Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Piano |
PianoAdjective1. Used chiefly as a direction or description in music; "the piano passages in the composition". Adverb1. Used as a direction in music; to be played relatively softly. Noun1. A stringed instrument that is played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike tuned strings and produce sounds. 2. (music) low loudness. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "piano" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | PIANO, n. A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated by pressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
19th Century Satire | A tool frequently used in building a Rough House. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of seeing a piano, denotes some joyful occasion. To hear sweet and voluptuous harmony from a piano, signals success and health. If discordant music is being played, you will have many exasperating matters to consider. Sad and plaintive music, foretells sorrowful tidings. To find your piano broken and out of tune, portends dissatisfaction with your own accomplishments and disappointment in the failure of your friends or children to win honors. To see an old-fashioned piano, denotes that you have, in trying moments, neglected the advices and opportunities of the past, and are warned not to do so again. For a young woman to dream that she is executing difficult, but entrancing music, she will succeed in winning an indifferent friend to be a most devoted and loyal lover. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Fine Arts | With a keyboard and strings struck by hammers; a keyboard instrument combining the clavichord's power of accentuation, crescendo, diminuendo, and cantabile with the force and brilliance of the harpsichord. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Piano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte, a musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). Its sound is produced by strings stretched on a rigid frame. These vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers, which are activated by the keyboard. The word pianoforte is from the Italian for soft-loud, referring to the ability of the piano to play notes at many volumes.
As a keyboard stringed instrument, the piano is similar to the clavichord and harpsichord. The three instruments differ in the mechanism of sound production. In a harpsichord, strings are plucked by quills or similar material. In the clavichord, strings are struck by tangents which remain in contact with the string. In a piano, the strings are struck by hammers which immediately rebound, leaving the string to vibrate freely.
History
The piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy. When he built his first piano is not entirely clear, but Franceso Mannucci wrote in his diary that Cristofori was working on an "arcicembal che fa il piano e il forte" ("harpsichord that plays both softly and loudly") as early as 1698. All of his surviving instruments date from the 1720s, however.Like most inventions, the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations. In particular, it benefitted from centuries of work on the harpsichord, which had shown the most effective ways to construct the case, the soundboard, the bridge, and the keyboard. Cristofori was himself a harpsichord maker and well acquainted with this body of knowledge.
Cristofori's great success was to solve, without any prior example, the fundamental mechanical problem of piano design: the hammers must strike the string but not continue to touch it once they have struck (which would damp the sound). Moreover, the hammers must return to their rest position without bouncing violently, and it must be possible to repeat a note rapidly. Cristofori's piano action served as a model for the many different approaches to piano action that were to follow.
Cristofori's early instruments were made with thin clavichord strings, and were much quieter than the modern piano. However, they could produce a wider range of dynamics than the clavichord, and the sound sustained longer.
Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it, complete with diagrams of the mechanism. This article was quite widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work as a result of reading it.
One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, but with an important exception: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which permits the dampers to be lifted from all the strings at once. In Silbermann's pianos, this was done not by depressing a pedal, but by pulling on an organ-style draw-stop instead. Virtually all subsequent pianos incorporated some version of Silbermann's idea.
Silbermann showed Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s. Bach did not like it at that time, though he did approve of a later instrument he saw in 1747, and apparently even served as an agent to help sell Silbermann's pianos.
Piano making flourished during the late 18th century in the work of the Viennese school, which including Johann Andreas Stein (who worked in Augsburg, Germany) and the Viennese makers Nannette Stein (daughter of Johann Andreas) and Anton Walter. The Viennese-style pianos were built with wooden frames, two strings per note, and leather-covered hammers. It was for such instruments that Mozart composed his concertos and sonatas, and replicas of them are built today for use in authentic-instrument performance. The piano of Mozart's day had a softer, clearer tone than today's pianos, with less sustaining power. The word "tinkling" is unfair when applied to the lovely sound of these instruments, but it does perhaps suffice to convey roughly how they differ in tone from modern pianos.
The term fortepiano is often used to distinguish the 18th century style of instrument from later pianos.
In the lengthy period lasting from about 1790 to 1890, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes which ultimately led to the modern form of the instrument. This evolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound. It was also a response to the ongoing Industrial Revolution, which made available technological resources like high-quality steel for strings and precision casting for the production of iron frames.
Over time, piano playing became a more strenuous and muscle-taxing activity, as the force needed to depress the keys, as well as the length of key travel, was increased. The tonal range of the piano was also increased, from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7 1/3 (or even more) octaves found on modern pianos.
In the first part of this era, technological progress owed much to the English firm of Broadwood, which already had a strong reputation for the splendor and powerful tone of its harpsichords. Over time, the Broadwood instruments grew progressively larger, louder, and more robustly constructed. The Broadwood firm, which sent pianos to both Haydn and Beethoven, was the first to build pianos with range of more than five octaves: five octaves and a fifth during the 1790s, six by 1810 (in time for Beethoven to use the extra notes in his later works), and seven by 1820. The Viennese makers followed these trends. The two schools, however, used different piano actions: the Broadwood one more robust, the Viennese more sensitive.
