| The tall vertically strung upright grand was arranged with the soundboard
and bridges perpendicular to keys, and above them so that the strings did
not extend to the floor. Diagonally strung Giraffe, pyramid and lyre pianos
employed this principle in more evocatively shaped cases. The term was
later revived by many manufacturers for advertising purposes.
The very tall cabinet piano introduced by Southwell in 1806 and built
through the 1840s had strings arranged vertically on a continuous frame
with bridges extended nearly to the floor, behind the keyboard and very
large sticker action.
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The short cottage upright or pianino with vertical stringing, credited
to Robert Wornum about 1810 was built into the 20th century. They are informally
called birdcage pianos because of their prominent damper mechanism. Pianinos
were distinguished from the oblique, or diagonally strung upright made
popular in France by Roller & Blanchet during the late 1820s. |
The tiny spinet upright was manufactured from the mid 1930s until recent
times. It saved space by using a "drop action" arranged below the level
of the keys.
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The huge changes in the evolution of the piano have somewhat vexing
consequences for musical performance. The problem is that much of the most
widely admired piano repertoire — for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and
Beethoven — was composed for a type of instrument that is rather different
from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today.
Even the music of the Romantics, including Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms,
was written for pianos substantially different from ours. The interpretation
of these works on modern pianos poses a variety of problems. For a discussion,
see Piano history and musical performance |
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