- Most popular instrument in the world
- Wildly used in classical music for solo performances
- Versatility, ensured it's familiarity worldwide
- Been around since mid 16th Century
- Soft, calming sound delivered through vibrating strings and a special design
- They also, look really good
How it works-
Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a felt-covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to the air so that it can be heard as sound. When the key is released, a damper stops the string's vibration. See the article on Piano key frequencies for a picture of the piano keyboard and the location of middle-C. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, pianos are grouped with chordophones.
The complexity of the instrument makes it even better, it's as if the piano puts a lot of effort into producing it's sound, I appreciate it even more.
The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. A friend of the family by the name of Sebastian LeBlanc suggested the idea to switch the black and white keys. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.
Bartolomeo Cristofori, how he came up with this?
To be more specific, I realised piano was especially 'good' when I heard it in films, complimenting an scene. I researched into the 'effect of musical soundtrack', through an article by Sandra K. Marshall and Annabel J. Cohen.
"We investigate the effects of musical soundtracks on attitudes to figures in a short animated film. In a preliminary study in the main experiment, subejcts saw the film accompanied by one of two soundtracks or with no soundtrack, or they heard one of the two soundtracks alone. In the main experiment, Semantic Differential judgments on Activity and Potency dimensions, obtained for the music, predicted effects of the soundtracks on corresponding ratings of the film as compared to ratings in a no soundtrack condition. As well, ratings on the Activity dimension of the film characters themselves were altered by the soundtracks. It is hypothized that congruent auditory and visual structure directs the encoding of particular visual features of the film. In addition, associations generated by the music provide a context for the interpretation of the action in the film. As a result, stimulus features and concepts that are initially encoded as disjunctive conjoin in perception and memory."
The research stated that, "researched proved that music and film compliment each other in the type of information each can portray. Whereas music can provide specific emotional information, it lacks the ability of film to depict specific actions."
I definitely agree with that, and can easily believe it as well. I like piano as an instrument, it's sound, how it looks, the depths of it's clockwork and how effective it is as a soundtrack.
Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a felt-covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to the air so that it can be heard as sound. When the key is released, a damper stops the string's vibration. See the article on Piano key frequencies for a picture of the piano keyboard and the location of middle-C. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, pianos are grouped with chordophones.
The complexity of the instrument makes it even better, it's as if the piano puts a lot of effort into producing it's sound, I appreciate it even more.
The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698. A friend of the family by the name of Sebastian LeBlanc suggested the idea to switch the black and white keys. The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.
Bartolomeo Cristofori, how he came up with this?
To be more specific, I realised piano was especially 'good' when I heard it in films, complimenting an scene. I researched into the 'effect of musical soundtrack', through an article by Sandra K. Marshall and Annabel J. Cohen.
"We investigate the effects of musical soundtracks on attitudes to figures in a short animated film. In a preliminary study in the main experiment, subejcts saw the film accompanied by one of two soundtracks or with no soundtrack, or they heard one of the two soundtracks alone. In the main experiment, Semantic Differential judgments on Activity and Potency dimensions, obtained for the music, predicted effects of the soundtracks on corresponding ratings of the film as compared to ratings in a no soundtrack condition. As well, ratings on the Activity dimension of the film characters themselves were altered by the soundtracks. It is hypothized that congruent auditory and visual structure directs the encoding of particular visual features of the film. In addition, associations generated by the music provide a context for the interpretation of the action in the film. As a result, stimulus features and concepts that are initially encoded as disjunctive conjoin in perception and memory."
The research stated that, "researched proved that music and film compliment each other in the type of information each can portray. Whereas music can provide specific emotional information, it lacks the ability of film to depict specific actions."
I definitely agree with that, and can easily believe it as well. I like piano as an instrument, it's sound, how it looks, the depths of it's clockwork and how effective it is as a soundtrack.
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