Cristofori’s Grand Piano

The long case tapers away from the keyboard, with none of the pedals you might expect beneath a modern piano. Its outline resembles a harpsichord. Bartolomeo Cristofori built this instrument in 1720, and it is the oldest surviving piano, one of only three of his pianos that remain. Cristofori changed what happened between a finger pressing a key and a string sounding. In a harpsichord, a quill plucks the string. His mechanism used a hammer to strike it. The player’s touch could therefore change how loudly a note sounded, giving different weight to notes played on the same keyboard. Follow the case’s length from the keys toward its narrow end. The wooden enclosure holds the strings and the mechanism that connects them to the player’s hands. Its materials include cypress, boxwood and leather. Later piano makers changed the size and strength of their instruments, while continuing the principles of Cristofori’s action. Here, the changing force of a finger had already become part of the sound.