PIANO-FORTE, a musical instrument of the keyed kind. The name is composed of two Italian words, sig nifying soft, and strong or loud, intimating its distinguish ing property from the harpsichord and spinet, which from this superiority it has now entirely superseded. It is an instrument strung with wires, which are struck with ham mers through the medium of finger-keys.
Stringed instruments played with finger-keys, were in vented, it would seem, for the purpose of adapting to the harp or cymbal the key-board of the organ. One of the earliest of these inventions was the Virginal. In this the strings were struck with hammers, which were simply a piece of strong wire, with a leather head screwed into the farther end of the finger-key. But as this simple hammer, even with the most dextrous and staccata touch, did not instantly quit the string, it had the effect of deadening, in a great measure, the tone of the instrument. On that in vention the harpsichord was an improvement, the strings being struck by a quill fixed on a jack, which rested on the farther end of the finger-key. The quill by the stroke was forced past the string, its own elasticity giving way, and remained above it so long as the finger was pressed on the key, giving the string liberty to sound. In return ing, by a very ingenious but simple piece of the quill opposed extremely little resistance ; and a little bit of cloth fixed on the top of the jack, rested on the string, and served as a damper. Still it was impossible to get quit entirely of a scratching noise, occasioned by the quill passing the string in returning, which was a material defect in the quality of the instrument.
The piano-forte, in which the strings are struck by hammers, of such a construction as to produce a quality of tone superior to that of the harpsichord, and instantly to quit the string entirely, leaving it free to vibrate, was the invention of Christopher Gottlieb Schroeter, a native of Holienstein, on the frontiers of Bohemia. This inge nious man was born in 1699, and having received a good musical education under Schmitt, chapel-master at Dres den, obtained, without solicitation, the place of organist in the principal church of Alinden in 1726, and of Nordhau sen in 1732, where he remained till his death in 1782. So
early as 1717, he had made a model of his invention, which lie exhibited at court in 1721. He published a detailed description of his new invented instrument, " on which the performer may play piano, or forte, at pleasure," with plates, in 1763.
The merit of this instrument was not immediately ac knowledged, at least by the musical public in general, The ingenious inventor reaped no personal advantage from it, nor was it in his own country that it first came into vogue. The elder Broadwood, at that time a manu facturer of harpsichords in London, by executing the me chanism hi a superior style, and by producing instruments of a better tone than had formerly been made, first put the superiority of the piano-forte over the harpsichord beyond question ; and though some maintained the orthodoxy of the latter, the innovation gradually forced its way in this ?70unt•y, and it had in a great measure taken possession of the public taste here, while the generality of musicians on the Continent still clung to the harpsichord. In the course of rears, however, the piano-forte made its way every where, and is now universally established.
Ever since the piano-forte came into general use, the ingenuity of rival makers has been exerted to improve the instrument in power and quality of tone, and in the deli cacy and effectiveness of the touch. New inventions are bringing forward up to the present hour, insomuch that when one compares what was reckoned a capital instru ment a dozen or twenty years ago, with one of the same class.now-a-days, the difference is very striking, after mak ing every allowance for the wearing out of the instrument. These improvements have been effected chiefly by enlarg ing the instrument in general, by extending the scale, and increasing the weight of the strings, by correspondently strengthening the frame-work, and by improving the me chanism of the movement.