62 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



A carving in Manchester Cathedral shows the earliest form adopted, the clavi-cymbal ; and here we get 

 at once in touch with our main subject, because the outline of its shape was, roughly, that of the modern 

 grand pianoforte. Later modifications produced the virginal, the spinet and the harpsichord, all with 

 plucked strings. The true virginal was of oblong box shape. In its early history its stand was generally 

 separate, and the instrument in consequence was easily portable. This stand was a framed structure, 

 and the attachment of legs to the instrument itself marks a later stage of development. The spinet was 

 of a form variously described as pentagonal, trapeze-shaped or wing-shaped, i.e., in general outline like 

 a modern grand piano. The harpsichord usually followed the same shape, and at its latest stage of 

 development was treated almost exactly as the modern grand piano, except that it had two keyboards 

 and that the pedals were attached to the under framing. The example known as the &quot;Empress&quot; 

 harpsichord was made for the Empress Maria Theresa in 1773 by Shudi and Broadwood, and though the 

 narrowness of the keyboard gives the instrument a grace of proportion impossible of reproduction in a 

 modern grand piano, the decorative problem presented by the latter is not markedly different. \\&amp;gt; 



96. OKPHEUS PIANO, DESIGNED BY SIR EDWARD BVRNE-JOXES. 



come now to the piano, which differs in essence from all the instruments so far named in that its strings 

 are struck by falling hammers. The history of its invention is wrapped in some mystery. The first 

 piano has been attributed to Father Wood, an English monk at Rome ; but this must be dismissed as 

 a suggestion of patriotism. It is probably the fact that one Bartolomeo Cristofori (or Cristofali), a 

 harpsichord-maker of Padua, made the first piano in 1711. If so, the year 1911 marks the two hundredth 

 anniversary of a discovery that has not only profoundly changed the possibilities of music, but has 

 enormously increased its popularity among the masses. Germany claims the invention for Schroter in 

 1717. One Silbermann is supposed to have stolen Schroter s idea ; in any case, he markedly improved 

 the piano, and, more important still, won for it the approval of Sebastian Bach. 



The first piano made by Silbermann in 1745 followed the later forms of harpsichord in being the 

 shape of the modern grand. In 1760 twelve piano-makers came from Germany to this country, and 

 were hailed as the twelve apostles to convert England to the new instrument. Zumpe, the best-known 

 of them, made his pianos oblong. Though very small and wiry in tone, they became popular, and fixed 



