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Piano (It.) (pee-an'-no)

Soft. (Abbreviation, P.; pianissimo, PP.) Pianoforte (It.) (for' - teh). usage, piano, without the forte. An instrument strung with steel wire (formerly brass wire was largely used), provided with a keyboard; the depression of the keys causes the hammers to strike the strings.

The name pianoforte was given to it because the volume of sound was under the control of the performer. Three forms of pianoforte are made: The grand piano [in Fr., piano à queue, lit., "piano with a tail;" Ger., flügel, in allusion to its wing shape]; the square, and the upright. The pianoforte is descended from the dulcimer in the same sense that the harpsichord is descended from the psalterion. In form the dulcimer and psalterion were identical, differing only in that the former was played by means of hammers, the latter by means of "plectra." The adaptation of mechanism to control the hammers developed the piano out of the dulcimer, and the adaptation of mechanism to control the "plectra" developed the harpsichord out of the psalterion. The hammer action was first made practically effective by Cristofori of Padua, in 1711. About the same time an English monk, "Father Wood," made one in Rome. This instrument came into the possession of the celebrated Fulke Greville, and became well known as Mr. Greville's pianoforte. In 1717, a German youth of eighteen, named Schröter, invented the pianoforte independently; his invention was copied by Silberman of Strasburg, who submitted two of his instruments to Bach, who liked the mechanism but not the tone, preferring that of the clavichord. The growth of the pianoforte has been rapid since the beginning of the present century, and has now reached a point beyond which it hardly seems possible to advance.