I thought you might like to see this article because we have attempted a fresh approach to piano music. Much of the material on our site was originally composed for piano and we have replaced it with combinations of percussion such as steel drums and marimba to achieve a combination of percussive attack with delicate sustain. On other occasions where the balance is more in favour of sustain, typically organ works, we have used the Mega Moog synthesizer.
Piano Through the Ages
Piano has become an integral part of music. Many musical
notes do not seem possible without it. And many notes would
not sound as good as they can do on a piano. Everyone must
have listened with relish to Beethoven's fifth, Gershwin's
Rhapsody, rock and roll of little Richard and Jerry Lee
Lewis. The piano can be played solo or with other
instruments. It would hold its own nonetheless.
Piano has remained unchanged for years, whereas other
musical instruments have undergone immense changes. It was
the change in volume that was last perfected in piano. The
first modern-day piano was invented by an Italian gentleman
Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1709. However, this invention is
debatable, as all experts do not seem to agree. The piano
was known as a harpsichord at that time.
Inspite of the above notion, there is a great difference
between the harpsichord and the piano. It lay in the way
the strings were sounded. The earlier grand piano looked
like a harpsichord on its side. The strings inside the
piano need to be plucked to make music, while the earlier
harpsichord just had a mechanism for plucking the strings
without the player's fingers coming into play. This led to
a problem that although touching the keyboard could produce
sound, yet control over volume could not be achieved.
Hitting the keys softly or hardly had no bearing on the
change in volume.
The modern pianos have overcome this problem by using
hammers to bang the string instead of plucking them by
passing a plectrum. This allowed the sound of the note of
the piano to vary according to the weight of an
individual's touch. This slight modification allowed a
whole new range of musical notes. Now a gentle stroke could
give soft music, while a hard one would be ear shattering
indeed.
Not everyone was initially convinced by the new instrument,
and even JS Bach, who went on to write the beautifully
nuanced Goldberg Variations for the piano, didn't like the
instrument at first - however he became conviced and he gave
the instrument his official approval in 1747. But by the
time Mozart was born in 1756 or Beethoven in 1770, the piano
had become an accepted favorite.
The Piano's popularity is unmatched. It is the piano that
has been wonderfully used by classicist of all centuries.
For ages, it has been used all over the world for all sorts
of sorts of music - Jazz, blues, gospel, swing and rock. It
seems the world can never get enough of this wonderful
invention that has created music for all moods.
Sica Delenius is the proprietor and delegate of B
Factory Music, your premier source fall of your music needs. Find the musician in you at: www.bfactormusic.com
Come and hear some of our interpretations at Download2MP3.com .
Piano Through the Ages
Piano has become an integral part of music. Many musical
notes do not seem possible without it. And many notes would
not sound as good as they can do on a piano. Everyone must
have listened with relish to Beethoven's fifth, Gershwin's
Rhapsody, rock and roll of little Richard and Jerry Lee
Lewis. The piano can be played solo or with other
instruments. It would hold its own nonetheless.
Piano has remained unchanged for years, whereas other
musical instruments have undergone immense changes. It was
the change in volume that was last perfected in piano. The
first modern-day piano was invented by an Italian gentleman
Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1709. However, this invention is
debatable, as all experts do not seem to agree. The piano
was known as a harpsichord at that time.
Inspite of the above notion, there is a great difference
between the harpsichord and the piano. It lay in the way
the strings were sounded. The earlier grand piano looked
like a harpsichord on its side. The strings inside the
piano need to be plucked to make music, while the earlier
harpsichord just had a mechanism for plucking the strings
without the player's fingers coming into play. This led to
a problem that although touching the keyboard could produce
sound, yet control over volume could not be achieved.
Hitting the keys softly or hardly had no bearing on the
change in volume.
The modern pianos have overcome this problem by using
hammers to bang the string instead of plucking them by
passing a plectrum. This allowed the sound of the note of
the piano to vary according to the weight of an
individual's touch. This slight modification allowed a
whole new range of musical notes. Now a gentle stroke could
give soft music, while a hard one would be ear shattering
indeed.
Not everyone was initially convinced by the new instrument,
and even JS Bach, who went on to write the beautifully
nuanced Goldberg Variations for the piano, didn't like the
instrument at first - however he became conviced and he gave
the instrument his official approval in 1747. But by the
time Mozart was born in 1756 or Beethoven in 1770, the piano
had become an accepted favorite.
The Piano's popularity is unmatched. It is the piano that
has been wonderfully used by classicist of all centuries.
For ages, it has been used all over the world for all sorts
of sorts of music - Jazz, blues, gospel, swing and rock. It
seems the world can never get enough of this wonderful
invention that has created music for all moods.
Sica Delenius is the proprietor and delegate of B
Factory Music, your premier source fall of your music needs. Find the musician in you at: www.bfactormusic.com
Come and hear some of our interpretations at Download2MP3.com .