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The piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, through engagement of an action whose hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal temperament. A musician who specializes in piano is called a pianist.
Piano history and musical performance. The modern form of the piano, which emerged in the late 19th century, is a very different instrument from the pianos for which earlier classical piano literature was originally composed. The modern piano has a heavy metal frame, thick strings made of top-grade steel, and a sturdy action with a substantial ...
Frédéric François Chopin[n 1] (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; [n 2][n 3] 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique ...
The earliest known keyboard instrument was the Ancient Greek hydraulis, a type of pipe organ invented in the third century BC. [2] The keys were likely balanced and could be played with a light touch, as is clear from the reference in a Latin poem by Claudian (late 4th century), who says magna levi detrudens murmura tactu . . . intonet, that is "let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty ...
The piano was a symbol of social status, and the ability to play the piano stood as a testament to a woman's marriageability. [5] Emma Wedgwood Darwin. Women who had learned to play as children often continued to play as adults, thus providing music in their households. [6] For instance, Emma Wedgwood (1808–1896), the granddaughter of the ...
The Golden Age of the Piano refers to a "golden age" extending from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century during which composing and performance on the piano achieved notable heights; [1] or to the decades between roughly 1890 and 1920, in which pianos were manufactured and sold in great quantities, particularly in the United States.
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (/ ˈstaɪnweɪ / ⓘ), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). [2][11] The company's growth led to a move to a larger factory in New York, and later opening an additional factory in ...
Fortepiano. A fortepiano [ˌfɔrteˈpjaːno] is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1700 up to the early 19th century. [1][2] Most typically, however, it is used to refer to the mid-18th to early-19th century instruments, for which ...