• Early pianos were bichordal, in other words comprising two strings per note (modern pianos have three, with a few exceptions, such as the Steinmayer S99).

• The earliest known piece of music that was written for the specifically for the piano was a series of 12 Sonatas called "Sonate Da Cimbalo di piano e forte detto volgarmente di martelletti". The suite was composed by Lodivico Giustini of Pistoia in 1732 and was dedicated to Prince Antonio of Portugal.
  

• German Clavichord teacher Gottlieb Schroter experimented with making harpichords that struck the strings with hammers in the early years of the 18th century, and so successful were his results that he was regarded at least for a time as the inventor of the piano. However, without any financial support to continue his work, he soon had to abandon his piano-making efforts.

• Gottfried Silbermann was widely seen as a pioneer in piano-making, and developed instruments based on a new action. However, upon showing them to Johann Sebastian Bach in 1736, the composer was less than impressed with the result. Silbermann went back to the drawing-board for another ten years.

Website sponsored by Piano Warehouse - The UK piano Specialists
Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.