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THE ORIGINS OF THE INSTRUMENT

The piano could be said to stand at the cenrre of the traditions of Wesley music that haveflourished in the last few centuries. As an instrurnent, it epitornises the role thattechnological sophistication has played in western music's attempt to develop a richlanguage without sacrificing expressive control or creative freedom.

Like other keyboard instruments (such as harpsichords and organs), the piano allows anindividual player to create melody. harmony and texture all at once. |unfolding thecomplex structures of western music in the process. At the same times the piano retains alarge element of the physically expressive control over sound that is natural to singingand playing but missing from other keyboard instruments.

This combination of factors has enabled the piano to become the central instrument of western music, both for virtuoso performers. composers, and Improvisers, and for ordinary people making music in their own homes. where it remains easily the mostmechanically complex piece of equipment to be found.

The piano uses small hammers that strike the strings inside and bounce off, leaving thestrings to vibrate freely. This mechanism has its origins- in early forrns.of zither - aninstrument that dates back to the Bronze Age - in which srings stretched between sticksor over a wooden board are struck or plucked. Later the zither developed considerably,thanks to the addition of a resonating chamber and moveahle bridges that could alter the pitch of the note, as on the monchords used by ancient Greeks in their early experimentswith tile mathematics of musical tuning and harmony. Sophisticated examples of zither still in use include the

Japanese koto and Hungarian cimbalom.

the first zithers arrived in Europe from the Middle East in the 11th century as portable

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instruments ~psalteries). Frorn these the dulcimer evolved  ² the first such instrumentwith metal strings specifically designed to be struck by small harmrners. the dulcimer  became An important precursor of the expressive control over volume offered by themodern piano.. Taken up and developed in the late 17th

Bentside spinetThe spiner (above), the virginal and the harpsichord (Right) produce their ditinctivesounds by means of mechanically plucked strings. Thc spinet pictured Is ~ wing-sharpedmodel known has bentside type, with string running obliquely to the keyboard instrumentwas made in London in 1742 Joseph Mahoon.

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