A sforzando is a sudden, strong accent on a single note or chord, while a fortepiano is a loud attack followed immediately by a sudden decrease in volume.

Fortepiano produces sound by hammers striking the strings. Fortepiano's escapement action allows the hammers to fall back into their position after striking the strings. Modern piano was invented in Romantic period and in 1821, Erard Brothers from Paris invented the double escapement action.

The size of fortepiano increased from 5 to 5.5 to 6 to 6.5 octaves, while modern piano has the size of 7 octaves.

Also, sostenuto pedal was added by Claude Montal to the modern piano.

The "Fortepiano" and before that the "Harpsichord" also the cello and organ

An early type of piano is the Fortepiano (Sometimes called Pianoforte) Which appeared around 1750.

Fortepiano or pianoforte. Earlier keyboard instruments include the harpsichord, clavichord and virginal.

Nikolaus Schimmel has written:

'Nomenklatura fortepiano =' -- subject(s): Piano, Dictionaries, Polyglot

H.H Smbatyan has written:

'P'esy armianskikh kompozitorov dlia skripki i fortepiano' -- subject(s): Violin and piano music

Faina Abramovna Rozenblium has written:

'Desiat' p'es dlia fortepiano' -- subject(s): Piano music, Juvenile (4 hands)

A clavier is the French word for keyboard instruments such as a harpsicord, a clavicord or a fortepiano mostly baroque-era instruments. The most common reference of a clavier is a piano.

Yes, piano is an Italian word that prompts the same-spelled English loan noun.

Among the favorite instruments Mozart composed music were the keyboard (fortepiano) and violin. It is assumed that trumpets and harp were his least interested instruments. The composer wrote a concerto for flute and harp, however. A letter by his father provides evidence that Wolfgang composed a concerto for trumpet: which is now lost.

baroque flute

recorder

baroque trumpet

clavichord

fortepiano

harpsichord

organ

serpent

sackput

baroque oboe

cornetto

The S means subito which in Italian means suddenly and the p means piano which means soft. The z is wrong. So it is either Spp which means suddenly soft or sfz which is a subito fortepiano which means a sudden accent immediately followed by piano (soft). There is also rfz which is rinforzando indicating that several notes, or a short phrase, are to be emphasized.

Between 1750 and 1820, several classical instruments were developed or evolved, notably the clarinet, which gained popularity and refinement during this period. The modern piano also emerged, evolving from earlier keyboard instruments like the harpsichord and fortepiano, with improvements in its action and range. Additionally, the bassoon saw enhancements in its design and playability, leading to a more prominent role in orchestras.

It stands for forte-piano (refering to the expressive technique not the instrument) which means you hit the note hard (forte) and as suddenly as you can you die down to piano. It's quite common for a crescendo to follow a forte-piano.

Mozart played the 'fortepiano' - the forerunner of the modern piano. He was virtuosic and gave frequent perfornances of his own compositions, for example his subscription concertos - often playing from memory. He was also an adept improviser at the piano and this was on display in the cadenzas of his concertos.

Pianoforte is an instrument whose name comes from the Italian equivalents of the English words "soft" and "loud." The masculine singular noun may be preceded by the masculine singular definite article il ("the") or indefinite un, uno ("a, an"). The pronunciation will be "PYA-no-FOR-tey" in Italian.

The piano/pianoforte is the keyboard instrument that succeeded the harpsichord. It rose in popularity during the late stages of the Classical period and beginnings of the Romantic era.

A harpsichord, which works by plucking strings, has little dynamic range; you can't play it quietly or loudly, just at its own volume. So the idea of striking the strings with a hammer instead of plucking them was attractive. When the new instrument first appeared it was described (being Italian) as a gravicembalo con piano e forte - with soft and loud. The inventor was Bartolomeo Cristofori. Later versions were called fortepiano and then pianoforte, of which piano is a shortened version. You are, in fact, playing a quiet.
The poet and journalist Scipione Mafei named Christofori's, the inventors instrument 'gravisembalo con piano et forte (harpsichord with soft and loud) the first time it was called by its eventual name, pianoforte. This was in 1711

The first piano actually wasn't called a piano. It was called a harpsichord, but it was very similar. The only real difference is the sound, a harpsichord sounds like a very twangy bold harp. The harpsichord eventually broke into the harpsichord AND the piano, and the modern day piano is based off of that. They also look different, but the touch or the key pressure doesn't differ extremely.

