1825 Babcock invents iron frame for piano
1825 Pape introduces felt covered hammers
1826 Pape invents over-stringing (cross-stringing)
1840 Herz revises double-escapement action
1840 Chickering grand piano uses Babcock’s iron frame
1844 Boisselot invents sostenuto pedal
1859 Steinway applies cross-stringing to grand pianos
1872 Steinway invents duplex scaling
1873 Blüthner invents aliquot stringing
1874 Steinway improves sostenuto pedal design
TONE
Tone matching
Piano sound is evanescent, that is, it starts to die away as soon as the note is struck. It
follows from this that to achieve a smooth sound the notes of a melody have to be
matched. This means that, where a longer note in a melody is followed by another note,
the dynamic level of the shorter note should match what is left of the longer note. This
will not always be so because a rising melody will often be played crescendo. It will,
however, often be so, no matter whether the melody is rising or falling, if the first note is
longer in time value to the second note.
The second subject of the first movement of Beethoven’s piano concerto in C minor is
one of countless examples where tone matching is used.
Tone matching is a vital part of the cantabile style and of all expressive piano playing.
Tone nuance
Where crescendo, diminuendo and the swell effect are used subtly and in small amounts
they may be called tone nuance. Composers do not mark all tone nuances as to do this
would clutter the printed page and reduce the legitimate individuality of the pianist. Tone
nuances, however, are a vital part of the cantabile style and of all expressive piano
playing. The difference between crescendo, diminuendo and the swell effect, on the one
hand, and tone nuances, on the other hand, is ultimately a matter of degree.
Tone nuance is a vital part of the cantabile style and of all expressive piano playing.
Tone quality
Whether the sound quality of a single piano note is independent of its volume is disputed.
Tobias Mathay maintained that it is. James Ching maintained that it is not. The present
writer follows Ching’s view that, strictly scientifically and analytically, there is only one
quality for each of the approximately twelve distinctly audible dynamic degrees, or
quantities of sound, for each note on the piano. Quality differences follow, in the context