| The piano is a common name for the keyboard-string musical instrument’s class of grand pianoforte called a piano for short. The name originates from the Italian “forte” – “loud” and piano “silent”.
The sound in a piano is extracted by touching strings with small musical hammers. Strings are attached to a resonating sounding board by means of pegs (in a piano the deck is located vertically, while on a grand piano it is horizontal).
The modern piano has two or three damper pedals. The earliest instruments had sliding levers when pressed by the pianist’s knees served the same purpose as the mentioned above.
Pianoforte is divided into the grand piano - stings located horizontally and the piano-strings located vertically.
The piano can be used as a solo instrument and also with an orchestra (for instance, in concerts for piano with orchestra). Playing the piano demands a good technique, attention and efficiency. Learning the piano in Russian music schools covers 5-7 years, depending upon the program. For joining any music institute, some pupils remain to study for one or two years more before completing the school. Learning the piano should start as a child because for adults it is quite difficult to learn piano. Later one can continue learning the music profession in any music college. In Russian primary schools, learning common piano is a mandatory subject for almost all specialties.
A piano requires careful maintenance from time to time, and tuning because some strings get loose and the extracted sound becomes different. (Electronic instruments are rather less fastidious and they do not need tuning in this regard).
The predecessors of the piano were the harpsichord and later clavichords were invented.
The mechanics of the modern piano was invented by Italian maestro Christophori in about 1709, in that design, the hammers were located in under the strings. The design was named gravicembalo col piano e forte, from this originated the present name piano. Similar systems were developed by Marius in France (1716) and Shroeter in Germany (1717-21). The system based on the principle of tossing a hammer fixed to key and was invented by Zilberman and his disciple I. Stein in 1731. In 1821, Erard invented a mechanism action with a double repetition which allowed extracting sound when quickly repeated pressing of the keys (in earlier instruments, the hammer was retreated slowly and it was not possible). Manufacturing the piano was associated with work of Tischner and Virta in 1818-1820. Today piano manufacturers have their own slightly varying versions of piano mechanics. The first music works for piano appeared in the18th century (Haydn, Mozart). Pedals were added though the course of evolution. In the 20th century absolutely different instruments emerged such as electronic pianos and synthesizers.
The person playing the music works on a piano is called a pianist. Professional pianists can perform as individual performers, playing in an accompanying orchestra or band, and accompanying one or several musicians.
Usually pianists start learning piano at an early age, some sit behind a grand piano even from three years of age. Many famous composers were gifted pianists too. For instance, Franz Peter Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergey Rakhmaninov, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Ferenc Liszt, Johann Brahms, Frederic Shopen, Robert Shuman and other composers were virtuosos of piano music. The majority of pianists specialize in a particular composer or style. But the repertoire of many pianists is not limited to just classical music, but includes works of such styles as Jazz, Blues and pop music.
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China has made the world's first playable ice piano. The piano is displayed at Expo Ice Sculpture exhibition in Harbin city. Much to the joy of the exhibition visitors, they can play the piano themselves; the ice piano can also automatically play numerous classical piano pieces.