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Sorry to disagree, but a harpsichord was not a piano, and structurally was not even ancestral to a piano. They are similar looking, and have similar keyboards, but they are fundamentally different instruments. A harpsichord plucks the strings and has no dynamic range (loud and soft). By contrast, a piano is a percussion instrument that hits the strings with hammers, and has a very wide dynamic range. Its original names, such as fortepiano, meant loud and soft. The music for the harpsichord is full of embellishments to make up for the lack of the dynamic range. Music for the piano is, by contrast, takes advantage of the dynamic range by being expressive.

The early fortepianos were smaller and lighter instruments than modern instruments. They had much lighter strings, which were strung on wood, where the modern instruments' strings are strung on iron. A result of this was that the fortepianos did not stay in tune very well when the weather changed.

The fortepianos had light hammers, with a light touch. This had an effect on the tone, which was brighter and lighter than the tone of a modern instrument. For a long time, they had no escapement, which meant that if you wanted to hold a note, you could not hold the key all the way down, but had to back off a bit to get the hammer off the strings.

According to the Piano History Centre, the first piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy around 1707. He called it "gravicembalo col piano e forte". By 1698, he had made a somewhat similar instrument called Arpicembalo.

The harpsichord was the central keyboard instrument for secular settings from 1400 to 1780, and all composers who were born and lived during that period would have written their keyboard music for the harpsichord. The last major composers who wrote music for the harpsichord were Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata was written for both harpsichord and fortepiano.

The most important composers for the harpsichord were: the English Virginal Composers such as Byrd, Bull, Gibbons, Farnaby, etc.; Frescobaldi, Froberger, Sweelinck, Chambonieres, L. Couperin, D'Anglebert; and of course the greatest being Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, F. Couperin, and Rameau.

Most of the music written for the harpsichord since the 18th century is neither as charming, profound, sensible, or fitting to the characteristics of the harpsichord's special qualities. Rather it is merely the overlay of the modern style of music (being Atonal in nature) superimposed on that timbre, which is one reason why most music written in our time for this particular instrument finds so few enthusiasts.

By contrast, the earlier styles of music grew out of an understanding of the nature and advantages of the sound of the harpsichords of those times and as such were constructed around the sound peculiar to the harpsichord.

Pedals for the piano began life as pedals for the harpsichord. Very few harpsichords were outfitted with pedals because the purpose of the pedals was to change registration quickly and easily on the harpsichord, without having to lift the hands from the keys to do the same thing. Mostly, it was the English who dabbled in applying pedals to the harpsichord. As a result, they were also the first to add pedals to pianos. Before that, the earliest pianos made had no pedals at all because they were considered to be harpsichords with loud and soft (in Italian, "Gravicembalo col Forte e Piano") When the addition of stops on the forte-pianos were created to change the sound, it involved manually shifting the keyboard or pulling or pushing a handstop to effect the change. Later, the Austrian and German fortepiano makers invented the knee lever to raise and lower the dampers. The English pianoforte makers were applying pedals to do the same thing about the same time. By 1815, pedals were standard equipment on almost every piano. In Vienna from 1828- 1845, piano makers would customarily have as many as 5 - 7 pedals on a piano. These pedals activated bells, drums, snare effects and muffled effects, as well as the usual damper lifting and keyboard moving actions. In England, piano makers limited themselves for the most part to only 2 or 3 pedals. These differences were largely dictated by the peculiar nature of the action designs for the pianos from these different areas of Europe.

