Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:37:59 -0700 (PDT) Matthew Todd wrote: >Cristofori developed the piano action as we know it today. He is credited with the >invention although he developed it from earlier inventors. So placing the exact on >the invention is hard. Gee, Matthew, I wonder where you got that... There is no record of anyone else having built anything resembling a piano before Cristofori. His invention became known to European society in 1709. All the other early piano builders - Silbermann, Zumpe, Schroeter come to mind - follow him. Since some of their action designs were more primitive than his, there at one time was a conjecture that some of them might have arrived at their designs independently, without reference to Cristofori's designs. It is more likely, however, that they were building more primitive actions to keep the cost down. Remember, for those first 50-60 years the piano was not considered to be a real musical instrument (Bach rejected it and Mozart played harpsichords until a piano was produced that satisfied his requirements). It was mostly a novelty, a plaything for rich amateurs - until people like Johann Andreas Stein and Anton Walter were able to produce dependable instruments that real musicians could be ha ppy with. The Cristofori action does not even remotely resemble the modern piano action. It is really flimsy, uses a parchment hammer, has an intermediate lever as part of the (single) escapement mechanism, I believe that there is no provision for checking... The modern (grand) piano action is the double escapement type, invented by Sebastien Erard in the 1830's. (BTW, about ten years ago I was shown a 4 octave square piano of unknown origin by Bjarne (Barney) Dahl - a well known restorer of early instruments in Sunnyvale, CA. A tiny, flimsy thing (the square - not Barney). It had the initials "S.E." carved inside. Barney likes to believe that it was built by Erard as a young apprentice in someone's shop... Israel Stein
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