Interesting facts about the piano

To World Piano Day we offer you a selection of interesting facts about this wonderful instrument.

• Piano is the general name of a group of instruments, which consists of two varieties – grand pianos and pianos.
• The direct ancestors of the piano were harpsichords and clavichords. But the main disadvantage of these musical instruments was the quickly fading sound and very low volume level.
• The father of the piano is considered to be the Italian harpsichord master Bartolomeo Cristofori. The date of birth of the instrument has not been precisely established, but it is believed to be between 1709 and 1711.
• A grand piano is faster than upright pianos (spinet, piano) due to the rehearsal mechanism. It allows the pianist to repeat a note, with an incomplete release of the key. The vertical version of the piano mechanics requires a full return of the key to re-engage the hammer.
• Ludovico Giustina’s sonata is the first piece of music written for the piano. This event happened in 1732.
• The first pianos had a rectangular shape.
• Technologically, pianos are considered the most difficult instruments to manufacture. They consist of 10,000 moving parts and 2,000 stationary parts.
• 75% of pianos and grand pianos are made of wood.
• In the manufacture of strings, in addition to other materials, silver, gold, glass and silk were used.
• At first, piano keys were made of ivory, but later they were replaced by plastic ones.
• The oldest surviving piano dates back to 1720 and is exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum (New York).
• The uniqueness of the piano lies in the fact that its capabilities cover the entire spectrum of the sound of the instruments of the orchestra: from the top note of the flute to the low note of the bass bassoon.
• The first note on a standard 88-key keyboard is the “A” of the subcontra octave. The middle of the keyboard is the space between “mi” and “fa” of the first octave. The last note on the keyboard is “to” the fifth octave.
• The first instrument that the robot was “taught to play” was the piano. At the same time, the robot was taught musical overtures earlier than the game of chess.
• The production of pianos in the world was considered the prerogative of small firms and workshops. In the USSR, the production of tools was put on the assembly line. In 1955, the country’s first assembly line for the assembly of keyboard musical instruments was launched in the Chernihiv region at a musical instrument factory – every 12 minutes, a new “Ukraine” piano came off the 100-meter conveyor belt.
• It is believed that the vibration of ship engines during transportation negatively affects the acoustic properties of instruments. That is why the transportation of expensive models of grand pianos was entrusted exclusively to sailing ships.
• Most grand pianos have 88 keys. However, for musicians who do not have enough available sound range, instruments with 102 keys are produced.
• The length of the Bosendorfer Imperial concert grand piano is almost 3 meters, its keyboard has an additional 9 keys in the bass, the lowest of which is “C” – an octave below the “C” of the contractove. Concert grand pianos of a slightly smaller size of the same company have four additional keys in the basses, the bottom one is the “F” of the subcontra octave.
• Studies conducted in Germany have shown that pianists’ brains are more productive. And children who play music do better in school compared to their peers who do nothing but study at school.
• There are more than two dozen piano monuments in the world.
• Yamaha began making pianos in 1887, the first in Japan.
• During the existence of the piano, there were many attempts to improve it. For example, they tried to replace some wooden parts with plastic ones. However, the idea was abandoned due to the very limited service life of such parts. There were many other not very successful attempts. These include the Jensen two-keyboard piano, an upright piano, a piano with a typewriter keyboard, and more.
• At first, the synthesizer was called an electronic (digital) piano.
• Despite the fact that the piano is a stringed instrument, it was placed in the percussion section of the symphony orchestra.
• In developed countries, every fifth family had (or has) a piano.