Instruments known today: Violin, Viola, cello, flute oboe, trumpet, bassoon, recorder, voice

Instruments not well known: Viola da gamba, harpsichord, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes (muzette), theorbo, baroque guitar, fortepiano

One of the (then) striking features of the instrument was that you could play softly (piano) or loudly (forte) simply by changing the force exerted on the keys. Harpsichords could not do this (at least not in the fluid and instant way that it can be done on the piano) and clavichords are so delicate that changes in volume are more of a nuance than a full feature. Originally these instruments were called piano i forte, which became pianoforte, and now almost always simply piano. Cristofori's brilliant invention that makes this possible is called the "escapement" action. In a nutshell, the escapement action allows the pianist to set a hammer in motion with virtually any amount of force as long as it is sufficient to get the hammer to strike the wire, the hammer then "escapes" the control of the action and moves freely for a brief moment before striking. It is then free to recoil back and be stopped by the action and set into place for another strike.

These are all the musical periods, the 5 most commonly known would be from Renaissance-Modern. Those are spoken of the most often.

Prehistoric (before writing)

Ancient before (350)

Medieval (about 350-1400)

Renaissance (1400-1600)

Baroque (1600-1750)

Classical (1740-1820)

Romantic (1820-1900)

Modern (1900-today)

Antonio Vivaldi has written:

'Concerto in G minor, P. 342, for flute (violin) bassoon, 2 violins & basso continuo' -- subject(s): Quintets (Bassoon, flute, 2 violins, continuo)

'Concerto In D Major: For Guitar, Strings And Continuo / Edited By Mario Abril'

'Gloria' -- subject(s): Choruses, Sacred, Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with orchestra, Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 4 parts) with orchestra, Gloria in excelsis (Music), Sacred Choruses, Scores, Vocal scores with piano

'Concerto in D minor op. 3 no. 11 for 2 violins and piano : score and parts'

'L'oracolo in Messenia' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'Tieteberga' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'Gloria in D'

'Sonatas Da Camera a Tre, Op. 1, Volume I, Nos. 1-6 (With Piano)'

'Concerto in la minore per fagotto, archi e cembalo' -- subject(s): Concertos (Bassoon with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'Violin Concerto Op. 9, No. 11'

'Virtuoso Impresario'

'Orlando' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'L'estro Armonico'

'Sinfonia Op. 51, No. 4'

'Concerto in G minor for treble recorder/flute, oboe, violin, bassoon & basso continuo' -- subject(s): Quintets (Bassoon, oboe, recorder, violin, continuo)

'Vivaldi - Concerto for Violin, Strings and Basso Continuo Op. 8 No 2, RV 297 \\'

'Catalogo numerico - tematico' -- subject(s): Thematic catalogs

'Quattro concerti' -- subject(s): Scores, Concerti grossi, Manuscripts, Facsimiles, Concertos (Violin with string orchestra)

'The Seasons - Spring, Kalmus Edition'

'Concerto for 2 violins and string orchestra, A major' -- subject(s): Concertos (Violins (2) with string orchestra), Scores

'LA GRISELDA VIVALDI'

'Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 3/1, RV 549/PV 146'

'Due concerti' -- subject(s): Scores, Arranged Concerti grossi, Facsimiles, Orchestral music, Music, Concertos (Violins (2) with string orchestra), Manuscripts, Arranged Piano music

'Trio, A minor, for treble recorder (flute), bassoon (cello), and continuo' -- subject(s): Trio-sonatas (Bassoon, flute, continuo)

'Le quattro stagioni' -- subject(s): Concertos (Violin with string orchestra), Scores

'Concerto grosso, for 2 violins and violoncello soli and string orchestra, D minor, op. 3, no. 11' -- subject(s): Concerti grossi, Scores

'Sonata no. 1 in B flat major' -- subject(s): Sonatas (Trombone and piano), Arranged

'La gloria e imeneo' -- subject(s): Vocal scores with piano, Wedding music, Cantatas, Secular (Women's voices)

'The Four Seasons and Other Violin Concertos in Full Score'

'Classical Guitar Music of Vivaldi'

'Vivaldi - Sonata for Cello and Basso Continuo in A Minor, Op. 14, No. 3, RV 43'

'Il pastor fido, sonata no. 6 in G minor, for flute, or oboe, or violin, and piano (with cello or bassoon optional) Figured bass set by Erwin Bodky' -- subject(s): Sonatas (Flute and continuo)

