PIANO 



1660 



PICKENS 



SURGERY, in connection with which will hi- fount! 

 index lists of many topics m>n> T less riopt-iv re- 

 lated to the general one of physiology. 



PIANO, or PIANOFORTE, t n nn' o jort (or 

 /o/ir'/a),the most popular and a Iso the most re- 

 cently invented of musical instruments. In it- 

 present form the piano is only about two cen- 

 turies old, but as a medium for tin- study of 

 music it has more devotees than tin- voice and 

 all the other instruments combined. Except 

 in those rural districts where the reed organ 

 i- still the most common musical instrument. 

 the piano is almost as usual an article of furni- 

 ture as the bookcase and the library table. In 

 mechanism, the piano is an instrument whose 

 sounds are produced by the striking of small. 

 felted hammers upon wire strings. These 

 st rings extend over bridges resting on a thin 

 wooden sounding board. The hammers are put 

 in motion by levers connected with keys. 

 Other features of the mechanism are the damp- 

 ers, which deaden the sound after the note is 

 struck, and pedals, which when pressed down 

 by the feet control the quality and intensity 

 of the sound by moving the hammers 'or 

 dampers. 



The name pianoforte, applied to the instru- 

 ment by its Italian inventor, Bartolommeo 

 Cristofori (1709), is a compound of two words 

 meaning sojt and loud. The name was applied 

 to the instrument to emphasize the difference 

 between it and its immediate predecessor, the 

 harpsichord (which see). In the latter there 

 was no means of modifying the loudness of the 

 notes. The fundamental principles of the mod- 

 ern grand piano, in which the strings lie in 

 the direction of the keys, were embodied in 

 Cristofori's instruments, but there have been 

 developed many improvements and various 

 devices to improve the quality of the tones. 

 Pedals were the invention of an English piano 

 maker named Broadwood (1783), and the first 

 upright piano, in which the strings are stretched 

 perpendicularly to the keys, was the invention 

 of another Englishman, John Isaac Hawkins 

 (1800). Other names famous in the develop- 

 ment of the piano are those of Silbermann, 

 Stein and Erard, all of whom were Germans. 



Player Piano, a playing mechanism attached 

 to the piano, which by means of perforated 

 sheets automatically presents a variety of com- 

 position ranging from popular melodies to the 

 masterpieces of the great composers. The spe- 

 cial rolls are records of actual piano playing 

 by professionals. However, the instrument is 

 not merely a reproducing piano; it can be 



adapted readily to the direct e\pivum of the 

 individual performer's ideas, by means of many 

 expression devices and control levers.- Although 

 the interior mechanisms of different player 

 pianos vary in constructional detail, the under- 

 lying principles are about the same. With the 

 ption of the piano keys at the extreme 

 ends of the keyboard, a small hammer is 

 placed opposite each piano key. These ham- 

 mers are worked by air pressure produced by a 

 bellows system, the "power plant" of the in- 

 strument, operated by an electric motor or by 

 pedal movement. The action of each hammer 

 depends upon the suction of air into its tiny 

 compartment, and the suction is regulated by 

 the passage of the perforated sheet over a 

 row of tiny openings. When the selection i< 

 finished, the roll is automatically rewound. 



Consult Krehbeil's The Pianoforte and Its 

 Music; Van Atta's Treatise on the Piano and 



Piano-Player. 



PIASTER, pias'ter, a name for the Spanish 

 dollar, called more recently and less poetically 

 the peso. The ''pieces of eight" which tin- 

 pirates of the "Spanish main" are supposed 

 to have buried, and with the discovery of 

 which historical romancers ever since have 

 busied themselves, were the eight-real pieces, 

 or piasters. The name is no longer used in 

 Spain, but to-day is applied to the monetary 

 unit of Turkey, a silver coin worth but four 

 and one-half cents in United States and Cana- 

 dian money. This coin, which is also in use 

 in Egypt, the Turks themselves call the fjhn- 

 rush. See PESO. 



PICCOLO, pik'olo, a small flute having a 

 pitch an octave higher than that of the ordi- 

 nary concert flute (see FLUTE). The music of 

 the piccolo, however, is written an octave lower 

 than the notes are sounded, for convenience of 



THE PICCOLO 



composition. The orchestral effects of imitat- 

 ing the whistling of the wind or the rustling 

 of the leaves are admirably produced by the 

 instrument, which is generally in the key of 

 D. An organ stop, the tone of which resem- 

 bles the sound of this small flute, is also known 

 as piccolo. 



PICKENS, pik'enz, ANDREW (1739-1817), an 

 American military leader, whose service in 

 the Revolutionary War was marked by a series 

 of brilliant victories. He was born at Paxtnn, 



