THE ORIGINS OF THE INSTRUMENT

The piano could be said to stand at the centre of the traditions

of western music that

have flourished

it epitornises

in the last few centuries.

that technological

sophistication

rich language without

like

has played in western music's attempt

the role

to develop a

sacrificing expressive control or creative freedom.

other keyboard

allows an individual
unfolding

As an instrument,

instruments
player

(such as harpsichords

to create

the complex structures

melody,

and organs),

harmony

the piano

and texture

all at once,

of western music in the process. At the same time,

the piano retains a large element

of the physically

expressive control over sound that

is natural to singing and playing but missing from other keyboard instruments.
This

combination

of factors

instrument

of western

improvisers,

and for ordinary

has enabled

music,

both

people making

remains easily the most mechanically

The piano

uses small

hammers

the piano

for virtuoso
music

complex piece of equipment

that strike

- an instrument

stretched

between

zither developed
Playing the spinet

moveable

Christina Antonio Somis playing a small octave

by ancient

spinet in the mid-18th cemury. Other members of

tuning

Somis's family play violin and cello.

that dates

the strings

thanks

and bounce

Greeks

in their

and harmony.

Age - in which

board are struck

to the addition

early experi menrs

Sophisticated

or plucked.

of a resonating

strings
later

the

chamber

and

with

the mathematics

of zither

still

used

of musical

in use include

the

cimbalom.

The first zithers arrived

century

examples

off,

has its origins in early forms of

bridges that could alter the pitch of the note, as on the monochords

Japanese koro and Hungarian

in Europe

as portable

from the Middle

instruments

evolved

instrument
by

control

known as a "benrside" type, with strings running

obliquely to the keyboard. The insrrumenr was
made in London in 1742 by Joseph Mahoon.

first

metal

such
strings

to be struck

hammers.

The

of

the

expressive

over volume offered by

the modern

The spinet pictured is a wing-shaped model

these the

became an important

and developed

harpsichord (right) produce their distinctive

the

designed

precursor

sounds by rrfeans of mechanically plucked strings.

small

dulcimer

Bentside spinet

From

with

specifically

The spinet (above), the virginal and the

East in the 11th

(psalteries).

dulcimer

and

to be found,

inside

back to the Bronze

sticks or over a wooden

considerably,

the central

composers,

in their own homes, where it

leaving the strings to vibrate freely. This mechanism

zither

to become

performers,

piano.

Taken

up

in the late 17th