It's seems like first generation piano-forte has lighter touch than modern uprights and grands, I could see it from hearing how crisps the sound of notes-playing.
Not only that, but is it just me or does this first generation piano change color much more drastically as you change dynamics? piano vs mezzo forte had a distinctly different feel to it.
The sound is crispier because the hammers are made of leather, unlike modern pianos which have hammers made of wool felt. But yes, it also has lighter touch than modern pianos.
I would say it's the first piano piece that we have record of. I imagine that there may have been more before this piece but we have no record of those, or have not discovered them yet. Still, a beautiful and historical piece.
Before this people (bach and alot more) already wrote very complicated and beautiful music for harpsichord. It could be that this was one of the first pieces written for FortePiano (this instrument) where the (experienced) composer for the first time experimented with dynamics (bc thats not or barely possible on haprsichord), but has a very complicated piece either way.
The set of Giustini pieces from which this is taken were definitely the first published pieces to specifically say that they were written for the then new fortepiano. There are indications of dynamics that would only be possible on a clavichord or piano, but the style of these pieces definitely suggests the piano (besides the fact that it says so on the actual printed music)
Strange how the piece is scored in B flat major, yet sounds in Ga flat major, very strange tuning. The piece itself is quite exquisite, it has a graceful Scarlattian sound
@@sherifelwan5145 вероятно, в то время тональность ещё не сформировалась окончательно и композиторы мыслили в модальной логике. Подобный пример можно найти и у Баха в Каприччио на отъезд любимого брата, там в третьей пьесе, написанной в фа миноре, при ключе всего три бемоля
Cristofori’s ‘gravi-cembalo col piano e forte’ (‘gravity harpsichord with soft & loud’) was thought to have been first invented c. 1704-but apparently by 1732 when the first forte-piano sonatas were publish’d there must have been hundreds of these ever-improving klaviers throughout Europe - apparently the ‘escapement’ mechanism on the hammers was not commonly added by Klavier builders until around 1770-so the player could hold down any key with his fingers & the sound would still ‘ring’-otherwise the sound would be more akin to the clavichord’s infamous ‘thump’ - despite its comparatively primitive construction the Cristofori forte-piano has a distinctly charming & intimate sound more suited to the salon than a concert hall …
Pianos had an escapement from the beginning, they didn't just thud. What was later added was the double escapement which made repeating notes better, you didn't have to let the key all the way up to repeat it.
@@davidmdyer838 - I was thinking about the letter M. wrote to his father from Augsburg on 17 October 1777 about Stein’s new designs for the forte-piano : ‘I always had preferr’d Spaeth’s klaviers at Regensburg before I came across Stein’s newest klaviers at Augsburg whose dampers are quite superior to the Regensburg models…what sets Stein’s instruments apart from all others is that they come equipp’d with an escapement mechanism which less that 1% of to-day’s Klavier-builders bother to take the trouble to design and build them into their instruments - and without this escapement feature the sound of the instrument becomes ‘like a thump’ or sometimes ‘has a distinctly klangy’ after-effect - With Stein’s careful design, when the player presses down on the keys the little hammers fall back into place the instant the note is struck - no matter whether the player holds the keys down or releases them…’ Who knows but that the Klavier-instruments built in late 18th century Bavaria were representative of other parts of Europe - but M. seems to be saying to his father (who was thinking of opening up a Klavier shoppe out of his large house ‘der Tanzmeistersaal’ (purchased in October 1773) - that the ‘escapement’ mechanism is very rarely included in the forte-pianos of his day & that it is an essential feature for Klavier players to have… I suppose one would probably have to examine what ‘primitive escapement mechanism’ existed around the time of Cristofori…
@@theophilos0910 It sounds like he's talking about the double escapement in which the escapement resets after the note plays even if the key doesn't come all the way up. This doesn't happen on uprights. It sounds like M. is talking about something similar but the officla double escapement wasn't invented until 1800. But pianos had some kind of escapement from the beginning, the hammer never staying in contact with the string.
@@MorganBallardWheeler "Well temperaments" (such as Vallotti or Young) are not the same as 12-tone equal temperament, although they might sound close to 12-tone equal temperament.
You may see this piano at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City! An amazing musical instrument collection that includes this, Stradivarius violins, and elaborately decorated guitars, among other things.
are we not mentioning how the soundboard was replaced by the met in the 30s? most experts consider this piano no longer in any way representational of its original sound.
Not at all. Cristofori (curator to Ferdinand Medici) was trying to improve the harpsichord and in the process, by accident, invented the piano. He called his instrument "gravicembalo col pian e fort". Gravicembalo means "large harpsichord" in Italian.
0:30 that final 1 major chord sounds siiick. Im guessing this is just temperament? Also odd how the music is written in the key of F, the piece is clearly in B-flat, and the sounding pitch is basically an entire major third lower than written (way beyond baroque A=420 or whatever). Lot of strangeness going on here. Extremely cool. The pianist was really excellent!
Because just like genus in music, there is no one standard definition of modes. Modes differ substantially between music theorists despite sharing the same name...
It's kind of ironic how Cristofori wouldn't recognize a modern piano at first as being his invention since it sounds nothing like his modified harpsichord.
@@Nooticus It's a sonata movement by Ludovico Giustini, with specific directions for piano and forte, which you can see in the sheet music. It's probably not actually the first piece, but it's a piece from the first set of piano compositions we know of.
@@thekeyoflifepiano Such directions would be used on harpsichord too, usually indicating using either a single or coupled stop (single for piano, coupled for forte- more strings means more volume, obviously)- so that's not necessarily and indication it was meant for piano. The fact is a lot of composers in this time period really weren't thinking about the exact instrument their keyboard piece would be played on. Clavichord, Pianoforte, Harpsichord, and more esoteric instruments like the Latuenwerk, Virgnals and Spinets would all of been acceptable for a piece like this. Especially these sonatas, which were meant for the private enjoyment of nobility, not concert work, the instrument in mind by the composer could have easily been a clavichord or a spinet as it could've been a piano. This holds really into the early 1800's. It wasn't like one day people decided all at once to go "no more harpsichords", it was a gradual process in which both the piano and harpsichord co-existed, often with the same repertoire.
@@gregoryborton6598 Yes, but the set of sonatas that contains the piece in the video is called "Sonate da Cimbalo di Piano e Forte", so we can be sure it was meant for the fortepiano. Also, right now there is no knowledge of an earlier piece specifically intended for this kind of instrument
Totally agree. Even though I listen to performances on historical instruments to see what the composers were thinking, I ultimately prefer the modern piano.
Clavecín querrás decir. El clavicordio suena más parecido a una guitarra, aunque no igual. Por si ayuda a aclararlo: Clavecín = Harpsichord (inglés) Clavicordio = Clavichord.
