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Definition: piano 2 from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

pronunciationpronunciation

(1803) : a musical instrument having steel wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard

piano

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
or pianoforte, musical instrument whose sound is produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers that are controlled from a keyboard. The piano's earliest predecessor was the dulcimer . The first piano was made c.1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731), a Florentine maker of harpsichords, who called his instrument gravicembalo col piano e forte. (One of the two existing Cristofori pianos is in the Metropolitan Mus. of Art., N.Y.C.) It differed from the harpsichord in that by varying the touch one could vary the volume and duration of tone. This expressive quality was shared by the clavichord , but the latter was far more delicate in tone. During the 18th cent. changes in musical taste gradually favored the piano's greater volume and expressiveness, and the instrument had largely supplanted the harpsichord and clavichord by 1800. C. P. E. Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Clementi were the first major composers to write for the piano. The main body of its enormous literature, from the…
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Full text Article PIANO

From Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
In the nineteenth century, the piano achieved a technological maturity essentially unchanged to the present day, winning in the process an unprecedented significance to the public, private, and commercial spheres of everyday life. Its development ran parallel to, and most often in tandem with, the…
| 1,420 words
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Full text Article piano

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Each key (1) of an upright piano controls a...
(pianoforte) Musical instrument whose sound is made with strings struck by hammers that are moved from a keyboard. Its invention ( c .1709) is attributed to Bartolomeo Cristofori. Its name, from the Italian piano (soft) and forte (strong or loud), was adopted because its range of volume (as of tonal…
| 184 words , 1 image
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Full text Article piano

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
or pianoforte, musical instrument whose sound is produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers that are controlled from a keyboard. The piano's earliest predecessor was the dulcimer . The first piano was made c.1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731), a Florentine maker of harpsichords, who…
| 514 words
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Full text Article piano

From The Chambers Dictionary
( pl pian'os ) (in full pian'oforte ) a large musical instrument, a shaped wooden case on legs, with a keyboard at which the player sits, the keys working small hammers to sound tautened wires inside; ( pl pian'os or pian'i ) a soft passage ( music ). adj and adv ( music ) soft, softly. [Ital…
| 365 words
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Full text Article piano

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Each key of a piano actuates a complex mechanical...
Keyboard instrument with wire strings that sound when struck by hammers operated by a keyboard. It was invented in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori before 1720, with the particular aim of permitting note-to-note dynamic variation (lacking in the harpsichord ). It differs from the older clavichord…
| 167 words , 1 image
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Full text Article piano

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Keyboard instrument. The sound is produced when a depressed key strikes the strings with a felt-covered hammer, causing them to vibrate. It is therefore a form of mechanized dulcimer , a percussion instrument. It is different from the earlier harpsichord , a mechanized harp, where the strings are…
| 238 words
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Full text Article piano

From The New Penguin Dictionary of Music
The word is given something like It. pronunciation for the first meaning below ( pee-AH-no ) but is thoroughly absorbed into Eng. for the second ( pee-AN-no ). Soft, quiet. Dynamic marking, abbreviated p . (Fr. piano , Ger. Klavier , It. pianoforte , pl. pianoforti ). Keyboard instrument, its name…
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Full text Article Piano

From The Harvard Dictionary of Music
Piano
1. [It., abbr. p ] Soft [see Performance marks ]. 2. [Fr., It., Sp.; Eng. also pianoforte; Ger. also Klavier, Hammerklavier , Rus., Pol. fortepiano; fr. It. pianoforte or fortepiano , soft-loud, loud-soft]. A large stringed keyboard instrument. Its keyboard is a set of wooden levers attached to the…
| 5,045 words , 6 images
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Full text Article piano

From Musical Terms, Symbols and Theory: An Illustrated Dictionary
piano
popular name of the keyboard instrument pianoforte (It., “soft-loud”). The piano's strings are struck with hammers that are activated when keys are struck. The instrument was developed and came into popular use at the beginning of the 18th century. Bartolommeo Cristofori manufactured pianos in…
| 271 words , 1 image
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1987 Work Author: August Wilson First performed in 1987 at the Yale Repertory Theater, six months after the author's Joe Turner's Come and Gone saw its debut on the same stage, The Piano Lesson has become one of August Wilson's most enduring works. It earned him his second Pulitzer Prize and ran on…
| 292 words
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