The Programmer’s Algorithm
Leads from Harpsichord to Piano
Nicholas Caudill
CSC 129
October 30, 2005
The beginning of the 18th century was a very creative and expressive time in the history of music. Orchestras were playing compositions that had great emotion and ranged in volume from near silence to thunderous loudness. Choirs were singing pieces where pitch and dynamics were changing at a moment’s notice. Musicians were also writing and performing works on the keyboard instrument of the day, the harpsichord. This instrument works by plucking strings when the corresponding keys are pressed (Vaughn). The harpsichord served many composers musical needs well, but by the 1700s, musicians needed something more from their keyboard instrument. They wanted the ability to express greater and more subtle detail in their music. The idea was for a single person playing on a keyboard instrument to be able to have the same amount of musical expression as a whole orchestra or choir (Ehrlich, 12). The limitations of the harpsichord made this idea impossible to achieve in reality. It is apparent that the musicians of the 1700s have a problem. However, for every problem, a solution can be found by following the programmer’s algorithm.
Before any solution can be found, the first thing the programmer’s algorithm says to do is to define the problem. The overall problem was that keyboard musicians of the 1700s could not express as much detail and emotion in their work as they wanted. Although this sounds like a vague problem, it can be pinpointed to one specific limitation of the harpsichord. The instrument of the harpsichord produces sounds by plucking strings. The string, unfortunately, is plucked with a fixed amount of force. For a player, this means that no matter how hard or soft they press a key on the keyboard, the note created is the same volume (Parakilas, 16). There were mechanisms on the harpsichord a player could manually alter that allowed for large changes in volume. These mechanisms however, were not practical. The keyboard player still had no way to change volume during the playing of a song, or to have more subtle volume differences within their music (Vaughn).
With a problem now properly defined, the programmer’s algorithm next states to plan the solution. The plan originated in the year 1709 in Italy. Bartolomeo Cristofori, a Florentine harpsichord maker, had an idea on how to change the working of the instrument (Villemin). Cristofori planned on keeping the overall design of the harpsichord the same, but wanted to change how the instrument produced sound. Instead of plucking strings, he wanted to use a small hammer to hit each string. By having a hammer, the player could press a key on the keyboard with different amounts of force, which would make the hammer hit the string with varying amounts of force. This would, in turn, produce notes of different volume (Ehrlich, 12). The implementation of the solution can be seen as the building of the new instrument by Cristofori. He called his creation gravicembalo col piano e forte, which translates to “harpsichord with soft and loud” (“Piano”). The name was shortened first to the pianoforte, and later to simply the piano (Villemin).
Part of the programmer’s algorithm is to document the process used. This was done after Cristofori built his first pianos. He called upon a writer in the Italian Republic of Letters, Scipione Maffei, to write an article on his new instrument. The article described in great detail Cristofori’s construction and work on the piano (Parakilas, 11). In 1711 the article was published in a well known Venice journal, and in 1725, the article was translated into German (Ehrlich, 13). By having Maffei write and publish the article, Cristofori’s discovery would be known by people beyond just Florence. Cristofori alone could not be responsible to build his new invention. The idea was to inform builders and artisans of Cristofori’s work so they could also produce pianos. Basically, Maffei was to trying to get as much publicity to Cristofori and his new instrument as possible (Parakilas, 11).
The testing of the solution was an extended process. If the new piano is the solution to the problem, the testers of the solution are the musicians of the 1700s. The piano had to be played by musicians and compared to its predecessor, the harpsichord. The approval of the keyboard players would show that Cristofori had been successful. For a time, the piano was mostly unknown. The first major composer who tried the new piano was Johann Sebastian Bach in 1736 (Villemin). He is said to have not looked well on the instrument at the time, feeling its higher pitches were too soft. The harpsichord largely remained his keyboard of choice (Ehrlich, 13). The case was different for Bach’s two sons, Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel. Both sons recognized the ability of the piano to produce more varied and dramatic music. They began using the piano, as opposed to the harpsichord, for both composing new works and playing concerts (Villemin). From there, the piano was embraced by many musicians of the 18th and 19th century, such as Mozart, Clementi, Beethoven, and Haydn (Parakilas, 77). By the time of the 1800s, the piano had mostly become the favored keyboard instrument for musicians and composers. It is clear to see that Cristofori had succeeded with his solution (Columbia).
This musical evolution, from the harpsichord to the piano, is obviously of interest to musicians, especially pianists. It seems for a piano player, it would be enjoyable and informative to know some history about their instrument. Seeing how someone took the harpsichord and modified it to solve a musical problem is interesting. Of course, musicians are not the only ones who can find interest in this. Nearly anyone who listens to music should find this information good to know. The piano is used in almost every form of music, including classical, rock, pop, jazz, blues, and countless others. It doesn’t matter what music a person listens to, chances are, there is probably a piano being used.
Just as the piano seems to be present in almost all forms of music, the programmer’s algorithm is present to solve nearly every problem. The problem was defined as having a lack of musical expression in keyboard instruments in the 1700s. This problem was then pinpointed as the harpsichord’s inability to play notes of various volumes. Cristofori was able to plan and implement a solution to the problem by creating the first piano, which changed how the sound of the notes was produced. The process was documented by Italian writer Maffei in a detailed article, and the solution was tested by the keyboard musicians of the time. When the musicians gave their approval to the piano, Cristofori knew that his work was complete.
Works Cited
Ehrlich, Cyril. The Piano A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Parakilas, James. Piano Roles. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
“piano.” Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed. 2001-05.
Vaughn, Genevieve. “Harpsichord.” Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia 2002.
Villemin, Stephane. “History of the piano.” March 1, 2000 October 24, 2005
<http://scena.org/lsm/sm5-6/HistoryPiano-en.htm>.