Keyboard Instruments

Introduction

Keyboard instruments are sometimes included as part of the orchestra. More often, however, they are featured as solo instruments in music events called recitals, where asoloist plays by him or herself, or in a concerto where a soloist plays accompanied by an orchestra. Keyboard instruments are also widely used to accompany voices or other instruments. In fact, the written répertoire for keyboard instruments is the largest of any instrument family.

The category of keyboard instruments is unique in that it refers to the technique required to play the instrument (i.e., by using a keyboard). However, from that starting point, there are significant differences between members of this category. Take, for example, the organ, piano, harpsichord, and synthesizer. While all four use a keyboard to control sound and feature a set of keys that correspond to unique pitches, each instrument also employs an entirely different mechanism to produce sound, and they are all built very differently. As a result, their individual timbres are distinct, and it is easy to tell them apart.

ORGAN PIANO

HARPSICHORD SYNTHESIZER

The synthesizer is a unique case unto itself. Although pitches are selected (i.e. controlled) using the familiar keyboard interface—which is why the keyboard is also referred to

as controller in electronic instruments—the synthesizer is usually classified as an electrophone. This incredibly versatile instrument is also capable of producing a potentially infinite variety of sounds. Therefore, it defies easy categorization.

These and other topics are discussed in the pages devoted to each of the keyboard instruments.

Listening Examples

George Frideric Handel

Organ Concerto No. 13 in F major: The Cuckoo and the Nightingale

Jean-Phillippe Rameau

Pieces De Clavecin: Suite in A minor-major: IV. Courante

George Frideric HandelBorn: 1685Died: 1759Period: BaroqueCountry: Germany/England

Jean-Phillippe RameauBorn: 1683Died: 1764Period: BaroqueCountry: France

Frédéric Chopin

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21: II. Larghetto

The Harpsichord

Introduction

On the harpsichord, tones are produced by strings stretched over a soundboard, which is a thin piece of wood that amplifies the sound of the strings.

When the harpsichordist depresses a key, a simple mechanism causes a plectrum (or quill) to pluck a string. Harpsichords are not necessarily built to the same specifications. Sometimes they have more than one string per key, which means that more than one string may be used to produce a sound.

The harpsichord keyboard is not touch-sensitive. This means that no matter how softly or forcefully one presses a key, the sound the instrument produces will maintain a fairly constant volume level. Well-built harpsichords are capable of producing quite a rich sound.

The first known instance of a harpsichord dates from around 1397. The harpsichord was very important during the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries as both a solo and an accompanying instrument. It was used in chamber andorchestral music and also

Frédéric ChopinBorn: 1810Died: 1849Period: RomanticCountry: Poland/France

in opera. When the fortepiano was invented around 1709, it eclipsed the popularity of the harpsichord for the next 200 years. However, contemporary musicians and music lovers have a new appreciation for the sound of the harpsichord and the music written for this beautiful instrument.

Listening Examples

François Couperin

Concerts Royaux: Premier Concert: Allemande

The Piano

Introduction

The piano is one of the best-known and best-loved musical instruments. It is used in a wide variety of music styles, from Latin jazz   to art music to contemporary avant-garde.

Although it has strings that vibrate to produce sound, the piano may be considered a percussion instrument because depressing the keys causes hammers inside the piano to strike the strings. There are 88 keys in a full-size piano keyboard, each one attached to its

own corresponding hammer. When used as part of the orchestra, the piano is often grouped with the percussion instruments.

The name piano is short for pianoforte, literally meaning soft (piano) and loud (forte). The pianoforte was developed from its historical predecessor, the harpsichord. In the harpsichord, sound is produced by strings that are plucked by quills connected to keys—a much simpler mechanism than that of the piano.

Keyboard Mechanism

François CouperinBorn: 1668Died: 1733Period: BaroqueCountry: France

Grand Piano Keyboard Mechanism

Grand Piano Action

Upright Piano Action

On the piano, the keys are connected to the hammers through a complex mechanism of levers, depicted above. This keyboard mechanism may also be referred to as the piano action.

When the player depresses a key, the hammer connected to that key is launched towards a string, which is the source of the sound. Therefore, as opposed to the voice or a violin, the piano is not capable of sustained tones. However, depending on the performer's instrumental technique and the style of the piece, the piano may produce both lyrical singing tones and bright, percussive sounds.

Hammers

Voicing the Hammers

The quality and consistency of the hammers is a crucial element in the production of a good piano tone because it is the hammers that ultimately come in direct contact with the strings to produce sound.

Here, a master technician reduces the stiffness of a hammer by prickling the felt with a specially designed tool that has a small row of needles at one end. This mellows the tone of the sound associated with that particular key. At the time of manufacture, and later during regular maintenance, each hammer is checked for good tone.

Soundboard

The Soundboard The soundboard is a major part of the piano. When the piano is played, the soundboard amplifies the vibrations of the strings. In turn, it sets in vibration a much greater amount of air than the strings could by themselves.

