Sydney Recording Studios: To give a short, clear answer as to who invented the piano, it would be Bartolomeo Cristofori, without a doubt. What was his major success as inventor of the piano? What he did successfully was solve the main problem with piano design at the time. He really had no example to follow and was able to solve the problem of the hammer striking the string but not remaining in contact with it and dampening the sound. That was a major problem with the previous keyboard, the clavichord. On a clavichord the tangent remains in contact with the clavichord string. In addition, the hammer must return to its rest position without a violent bounce and must be able to repeat a note rapidly. The inventor of the piano, Cristofori was able to pave the way for other piano builders with his new invention. His piano action served as a model for the many different approaches to piano actions that came after.
Sydney Recording Studios: Cristofori
Although Cristofori’s early Sydney Recording Studios instruments were made with thin strings and were not as loud as modern pianos, the pianoforte (as it was called later) was considerably louder and had more sustaining power than the clavichord. It was now possible to evoke emotion into the music. Musicians were now able to control the volume of their instrument and composers could write with that important feature in mind.
While Bartolomeo Cristofori is credited as the one who invented the piano, mention must be made of Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann’s pianos were exact copies of Cristofori’s except for one important addition. Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal. This damper pedal lifts all the dampers from the strings at once.
One can’t speak about the man who invented theSydney Recording Studios piano without giving credit to Sébastien Érard. Thanks to Sébastien Érard, in 1821, it was then possible to repeat a note even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position. Érard invented the double escapement action, which incorporated a repetition lever (also called the balancier). It was now possible to play repeated notes rapidly. Liszt pioneered this musical device. This invention became the standard in grand pianos and the same exists today.
