The piano has long been a valuable member of American families. The instrument has been around since the 1700's and is still popular today as people own them for the enjoyment of music as well as the eye pleasing elegance of the furniture itself. The music that comes from these magnificent instruments is melodic and graceful. The piano has evolved all the way from the Dulcimer, shortly after the birth of Christ. It has gone through many changes before evolving into the modern day piano we know of today. From the Dulcimer to the modern grand piano, we have the history of the forever stunning instrument: the piano.
The first piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Italy in the year 1709. His piano was a four-octave instrument, with hammers striking the strings just as they do on a modern piano. "Modern pianos generally are of seven octaves and a third" (Howard).The instrument was invented to meet the need to control dynamics by touch, which could not be done on the harpsichord. "The Cristofori piano was wing-shaped like our grand pianos, with a curved body and a lid that could be raised" (Hamilton). There were also square pianos in which the strings ran from left to right as on the clavichord. And by 1800, there were upright pianos whose strings ran perpendicular to the keyboard.
The dulcimer, the earliest ancestor of the piano, originated shortly after the birth of Christ, in Iran. The basic principles of the piano were illustrated on this instrument, as there were hammers that stroke multiple strings. They were also tuned over a flat soundboard like a modern piano. But instead of mechanical hammers, dulcimer players used two light sticks ending with broader blades. Around 1400, the first Clavichord was built; however, it was the most popular about 3 centuries later during the music of Bach. On the clavichord, " when a key was pressed, a vertical brass strip (tangent) lifted toward a pair of strings" (Hamilton).