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And now ladies and gentlemen
I would like to tell you about
one of the earliest keyboard instruments
the predecessor of the piano
It was called the Clavichord
and it originated in Germany
It was triangular shaped, as you can see
And that was derived in the fact that the strings …
The longer the strings - the deeper the sound
The shorter the strings - the higher the sound
Thereby giving it that triangular shape
The famous composer and organist Johann Sebastian Bach
was among the first of the great composers
to write for the clavichord
I would like to play for you now Bach's Gigue
Thank you, thank you very, very much
And now ladies and gentlemen I would like to tell you
about a more elaborate instrument of the 17th century – the Harpsichord
And I would like you to come with me now
and meet the composer who wrote especially for the harpsichord
His name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The harpsichord had one very distinct advantage over the clavichord
It had further sets of strings
offering greater tonal contrast to the music
Here is a composition that Mozart wrote
especially for the harpsichord
And it is called “Rondo alla turca“
Thank you, thank you very, very much
The harpsichord remained the most popular keyboard instrument
throughout most of the 18th century
But there were still many improvements to be made
And most of them were developed
by a man named Bartolomeo Cristofori
He developed what he called the “piano forte”
“Piano” meaning “soft”
“Forte” meaning “loud”
Later on it was simply called “the piano”
It had many shapes and sizes
But the most popular was the square shape
- or “the spinet”
The spinet was very popular
during the time of Chopin
Chopin used to play this kind of piano
in all the fashionable salons
of Parisian musical society
I would like to play an excerpt
of his famous polonaise
And now ladies and gentleman
I would like to show you still another piano
that was used by one of the contemporaries
of Chopin's time
And here it is
Isn't it beautiful!?
It is a piano that was played upon by Franz Liszt
in one of his concerts in Budapest
He was perhaps
the greatest pianist of the 19th century
But more than that
He was the first of the great showman pianists
He was the first to give a solo concert
with just a piano
He also revolutionized the type of performance
In that most pianists before him
either faced the audiences
or had their backs to the audience
Franz Liszt turned his piano in profile
Which showed not only his hands on the keyboard
but his very handsome profile
which all the ladies in the audience enjoyed
as much as his playing
I would like to recall
that wonderful era in music
when Franz Liszt played
his “Dream of Love”
His own composition “Liebestraum”
Well ladies and gentlemen
There you have a kind of a brief resume
of the development of the piano as we know it today