial spirit. The term is sometimes given to the bagpipe itself in poetic allusion. G.
27The theme is called the urlar. The 3-4 variations properly increase in floridness and difficulty, culminating in the quick oranduidh at the close. Sometimes they embody a sort of program of topics taken from battle-experiences.
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