The materials of the piano

Many parts of a piano are made of materials selected for extreme sturdiness. In quality pianos, the outer rim of the piano is made of a hardwood, normally maple or beech. According to Harold A. Conklin, the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that "the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound." The rim is normally made by laminating flexible strips of hardwood to the desired shape, a system that was developed by Theodore Steinway in 1880.

The thick wooden braces at the bottom (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano are not as acoustically important as the rim, and are often made of a softwood, even in top-quality pianos, in order to save weight.

The pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area of the piano where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, and generally is laminated (built of multiple layers) for additional strength and gripping power.

Piano strings (also called piano wire), which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high quality steel. They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their flexibility. For the acoustic reasons behind this, see Piano acoustics.

The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. It is advantageous for the plate to be quite massive. Since the strings are attached to the plate at one end, any vibrations transmitted to the plate will result in loss of energy to the desired (efficient) channel of sound transmission, namely the bridge and the soundboard. Some manufacturers now use cast steel in their plates, for greater strength. The casting of the plate is a delicate art, since the dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks by about one percent during cooling. The inclusion in a piano of an extremely large piece of metal is potentially an aesthetic handicap. Piano makers overcome this handicap by polishing, painting, and decorating the plate; often plates include the manufacturer's ornamental medallion and can be strikingly attractive.

The numerous grand parts and upright parts of a piano action are generally hardwood (e.g. maple, beech. hornbeam). World War II brought about plastics which were originally incorporated into some pianos in the 1940s and 1950s, but were clearly disastrous, crystallizing and losing their strength after only a few decades of use. The Steinway firm once incorporated Teflon, a synthetic material developed by DuPont, for some grand action parts in place of cloth, but ultimately abandoned the experiment due to an inherent "clicking" which invariably developed over time. More recently, the Kawai firm has built pianos with action parts made of more modern and effective plastics such as nylon; these parts have held up better and have generally received the respect of piano technicians.

The part of the piano where materials probably matter more than anywhere else is the soundboard. In quality pianos this is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together at their edges). Spruce is chosen for its high ratio of strength to weight. The best piano makers use close-grained, quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce, and make sure that it has been carefully dried over a long period of time before making it into soundboards. In cheap pianos, the soundboard is often laminated; i.e. made of plywood.

Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the sharps (black keys) were made from ebony and the flats (white keys) were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastics are now almost exclusively used. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited quantities. At one time the Yamaha firm innovated a plastic called "Ivorine" or "Ivorite", since imitated by other makers, that mimics the feel and/or look of ivory on the player's fingers.

The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes pianos heavy. Even a small upright can weigh 136 kg (300 lb), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 480 kg (990 lb). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs 691 kg (1520 lb).

Care and maintenance of pianos

Pianos are regularly tuned to keep them up to pitch and produce a pleasing sound; they are, ideally, tuned to the internationally recognised standard concert pitch of A = 440 Hz. The hammers of pianos are voiced to compensate for gradual hardening. Top-quality but aged pianos can be restored, replacing a great number of their parts to produce an instrument closely similar to a new one.

The role of the piano

The piano is a crucial instrument in Western classical music, jazz, film, television and electronic game music, and most other complex musical genres. A large number of composers are pianists, and they frequently use the piano as a tool for composition.

Pianos were and are extremely popular instruments for private household ownership, especially among the middle- and upper-class. As such, pianos have gained a place in the popular consciousness, and are sometimes referred to by nicknames, including: "the eighty-eight," "the ivories," and "the black(s) and white(s)."

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Translations for the word piano 

Français (French)
piano, pianiste

Deutsch (German)
n. - Klavier, Piano
adv. - piano
adj. - Klavier-, piano
n. - Klavier, Piano

Español (Spanish)
n. - piano (instrumento musical)
adv. - suavemente
adj. - suave
n. - piano, pasaje de una partitura que marcada para sonar suavemente

Italiano (Italian)
pianoforte, piano

Português (Portuguese)
n. - piano (m)
adj. - piano (Mús.)

Nederlands (Dutch)
piano, zacht (muziek)

Svenska (Swedish)
abbr. - pianoforte
n. - piano
adj. - piano, tyst
adv. - piano (mus.), tyst, lugnt (sl.)

Русский (Russian)
пианино, пиано

Ελληνική (Greek)
abbr. (μουσ.) πιάνο, απαλά n. πιάνο adj. adv. (μουσ.) πιάνο, απαλά

Z (Japanese)
n. - sAm, sAmﾌt, sAmﾈ,

עברית‬ (Hebrew)
n. - ‮פסנתר‬
adv. - ‮(נגינה) ברכות, בשקט, פיאנו‬
adj. - ‮מנוגן ברכות‬
n. - ‮קטע לנגינה ברכות‬

العربيه (Arabic)
(اختصار) بادئه تعني : بهدوء (الاسم) بيان, بيانو (صفه) لين, هدوء, رقه (ظرف) بلين, بهدوء, برقه

Comments

Hi! I came across your website, and hope you will not mind if I point out
that...

"piano" does not mean "soft".

"forte" does not mean "loud".

Silbermann did not copy Cristofori at all, he made his fortepianos quite
differently and separately. Cristofori's amazing invention was virtually
lost, and had to be re-invented.

To say that "The iron frame was invented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus
Babcock" is an outrageously over-simplified statement, iron was used in
gradually increasing amounts by most makers through the 1800s, and there was
never a single point where it was "invented".

I began tuning pianos in 1963, and started dealing with history enquiries in
the early seventies: the "Piano Archives" service continued until I suffered
a long, major illness. In recent years, partly through the internet, more
progress has been made in locating surviving pianos and paperwork, and we
now have "The World's Largest Collection of Historical Information about
British Pianos", as well as a wealth of historical and practical information
on pianos. Last year, we were offered a large museum space in a wonderful
Georgian setting, but it proved to be impractical, so we are setting up a
smaller Piano History Centre here, and have added to our modest collection
of antique pianos, which provide window dressing for the main collection -
information and paperwork.

We do not buy or sell pianos, but we sometimes rescue antique pianos in the
UK which are not worth the cost of full restoration.

www.PianoGen.org

Bill Kibby-Johnson
East Anglia (UK)
billATpianogen.org

The World's Largest Collection of
Historical Information about British Pianos

WANTED: Any kind of paperwork or information about pianos, such as ads,
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exhibition catalogues, flyers, genealogy, guarantees, letterheads, models of
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pricelists, receipts, record sleeves, trade cards, warranties, etc.

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