One of the greatest composers for the harpsichord was an Italian composer by the name of Domenico Scarlatti. He wrote over a thousand sonatas! I cherry-picked three of the most glorious sonatas to perform on the accompanying video. These are not sonatas like Mozart or Beethoven sonatas which are multi-movement works. They’re far shorter works which are all in a two-part form. There is an A section which repeats, and then a B section which also repeats. But they’re all dramatically unique compositions written specifically for the harpsichord, unlike Bach who designated his works merely for, Clavier which means simply, “keyboard”. What you’re about to hear is music written specifically for the harpsichord, three sonatas of Scarlatti, one in D minor, one in C major, and another one in D minor that has very fast repeated notes that I think you will enjoy.
Living Pianos: Journey Through Time: Historic Concert Experience
This performance video was at Riverside Community College. I have performed the Living Piano show across the state at colleges, universities, art centers, conventions, with symphony orchestra, and even a Living Piano cruise! You can explore more about this here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC9F55F8E11E5FBDE
Ever since I started doing my Living Piano: Journey Through Time Historic Concert Experience – where I play concerts showing the development of the piano from the harpsichord to the early fortepiano and finally the modern concert grand piano in period costumes, one of the most frequent questions I receive are about the harpsichord. People are fascinated by it’s unique sound and interesting design. Today we are going to explore what makes the harpsichord special and how even though it’s related to the piano it’s a unique instrument.
It’s hard to imagine a time before the piano was invented, yet years ago the harpsichord and the pipe organ were the keyboard instruments of choice. The harpsichord that I perform on has two keyboards but this isn’t usually the case. Most harpsichords only have one manual or set of keys. Early harpsichords had the keyboards shifted in slightly different positions from one another, usually a fifth apart. Later the keyboards were designed with the keys on the two manuals in alignment with one another.
Harpsichords also evolved to have more features such as stops which could change the tone by striking different sets of strings or placing felt on the strings. Later, harpsichords had pedals to change the sound and tone of the instrument. These advancements were made because the harpsichord does not have dynamics by touch alone. This is because the strings are plucked instead of struck with hammers as in a piano. The fact is, no matter how hard or gently you press a key, it will always produce the same volume on a harpsichord – which is which is in sharp contrast to the piano. However, with the addition of stops and pedals the harpsichord is able to produce a variety of tones.
The harpsichord is a much more delicate instrument than the piano and it doesn’t produce nearly as much volume. It was used primarily during the Baroque era as the instrument of choice for performing because it produced more volume than other keyboards of the time. As time went on, instruments got louder which could accommodate larger performing spaces. Eventually the harpsichord lost favor to the piano.
Today harpsichords are rarely found. There are very few produced and there are scare technicians skilled in restoring them. If you play the harpsichord you will probably want to learn to tune to some extent since they are less stable than pianos.
This is a very interesting question that doesn’t have a simple answer. The origin of the piano goes back centuries, and while there is some widely held beliefs on the subject, the story of the piano is a lot more complex than you might think.
Undoubtedly the name you will hear most when it comes to the creation of the first piano would be Bartolomeo Cristofori. Cristofori was an Italian harpsichord builder. At the tail end of the 1600’s he tried his hand at making a Harpsichord that could play both loud and soft from touch. He called his instrument, “Cimbalo di Piano e Forte” which translates, “Harpsichord with Soft and Loud”. Eventually, the name was shortened to “The Piano”. If you were to see one of these early instruments built by Cristofori, you would discover that it has more in common with a harpsichord than a modern piano!
So what separates this instrument from other harpsichords he produced? What makes it a piano?
For anyone familiar with the Harpsichord, you know that it lacks dynamic range from touch alone. You can play a key hard or soft and it will produce the same volume. This has to do with how the instrument plays a string: The harpsichord plucks the strings as opposed to a piano action which has hammers striking strings.
Harpsichord Plucking a String
Piano Hammer Striking a String
In order to create the dynamics needed, Cristofori invented a primitive piano action. A hammer would strike the string and you would be able to play dynamically – thus creating a range of expression birthing the idea behind the instrument we know today as the piano.
As time went on there were many advancements to piano design. New technologies were created and implemented. The birth of the modern piano is much more of an amalgamation over time than a single instrument created on a specific date.
It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that we saw the origins of the piano we know today. And even composers in the mid-19th century like Chopin and Liszt were writing pieces that we play on modern pianos that were written for instruments that were somewhat more primitive than the pianos we have today. The development of cross stringing hadn’t been adopted widely yet. Piano actions also continued with many refinements of technology. There were hundreds of improvements that came about throughout centuries.
Around the end of the 19th century is when we really began to see the modern piano as we know today. By the 1870’s and 1880’s Steinway was producing fully modern pianos. The models of Steinway pianos produced during the 1880’s have the same basic scale design as pianos they are building today with a number of technical refinements.
To sum up this incredibly deep and complex topic:
The original instrument considered to be a piano was created at the very end of the 1600’s.
The modern piano was available from select manufactures towards the end of the 1800’s.
If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729