'Dvenadtsat' sonat dlya skripki i fortepiano t2+partiya skripki'

'Concerto per fagotto e archi, A moll' -- subject(s): Concertos (Bassoon with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'Violin Concerto Op. 8/3 Autumn'

'Gloria RV 589'

'Antonio Vivaldi'

'Les concertos' -- subject(s): Parts (solo), Concertos (Recorder with string orchestra)

'Concerto in do' -- subject(s): Concertos (Bassoon with string orchestra), Solos with piano, Concertos (Trumpets (2) with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'\\'

'Sechs sonaten fur violoncello and cembalo (piano)'

'Concerto III' -- subject(s): Concertos (Flute with string orchestra), Scores

'Feraspe' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'Credo, for chorus of mixed voices (SATB) and string orchestra' -- subject(s): Credo (Music), Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with string orchestra, Vocal scores with piano

'Music Minus One Flute'

'Catalogo Numerico-Thematico Bk'

'[Gloria, 4 mixed voices and orchestra] Gloria in D major [and] Nulla in mundo pax sincera'

'Concerto in A major, F. II, n. 1, P. 233, for viola, or viola d'amore, and string orchestra' -- subject(s): Concertos (Viola with string orchestra), Arranged, Solo with piano

'\\'

'Concerto in G minor, P. 360, for flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, and continuo' -- subject(s): Quintets (Bassoon, flute, oboe, violin, continuo)

'Concerto grosso, G minor, for 2 violins, violoncello and string orchestra, op. 3, no. 2' -- subject(s): Concerti grossi, Scores

'Concerto in a Major for Harpsichord (Keyboard) and Strings'

'Concerto in D minor, F. XII, 42, for flute, violin, bassoon & basso continuo' -- subject(s): Quartets (Bassoon, flute, violin, continuo)

'Concerto in F major, F. VI, no. 1, for flute, strings, and cembalo' -- subject(s): Concertos (Flute with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'Concerto in C, P. 81, for treble recorder (flute), oboe, 2 violins, and continuo' -- subject(s): Quintets (Flute, oboe, 2 violins, continuo)

'Concerto in F Major, Op. 64/4'

'10 Bassoon Concertos - Volume 1'

'L'Olimpiade'

'Siroe re di Persia' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'Beatus vir' -- subject(s): Psalms (Music), 112th Psalm, Scores, Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with string orchestra, Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with orchestra, Vocal scores with piano

'The four seasons/Jarry/Paillard'

'The Four Seasons Spring'

'Concerto in C major, P. 78, for sopranino recorder (treble recorder, flute, piccolo), strings & basso continuo' -- subject(s): Concertos (Piccolo with string orchestra), Scores and parts

'Vivaldi:Sonate Da Camera'

'Concerto in C Major'

'Laudate' -- subject(s): Solo cantatas, Sacred (High voice), Psalms (Music), 113th Psalm, Scores

'Sonatas De Camera a Tre, Op. 1, Nos. 7-12'

'Concerto in G minor, for two cellos and piano' -- subject(s): Solos with piano, Concertos (Violoncellos (2) with string orchestra)

'Fac-simile di un autografo di Antonio Vivaldi, con note sul Centro di studi vivaldiani all' Accademia chigiana - Siena (1938-1947) A cura di Olga Rudge' -- subject(s): Manuscripts, Facsimiles

'Six Flute Concertos, Op. 10, in Full Score'

'Concerto, F major, for 4 violins, violoncello and string orchestra' -- subject(s): Concerti grossi, Scores

'10 bassoon concerti, for bassoon and piano' -- subject(s): Concertos (Bassoon with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'The Seasons - Autumn, Kalmus Edition'

'Antonio Vivaldi - Nisi Dominus'

'Violin Concerto Op. 9, No. 10'

'Kontsert lia minor' -- subject(s): Concertos (Violin with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'Concerto grosso, A minor' -- subject(s): Concerti grossi, Scores

'Music Minus One Violin'

'Music Minus One Bb Trumpet or C Trumpet'

'Vivaldi - Concerto for Violin, Strings and Basso Continuo Op. 8 No 1, RV 297 \\'

