10 Things You Might not Know About the Piano

What defines a piano as being a piano A piano has a board of 88 black and white keys which operate hammer struck wires

What defines a piano as being a piano?

A piano has a board of 88 black and white keys which operate hammer struck wires.

What does the word, ?Piano? actually mean?

?Piano? is the shortened form of ?piano forte? meaning literally ?soft loud?. The term was coined in the mid eighteenth century when the harpsichord was developed with the addition of keys that could vary the volume of playing depending on how hard you hit them.

How does the action of hitting a key transfer into make a noise?

When a piano key it hit, a felt covered hammer hits a steel string. The hammer rebounds, which allows the string to continue to vibrate giving the piano its distinctive sound. The vibrations travel through a bridge to a sounding board so that it can be heard loudly enough. Only when the key is released does the hammer rest on the string again to stop the sound.

How many strings does a modern piano have?

The average modern piano has 230 strings, each of which has approximately 75 kilograms of tension. When combined, that would make a force of about eighteen tons, while the total string tension in a concert grand piano is a staggering 30 tons, which is enough to lift five adult elephants!

When Was The First Piano Built?

Early ancestors of the piano include the harpsichord, the hurdy gurdy and the clavichord, but the first piano is credited to an Italian gentleman by the name of to Bartolomeo Cristofori. He was a subject of Prince Ferdinand de Medici and was an expert Harpsichord maker and it is unclear exactly when he built his first piano, but it is thought to have been around 1698-1700.

Do Any Ancient Pianos Still Exist?

Only nine Cristofori pianos survive today with only three surviving from the 1720s, of which one is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one in Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali, Rome, Italy and one in Leipzig University, Germany. All three bear the same inscription, ?BARTHOLOMAEVS DE CHRISTOPHORIS PATAVINUS INVENTOR FACIEBAT FLORENTIAE? meaning, ?Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, inventor, made in Florence.?

Who is the most famous contemporary pianist?

Arguably the greatest and most famous pianist of all time is Sergei Rachmaninoff. He is known for having the largest hands of all the most famous pianists and was reportedly able to span an amazing 14 notes at a time!

Who are the most well known composers of works for the piano?

Most of the most well known piano compositions were written by the early classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and even some of the romantics; Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms and Liszt. It should be noted that they wrote for a form of the piano very different from the modern piano!

What was the most expensive piano ever sold?

The Guinness Book of Records lists John Lennon?s white Steinway upright piano upon which he composed his masterpiece ?Imagine? as being the most expensive piano sold at ?1.5 million. It is currently owned by George Michael and is on display in Liverpool at ?The Beatles Story? museum.

What Is the World Record for the largest Piano Ensemble?
According to the Guiness World Records, in 2007 conductor Lee Sun-Young led an ensemble of 555 pianists at the Incheon Samsan World Gynasium in Incheon, South Korea.

This article was written by Charlie Debost for Chappell of Bond Street?s Piano and Digital Piano department to celebrate the history of the piano.