There are more than two hundred strings in a piano. Made of steel, they are the sound-generating component of the instrument.

In a grand piano, strings are stretched at tensions of nearly 40,000 pounds over wooden bridges (or supports), which are strongly fastened to the surface of the soundboard. The

bridges transmit the smallest motions of the strings to the soundboard within a fraction of a second. The soundboard takes these vibrations and reproduces them faithfully (in tune) over its entire surface, transmitting them to the large body of air surrounding its front and back surfaces. In this way, powerful sound waves are generated that travel immediately to the eardrum of the listener.

Iron Frame

At around the end of the 18th century, various piano manufacturers tried to devise a way for the instrument to withstand the vast amount of tension generated by the stretched strings.

In 1825, Alpheus Babcock of Boston invented, developed, and patented the one-piece cast-iron frame, which allowed the frame to sustain the nearly 40,000 pounds of string tension and therefore let the piano produce a more powerful and sustained sound.It also allowed makers to use thicker strings,

Section of the Metal Frame 

especially in the lower register of the piano. It further eliminated the need for the instrument to have a closed bottom, which until then had helped structural firmness. The 340-pound

one-piece cast-iron frame was a major development in the history of the piano.

Pedals

The Pedals

The pedals are a crucial component of the piano. The function of the soft pedal is to reduce the amount and quality of the sound. On a grand piano, the soft pedal shifts the keyboard mechanism sideways so that the hammers strike two instead of three strings with a softer part of the felt. On an upright piano, the soft pedal

moves the hammers closer to the strings so they strike with less force, thereby producing less volume.

The sustain or damper pedal on the right shifts control of the sound duration from the hands to the feet by allowing the player to sustain the sound even though he or she might have let go of the keys. Depressing the sustain pedal on either a grand or upright piano lifts all the felt dampers above the strings, allowing them to vibrate freely until the pedal is released.

Correct application of the pedals, both from a technical and an artistic point of view, is a critical component of piano performance.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was one of the first composers to explore the vast sonic potential of the piano. His famous Moonlight Sonata(actually not a name given by Beethoven himself) makes use of the sustain pedal through the first movement.

A Short History of the Piano

Bartolomeo Cristofori

Bartolomeo Cristofori   (1655-1731) of Florence, Italy is generally credited with the invention of the fortepiano(1709), which he called gravicembalo col piano e forte (meaning harpsichord with soft and loud). This invention was further developed by Gottfried Silbermann and Johann Andreas Stein in Germany, and just a few years later, by manufacturers such as Johannes Zumpe and John Broadwood   in England.

Working in France, Sebastian Erard introduced several innovations to the piano mechanism in 1821 that made possible the playing of a key in quick repetition—and therefore some of the virtuoso effects commonly displayed in 19th-century piano music.

Other interesting variations include the upright piano developed by John Isaac Hawkins in Philadelphia at the beginning of the 19th century, and more recently, the digital electronic piano, which combines computer, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), and advanced acoustic technologies.

For a detailed history of the piano, please visit the Virtual Piano Timeline at the Virtual Piano Museum.

The Fortepiano (circa 1709)

Modern Upright PianoPicture Courtesy of Steinway &

Sons

Electronic Digital PianoPicture Courtesy of Yamaha

Listening Examples

Franz Liszt

William Tell: Overture (by Gioachino Rossini), piano transcription

Franz LisztBorn: 1811Died: 1886Period: RomanticCountry: Austrian-Hungarian Empire

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Keyboard Sonata in A major: II. Andante con tenerezza

Ludwig van Beethoven

Piano Sonata, Op. 27 No.2 Moonlight: I. Adagio sostenuto

Arnold Schoenberg

Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19: II. Langsam

The Organ

Carl Philipp Emanuel BachBorn: 1714Died: 1788Period: ClassicalCountry: Germany

Ludwig van BeethovenBorn: 1770Died: 1827Period: ClassicalCountry: Germany

Arnold SchoenbergBorn: 1874Died: 1951Period: ContemporaryCountry: Austria/USA

Introduction

The organ is

a keyboard instrument whose tone is produced by wind flowing through pipes. The organist produces sounds by pressing keys or pedals that are connected to pipes of different lengths and materials. Air passes through the pipes, producing a tone. This means that, unlike the harpsichord and the piano, the organ may sustain sounds as long as keys or pedals are depressed and air is passing through the pipes.

Pictured at right is a small church organ consisting of only one keyboard and pedals. The keyboard on an organ is called a manual. Notice the different lengths of the pipes and the two rows of stops (the white buttons located on either side of the manual), which control the flow of air to the different pipes.

As you know, the length of the pipe determines pitch. The pipes themselves may be made of wood or metal. Sometimes pure tin or copper alloy is used.

There are two types of pipes:

Reed pipes, which produce sound via a vibrating brass strip called a reed.

Flue pipes, which produce sound solely from the vibration of the air column;

The majority of the organ pipes are flue pipes. However, reed pipes supply tones of great variety and brilliance.

