The sostenuto pedal was invented in 1844 by Boisselot and improved by the Steinway
firm in 1874.
Over-stringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s and was first patented
for general use in grand pianos in the United States by Henry Steinway in 1859. The
over-strung scale, also called ‘cross-stringing’, involved the strings being placed in a
vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridges on the keyboard
rather than just one. This permitted larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within
the case of the piano.
In 1872 Theodore Steinway patented a system of duplexes or aliquot scales to control
different components of string vibrations by tuning their secondary parts in octave
relationships with the sounding lengths. Similar systems were developed by Blüthner in
1872, as well as by Taskin.
Today’s pianos attained their present forms by the end of the nineteenth century but some
early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The square piano had
horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and
with the keyboard set in the long side. The tall, vertically strung, upright grand was
arranged with the soundboard and bridges perpendicular to the keys, and above them, so
that the strings did not extend to the floor. The diagonally strung ‘giraffe’, pyramid and
lyre pianos employed this principle in more evocatively shaped cases. The very tall
cabinet piano, which was introduced by Southwell in 1806 and built through into the
1840s, had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame with bridges extended
nearly to the floor behind the keyboard, and also had a very large sticker action.
The short cottage upright piano, or pianino, with vertical stringing, credited to Robert
Wornum about 1815 was built through into the twentieth century. They were informally
called ‘damper pianos’ because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos were
distinguished from the oblique or diagonally strung uprights made popular in France by
Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from
the mid 1930s onwards. The low position of the hammers required the use of a drop
action to preserve a reasonable keyboard height.
EXAMINATIONS
Music examinations are a part of life for those studying piano. The Australian Music
Examinations Board (AMEB) conducts music examinations in Australia, apart from
those conducted by the universities, conservatoriums, schools, boards of studies, and
examining bodies originating in England. Examinations are conducted to assess
performing skills in piano, violin and other instruments and in music theory. The AMEB
examiners consist of teachers from the universities, conservatoriums and private studios
who are engaged to do this work. The piano grades go up to eighth grade, then
Associate Diploma (A Mus A), and then Licentiate (L Mus) which requires a concert
standard of performance. The AMEB’s work is financed by examination fees and by the
proceeds of the sales of its graded sheet music publications.