Piano's

[BrooklynKnight]

Hey, who here has a good knowledge of the history of the piano.

Just when in earths history was it developed. I'm curious cause i'm wondering how appropraite it would be to place it in various fantasy settings. Like the Realms for example. Did they even have large Organs back then? Organs certainly existed back in earths Dark Gothic Age.

 

[SpringPlum]

I found this website. It seems that the piano as we know it today is a fairly recent invention, only 250 years old or thereabouts. Of course earlier inventions like the clavichord and harpsichord have been around for a lot longer.

History of the Piano

 

[Azure Trance]

It's a nice read, though I didn't find out what a Steinback (beck? bach?) piano is.

 

[Tewligan]

Did they even have large Organs back then?

Arthur, please be mindful of Eric's grandmother.

 

[frankthedm]

Re: Re: Piano's

Arthur, please be mindful of Eric's grandmother.

leper: 'Hahaha' *thud*thud*

 

[Kilmore]

It's my opinion that if it's hard to research and you don't have any gut feeling that something's going to throw off the spirit of the game, no one's going to call you on it.

Then again, you may have magical moog synthesizers in your world.

If you want something safe though, go with bagpipes.

 

[Telgian]

"Just when in earths history was it developed."

Ca. 1700 by Bartolomeo Christofori, who made keyboard instruments at the court of Ferdinand de' Medici.

Arpicembalo che fà il piano e il forte: harpsichord that can play soft and loud.

Known commonly as fortepiano (loud soft), to distinguish it from the later iron frame pianoforte (soft loud), which nowadays gets shortened to piano.

Harpsichords do not have the capacity for dynamic variation like a fortepiano, because the strings are hit by a quill. The strings on a fortepiano are hit by a hammer. How hard the hammer hits the string (which affects how loud the sound) is determined largely by how hard the key is struck.

"Did they even have large Organs back then? Organs certainly existed back in earths Dark Gothic Age."

Absolutely.
There is about 2600 years worth of history to wade through.
Pipe organs and clocks were all cutting edge technology in the middle ages.
There are instruments in Europe from the 1400's that survive.

Hope that helps some.
Telgian.

 

[der_kluge]

The piano didn't see common usage until Beethoven's time. It was pretty much the beginning of the Classical era of music, because it allowed for more freedom of expression, over what the Baroque era had, since the Baroque only really had the Harpsichord.

If you want a more renaissance feel, go for a harpsichord, not a piano.