Console of the Organ at Princeton University Chapel

Organ Console

The organ has been called “the king of instruments.” The console that you see at right is indeed kingly. It consists of 4 manuals and 109 stops, which control 135 ranks. A rank is a complete set or row of pipes, one for each note of the organ keyboard. As opposed to the piano, which has only one keyboard, the organ may have as many as five keyboards (most have two or three) as well as a pedalboard that is played by the organist's feet.

Organists control timbre and volume level by adjusting levers, buttons, and stops, by moving from one keyboard to another, and by using the pedalboard. Volume is also a factor of wind pressure.

The organ is one of the most complex instruments, and it is certainly the oldest keyboard instrument. Ctesibius, an engineer from Alexandria, is credited with having invented the first organ around 250 BC. He called it the hydraulos, since water was used to control wind pressure.

Although throughout its long and distinguished history it has been mostly associated with church music, the organ has also been used as a solo and an orchestral instrument, as in the famous Adagio by Tomaso Albinoni.

Electronic and Digital Organ

Electronic digital organs resemble the pipe organ but generate sound electronically. They have become very popular because their sound capabilities and construction improve as technology advances, even as their cost decreases and maintenance becomes simpler. The electronic organ has replaced the piano as the instrument of choice in many homes. Among other things, people enjoy the ability to add automatic rhythms and harmonies to their music. The electronic organ makes it possible, even for the most amateur musicians, to make music that is immediately satisfying.

Listening Examples

Tomaso Albinoni

Adagio

Tomaso AlbinoniBorn: 1671Died: 1751Period: BaroqueCountry: Republic of Venice

George Frideric Handel

Organ Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 4, No. 2:I. A tempo ordinario e staccato

The Synthesizer

Introduction

Throughout history, people have experimented with many new types of instruments. Some lasted, many didn't. The synthesizer is, in the grand scheme of things, a very new instrument. So new, in fact, that manufacturers are still struggling with its development.

Let's look at some criteria by which all instruments are measured:

1. Versatility: an instrument must be versatile enough to be used under many different circumstances (musically speaking).

2. Identity: an instrument should have a clear sound persona or sound ideal, that is, the way we have come to expect that instrument to sound.

3. Development: In order to be musically expressive, an instrument must be fully developed in the way it is built and also in terms of instrumental technique (how it is played).

George Frideric HandelBorn: 1685Died: 1759Period: BaroqueCountry: Germany/England

Developed Instruments Versus the Synthesizer

The following table illustrates the main differences between a highly developed musical instrument (for example, the piano or violin) and the synthesizer.

Developed instrument Synthesizer

Highly developed playing technique.

Great diversity / inconsistency of playing techniques.

Dependable relationship between performance gestures and the sound produced.

Relationship between technique and sound varies considerably depending on how the synthesizer is programmed.

Standard shape and construction.

May have any shape, size, or controller interface. Controllers range from traditional keyboards to such innovative devices as the Spatial MIDI Controller. Certainly history's least standardized instrument in physical appearance.

Characteristic sound (timbral palette) and sound ideal.

Can make almost any sound.

Associated repertoire with all its cultural implications.

Virtually no standard repertoire.

Shared terminology and teaching tradition.

Terminology is confusing and inconsistent due to contradictory marketing practices of major manufacturers.

Well-established conventions of use in standard ensembles.

Use in ensembles is only beginning to emerge.

Let's go back to the three criteria outlined at the beginning of this page. In terms of versatility, the synthesizer may be used in a variety different musical circumstances. However, when it comes to identity and development, the synthesizer falls short. There is no ideal sound that a synthesizer makes; moreover, there is no standard way to develop or play a synthesizer.

There is a big difference between an experimental instrument and a highly developed one. Highly developed instruments fulfill certain conditions. Unfortunately, the synthesizer fails to meet almost every one of them! But the truth is, people are buying digital keyboards in record numbers. Why? Probably because almost anyone can immediately make sounds that

are somewhat musical. However, these instruments get shoved into the back of closets unless the person using it goes beyond pushing buttons and really learns how to explore and apply the vast capabilities of the instrument.

Electronic Generation of Sound

The synthesizer generates sounds electronically. As you know, to generate sound you need movement. Something has to vibrate. In the case of electronic instruments, this movement is the oscillation of electric current as it changes polarity from positive to negative. That is, it oscillates back and forth from positive to negative charges.

Movement generates waves, and the timbre and volume of the sound you hear will depend on the shape of the wave, which is also called a waveform.

It is difficult to explain this process without getting too technical, but let's give it a try. There are two basic ways of generating sounds electronically: by synthesis and by sampling. We are concerned mainly with synthesis, which refers to creating sounds electronically from previously-generated waveforms.

How are these waveforms generated? Think of it as a chain of events. The first link in the chain is, as with any other musical instrument, a sound source. In the synthesizer, this sound source is an oscillator. The next links in the chain provide ways of manipulating the sound. This is done using different types of filters. The final link in the synthesis process is to amplify the loudness of the synthesized sound. This is accomplished through an amplifier.