The Piano Research Paper

924 Words4 Pages

The Piano and Its Music
If there is one thing in this world that everyone can relate to in some form or fashion, it is music. Music affects us on a daily basis, and comes in a vast array of genres and styles that can appeal to anyone’s tastes. It is a beautiful form of art that can change our emotions, help us to escape the commotion of the world around us, and inspire. Perhaps the most magnificent thing about it is that there is always more to make. In order to create music, one needs an instrument, for example: a guitar, a voice, or a piano. I will be focusing on the latter in order to more intimately explore a more specific facet of music. There is something especially beautiful about music played simply through one instrument. Its isolation …show more content…

The modern piano evolved from a series of previous similar instruments, the most notable being the harpsichord. The journey of the piano started in 1709, in Bartolomeo Cristofori’s harpsichord shop. A fundamental issue of the harpsichord was that it was unable to change volume and tone while being played, which greatly limited the player’s ability to express the music and use dynamics. Cristofori was the first to take issue with this, and decided to create what is actually very similar to the modern day pianos we have now. Over the last 300 years, Cristofori’s design has been enhanced and improved by engineers who have been deepening and enriching the sound, giving us the modern acoustic pianos that we have …show more content…

The baroque period, lasting from 1600-1750, bred famous composers such as: Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi, among others. This time period coincides with the invention of the harpsichord and then later the early piano. Bach and Handel were two notable individuals that latched on to those instruments, and both went on to become prolific composers of piano works. Though the baroque and classical periods are adjacent in history, there are some key differences between the general styles of the two. While baroque music is known for its textural intricacy, classical music transitioned into a period best characterised by having immense structural