The piano offers a wide range of playing styles and a wide range of voices, and it is an instrument that is well suited to both solo and ensemble performances. Historically, the introduction of hammers and actions, which overcame the shortcomings of many other keyboard instruments, has made the piano a popular and expressive instrument in modern music.
The piano is probably the most familiar instrument and the one that plays the largest role in classical music. The piano can be played solo by a single pianist, or by two or four people on a single piano, and it can also harmonize well with other instruments. From piano trios and piano quartets to piano concertos with large orchestras, there’s a wide variety of music that the piano can create. Why is the piano so popular despite its short history compared to other instruments?
To answer this question, let’s take a quick look at the classification of Western instruments. Western instruments can be broadly categorized into stringed instruments, which produce sound by vibrating strings; wind instruments, which produce sound by blowing into a pipe; and percussion instruments, which produce sound by striking an object with the hand or a mallet. Each of these instruments has similar tones and characteristics. You might be surprised to see that there are no keyboard instruments in this category, as keyboards are not a source of sound, but rather a transmission process for sound. Whereas in string, wind, and percussion instruments, the strings, pipes, and strikes are the source of the sound, respectively, the keys in a keyboard instrument are simply the means to produce the sound. The introduction of keys is a big part of why the piano is so popular.
Take the pipe organ, for example. The pipe organ is a typical keyboard instrument that was often used in large churches during the Middle Ages. Simply put, it’s an instrument that combines keys and pipes. Each key is connected to a pipe that produces a corresponding note, and when you press the keys, the pipes produce a sound through a series of processes. What are the advantages of playing a wind instrument through these keys compared to playing a regular wind instrument?
The biggest difference is the ‘delivery’. Many of us have played recorders in school, and we know how difficult it is to produce a sound that spans more than an octave with a single recorder. However, a pipe organ, which is a series of pipes connected by keys, may not be as portable as a recorder, but it can easily produce the notes that each key is responsible for. You can think of it as the equivalent of a single recorder. This allows for a wide range of notes and a rich variety of music.
Historically, the recorder, which predates the flute, hasn’t found a place in the orchestra, partly because its timbre doesn’t blend well with the other instruments in the orchestra, but more importantly because the recorder has a narrower octave range than the flute. A flute can cover about three octaves, while a recorder can cover far fewer. This gives recorders an advantage in performance because they can cover a wider range.
They’re also easier for beginners to handle than other instruments. String instruments like violins can produce unpleasant sounds depending on how they’re bowed, and wind instruments like flutes can be tricky to produce, making it difficult for beginners to get the right sound in less than an hour. The piano, on the other hand, is relatively easy to play. Of course, the “degrees” of a beginner will be different from those of a world-class pianist, but the piano is a relatively accessible instrument for beginners.
However, pipe organs are not played much today. The first reason is their sheer size. Pipe organs need to fill the walls of a large church, which means that you can’t carry the instrument around with you, it has to be installed to be played. The second reason is that they require a lot of manpower to play. In the past, slaves worked manually to blow the wind into the pipes, making it difficult and expensive to play. In modern times, mechanical devices were introduced, but they were still inconvenient compared to other keyboard instruments.
The clavichord and harpsichord have since taken the lead in keyboard instruments. Unlike pipe organs, these instruments use strings to produce sound. They were simpler and easier to play than pipe organs, but the clavichord was too small in volume and the harpsichord had the disadvantage of not being able to control the strength or weakness of the sound. These instruments were primarily used for chamber music, and their use on the big stage was limited.
The piano was the instrument that overcame these shortcomings. The central idea of the piano is the “action device” that strikes the strings with a hammer and transmits the force of the keys to the hammer. This device allows the piano to produce a powerful volume and a wide range of semitone expressions, making it a suitable instrument for playing modern music.
The piano is an instrument that combines sound transmission through keys, sound production through strings, and elements of percussion. This structural characteristic of the piano is the result of an effort to combine the strengths of several instruments to create better music. As such, the piano has captivated people’s hearts with its beautiful tone and colorful expressiveness, from solo to collaborative performances.
