THE PIANO.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1168, 1 July 1911, Page 16

THE PIANO.

THE STORY OP ITS OBIGIN. . At a ledum given in Manchester rO* ceutly, reports an English paper, Dr. Kcndrick l'yiio lectured upon "Tho History of tlie Pianoforte." Ho traced tiio beginnings of tho instrument back to tho Hebrew psaltery and tho Egyptian lyre, but ho said tho piano had a largo ancestry and could claim a cousinship gorma'n with all tho numerous instruments of tho plectrum kind. All Borts and conditions of harps, lutes, Ijtcs, psaltories, and dulcimers were its progenitors, Tho two principal stringed instruments of the ancients were tho lyre and tho harp, and tho first of a scries of diagrams with which tho lecture wasi illustrated 6how- .

od tho design of an Egyptian lyre, made' of wood, which is now in Berlin, and. which corresponds almost exactly with several representations of the instrument by Thebun artists at least 3000 years ago. Tho principal idea of tho harp, was evi-. dently obtained, Dr. Pyno said], from tho. twanging of the bow string, and in Egyption frescoes it could be distinctly traced from tho simplest modification of tho bow. These instruments in their ancient foiTU had a varying number of strings, but it was tho almost unanimous opinion of tho great authorities that the Egyp-' tiansand tho Greeks knew nothing of the accordance of sounds which wo termed harmony. Tho inventions which led up to tho piano wcro tho monochord, tho psaltery, and tho dulcimer. Tho monochord, a littlo instrument invented by Pythagoras, consisted of a 6ingle vibrating string between bridges on a resonance box, and it virtually fulfilled the modern requirements of a tuning-fork. From it Iks clavichord was developed. • Instruments of tho harpsichord character appeared to owo their origin to tiro ■ psaltery, which was of tho same shape us a dulcimer, though the two.differed essentially in the mode of producing sound, tho psaltery being a plectrum and the dulcimer a hammer instrument. Tho Virginal, tho spinet, and the harpsichord wore all developments of tho psaltery. Tho Virginal was known ui England in tho sixteenth century, and one of its first patrons was King Henry VIII. The spinet was a virginal, hut instead of being rectangular was triangular in shape. Tho harpsichord was the exact shape of an ordinary grand piano, and it was virtually an enlarged auc'i improved spinet., Dr. Pyno. gave a technical description of each of theso three instruments, specimens of which ho bad on exhibition, and not theleast interesting feature of a delightful lecture were tho selections which he played upon them. On this typo of instrument' and this alono, ho said, could bo heard in their original perfection the works of Scarlatti, Corclli, Bach, and' Handel. The direct forefather of tho piano, he continued, was the keyed dulcimer. It was tho invention in 1709 of Christofori, a harpsichord maker of Padua.

Having explained the difference between the action of the' plectrum instruincuts and the early pianofortes, Dr. Pyno suggested, in conclusion, that the enormous development of tho piano—the great use of metal in its construction and the enormous tension—wcro not without some disadvantages, at any rato in tho performance of chamber music. Tho. orthodox performance of tho chamber music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven was now quite a different thing from what those masters intended. The relation between tho strings and the percussion instrument was quite lost. Tho ambition of a modern piano was to rival and compcto with the full orchestra. Tho increased'muscular exertions of performers on instruments of ten times the ancient tone was opposed to strings that had not gained in timbre. As a chamber instrument the piano •was tho most perfect of all, but when it was used to rival or as a substitute for the orchestra it fell "iort of ths' effects claimed for it by.ats admirers, but in any case, though iri». ,a heroic in-, strunient, it was inimitable;, .