Versatility

The piano showed its versatility in many ways, as we shall see, and not least in its purely physical manifestation. By the end of the eighteenth century, it existed in three main forms, the two older of these reflecting its origins in, first, the harpsichord (giving the concert grand, or 'wing' piano – Flügel, Flügelklavier or Hammerflügel in German – with the strings stretching from the broad (keyboard) end to the narrow), and, secondly, in the clavichord, giving the domestic 'square' (though really oblong) model in which the strings are more or less parallel with the keyboard. Outside of those countries in which the clavichord was common, the spinet, or 'square' harpsichord can be seen as the progenitor of the square piano. The third form, the upright, was intended as a space-saving compromise by placing the strings and soundboard perpendicular to the keyboard; even grands were adapted in this way – see PL 28 – accounting for the unusual height of these instruments compared with our modern upright. Early attempts at upright pianos include one attributable to Christian Ernst Friederici, a pupil of Silbermann, made in or before 1745. Rosamond Harding shows a photograph of an elaborate German model from about 1740, now in the Schloss Museum in Berlin. ¹