'Lettere e dediche di Antonio Vivaldi' -- subject(s): Musicians, Correspondence, reminiscences

'Concerto for Flute, Strings and Basso Continuo Op. 10 No 1, RV 433 \\'

'Misa Criolla & Other Sung Masses'

'Concerto in F major'

'Tre sonate per violoncello e basso continuo =' -- subject(s): Sonatas (Violoncello and continuo)

'Credo' -- subject(s): Credo (Music), Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with string orchestra, Scores

'Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 3/9, RV 230/PV 147'

'Sonata no. 5 in E minor for string bass and piano' -- subject(s): Sonatas (Double bass and piano), Arranged

'The Four Seasons (Miniature Scores)'

'Concerto in do magg. per ottavino, archi e cembalo, F. VI, 4 (G.F. Malipiero)' -- subject(s): Concertos (Piccolo with string orchestra), Solo with piano

'The seasons =Le stagioni'

'Variations, Trio Sonatas'

'Concerto in fa maggiore per oboe, archi e cembalo' -- subject(s): Concertos (Oboe with string orchestra), Scores

'Armida al campo d'Egitto' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'Violin Concerto Op. 8, No. 1 \\'

'Motezuma' -- subject(s): Librettos, Operas

'Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, op. VIII' -- subject(s): Concertos (Violin with string orchestra), Scores

'Domine, for double chorus of mixed voices (SATB) soprano solo and double orchestra' -- subject(s): Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices) with orchestra, Vocal scores with piano, 70th Psalm, Psalms (Music)

The piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a felt covered hammer to strike steel strings. The hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency.[1] These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to the air so that it can be heard as sound. When the key is released, a damper stops the string's vibration. Pianos are sometimes classified as both a percussion and a stringed instrument. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, it is grouped with Chordophones. The word piano is a shortened form of the word pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and derived from the original Italian name for the instrument, clavicembalo [or gravicembalo] col piano e forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud). This refers to the instrument's responsiveness to keyboard touch, which allows the pianist to produce notes at different dynamic levels by controlling the speed with which the hammers hit the strings.The piano is founded on earlier technological innovations. The first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dulcimers originating from the Persian traditional musical instrument santur.[2] During the Middle Ages, there were several attempts at creating stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings,[3] the earliest being the hurdy gurdy which has uncertain origins.[4] By the 17th century, the mechanisms of keyboard instruments such as the clavichord and the harpsichord were well known. In a clavichord the strings are struck by tangents, while in a harpsichord they are plucked by quills. Centuries of work on the mechanism of the harpsichord in particular had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, soundboard, bridge, and keyboard. Grand piano by Louis Bas of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France, 1781. Earliest French grand piano known to survive; includes an inverted wrestplank and action derived from the work of Bartolomeo Cristofiori (ca. 1700) with ornately decorated soundboard. The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698.[citation needed] The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s.[5] Cristofori's great success was in solving, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammer must strike the string, but not remain in contact with it (as a tangent remains in contact with a clavichord string) because this would damp the sound. Moreover, the hammer must return to its rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori's piano action served as a model for the many different approaches to piano actions that followed. While Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin strings and were much quieter than the modern piano, compared to the clavichord (the only previous keyboard instrument capable of minutely controlled dynamic nuance through the keyboard) they were considerably louder and had more sustaining power. Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the mechanism. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work because of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings at once. Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s, but Bach did not like it at that time, claiming that the higher notes were too soft to allow a full dynamic range. Although this earned him some animosity from Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded. Bach did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann's pianos.[6] Piano making flourished during the late 18th century in the Viennese school, which included Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Streicher (daughter of Johann Andreas Stein) and Anton Walter. Viennese-style pianos were built with wood frames, two strings per note, and had leather-covered hammers. Some of these Viennese pianos had the opposite coloring of modern-day pianos; the natural keys were black and the accidental keys white.[7] It was for such instruments that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance of his music. The pianos of Mozart's day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos or English pianos, with less sustaining power. The term fortepiano is nowadays often used to distinguish the 18th-century instrument from later pianos. Development of the modern piano In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument. This revolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with technological resources such as high-quality steel, called piano wire, for strings, and precision casting for the production of iron frames. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7¼ or more octaves found on modern pianos. Broadwood square action Early technological progress owed much to the English firm of Broadwood, who already had a reputation for the splendour and powerful tone of its harpsichords. Broadwood constructed instruments that were progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. They sent pianos to both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and were the first firm to build pianos with a range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six octaves by 1810 (Beethoven used the extra notes in his later works), and seven octaves by 1820. The Viennese makers similarly followed these trends, however the two schools used different piano actions: Broadwoods were more robust, Viennese instruments were more sensitive.Erard square action By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to Paris, where the Pleyel firm manufactured pianos used by Frédéric Chopin and the Érard firm manufactured those used by Franz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. This facilitated rapid playing of repeated notes - and this musical device was pioneered by Liszt. When the invention became public, as revised by Henri Herz, the double escapement action gradually became standard in grand pianos, and is still incorporated into all grand pianos currently produced. One of the major technical innovations that helped to create the sound of the modern piano was the use of a strong iron frame. Also called the "plate", the iron frame sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The increased structural integrity of the iron frame allowed the use of thicker, tenser, and more numerous strings. In a modern grand the total string tension can exceed 20 tons. The single piece cast iron frame was patented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, combining the metal hitch pin plate (1821, claimed by Broadwood on behalf of Samuel Hervé) and resisting bars (Thom and Allen, 1820, but also claimed by Broadwood and Érard). Babcock later worked for the Chickering & Mackays firm who patented the first full iron frame for grand pianos in 1843. Composite forged metal frames were preferred by many European makers until the American system was fully adopted by the early 20th century. Other innovations for the mechanism included the use of felt hammer coverings instead of layered leather hammers. Felt hammers, which were first introduced by Henri Pape in 1826, were a more consistent material, permitting wider dynamic ranges as hammer weights and string tension increased. The sostenuto pedal (see below), invented in 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874, allowed a wider range of effects. Other important technical innovations of this era included changes to the way the piano was strung, such as the use of a "choir" of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes, and the use of different stringing methods. With the over strung scale, also called "cross-stringing", the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within the case of the piano. Over stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first patented for use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859. Duplex scaling: Treble strings of a 182 cm. grand piano. From lower left to upper right: dampers, main sounding length of strings, treble bridge, duplex string length, duplex bridge (long bar perpendicular to strings), hitchpins. With duplexes or aliquot scales, which was patented in 1872 by Theodore Steinway, the different components of string vibrations are controlled by tuning their secondary parts in octave relationships with the sounding lengths. Similar systems developed by Blüthner (1872), as well as Taskin (1788), and Collard (1821) used more distinctly ringing undamped vibrations to modify tone. Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano had horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side. This design is attributed to Gottfried Silbermann or Christian Ernst Friderici on the continent, and Johannes Zumpe or Harman Vietor in England and it was improved by changes first introduced by Guillaume-Lebrecht Petzold in France and Alpheus Babcock in the United States. Square pianos were built in great numbers through the 1840s in Europe and the 1890s in America, and saw the most visible changes of any type of piano: the celebrated iron framed over strung squares manufactured by Steinway & Sons were more than two and a half times the size of Zumpe's wood framed instruments from a century before. Their overwhelming popularity was due to inexpensive construction and price, although their performance and tone were often limited by simple actions and closely spaced strings. The mechanism in upright pianos is perpendicular to the keys.The tall, vertically strung upright grand was arranged like a grand set on end, with the soundboard and bridges above the keys, and tuning pins below them. The term was later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes. Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos were arranged in a somewhat similar fashion in evocatively shaped cases.The very tall cabinet piano was introduced about 1805 and was built through the 1840s. It had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very large sticker action. The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, made popular by Robert Wornum around 1815, was built into the 20th century. They are informally called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid-1930s until recent times. The low position of the hammers required the use of a "drop action" to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.Modern upright and grand pianos attained their present forms by the end of the 19th century. Improvements have been made in manufacturing processes, and many individual details of the instrument continue to receive attention.

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