By the 1820s, the center of innovation had shifted to the Érard firm of Paris, which built pianos used by Chopin and Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position, a great benefit for rapid playing. As revised by Henri Herz about 1840, the double escapement action ultimately became the standard action for grand pianos, used by all manufacturers.
Some other important technical innovations of this era include the following:
The modern concert grand achieved essentially its present form around the beginning of the 20th century, and progress since then has been only incremental.
- use of three strings rather than two for all but the lower notes
- the iron frame. The iron frame, also called the "plate", sits atop the soundboard, and serves as the primary bulwark against the force of string tension. The iron frame was the ultimate solution to the problem of structural integrity as the strings were gradually made thicker, tenser, and more numerous (in a modern grand the total string tension can approach 20 tons). The iron frame was invented in 1825 in Boston by Alpheus Babcock, culminating an earlier trend to use ever more iron parts to reinforce the piano. The first iron frame in grand pianos (1840) was the work of the Chickering firm, at which Babcock was employed.
- felt hammers. The harder, tauter steel strings required a softer hammer type to maintain good tone quality. Hammers covered with compressed felt were introduced by the Parisian maker Jean-Henri Pape in 1826, and are now universally used.
- the sostenuto pedal (see below), invented 1844 by Jean Louis Boisselot and improved by the Steinway firm in 1874.
- The overstrung scale, also called "cross-stringing". This is a special arrangement of strings within the case: the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two bridges on the soundboard instead of just one. The purpose of the overstrung scale was to permit longer strings to fit within the case of the piano. Overstringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first applied to the grand by Henry Steinway Jr in 1859.
- Duplex scaling, invented by Theodore Steinway in 1872, permits the parts of the string near its ends, which otherwise would be damped with cloth, to vibrate freely, thus increasing resonance and adding to the richness of the sound. Aliquot stringing, which serves a similar purpose in Blüthner pianos, was invented by Julius Blüthner in 1873. Image of duplex scaling.
Some early pianos had shapes and designs that are no longer in use. The once-popular square piano had the strings and frame on a horizontal plane, but running across the length of the keyboard rather than away from it. It was similar to the upright piano in its mechanism. Square pianos were produced through the early 20th century; the tone they produced is widely considered to be inferior. Most had a wood frame, though later designs incorporated increasing amounts of iron. The giraffe piano, by contrast, was mechanically like a grand piano, but the strings ran vertically up from the keyboard rather than horizontally away from it. This makes it a very tall instrument. These were uncommon.
Piano history and musical performance
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 music for piano—for example, that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—was composed for a type of instrument that is extremely different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today. Even the music of the early Romantics, such as Chopin and Schumann, was written for pianos substantially different from ours.One view that is sometimes taken is that these composers were dissatisfied with their pianos, and in fact were writing visionary "music of the future" with a more robust sound in mind. This view is perhaps more plausible in the case of Beethoven, who composed at the beginning of the era of piano growth, than it is in the case of Haydn or Mozart.
Others have noted that the music itself often seems to require the resources of the early piano. For example, Beethoven sometimes wrote long passages in which he directs the player to keep the damper pedal down throughout (a famous example occurs in the last movement of the "Waldstein" sonata, Op. 53). These come out rather blurred on a modern piano if played as written, but work well on (restored or replicated) pianos of Beethoven's day. Similarly, the classical composers sometimes would write passages in which a lower violin line accompanies a higher piano line in parallel; this was a reasonable thing to do at a time when piano tone was more penetrating than violin tone; today it is the reverse.
Current performance practice is a mix. A few pianists simply ignore the problem; others modify their playing style to help compensate for the difference in instruments, for example by using less pedal. Finally, participants in the authentic performance movement have constructed new copies of the old instruments and used them in performance; this has provided important new insights and interpretations of the music.
The modern piano
Types of piano
Modern pianos come in two basic configurations and several sizes: the grand piano and the upright piano.Grand pianos have the frame and strings placed horizontally, with the strings extending away from the keyboard. This avoids the problems inherent in an upright piano, but takes up a great deal of space. Several sizes of grand piano exist. Manufacturers vary, but as a rough guide we can distinguish the "concert grand": approx. 3m; the "grand": approx. 1.8m; and the "baby grand". All else being equal, longer pianos have better sound, so that full-size grands are almost always used for public concerts, whereas baby grands are only for domestic use where space and cost are crucial considerations.
Upright pianos are more compact due to the frame and strings being placed vertically, extending in both directions from the keyboard and hammers. The very best upright pianos are comparable in sound quality and responsiveness to grand pianos of the same size. The main difference to the pianist is that the action does not repeat as quickly because the repeating spring and lever used in grand pianos is not incorporated into the action of uprights.
In 1863, Henri Fourneaux invented the player piano, a kind of piano which "plays itself" without the need for a pianist. Also in the 19th century, toy pianos began to be manufactured.
A relatively recent development is the prepared piano, which is a piano adapted in some way by placing objects inside the instrument, or changing its mechanism in some way. Doing this changes the timbre of the note struck, which makes the prepared piano sound more like a gamelan than a traditional piano. John Cage is famous for modifying the piano in different ways to suit the music he wrote.
Since 1990's digital pianos have become available, which digitize the sound of each piano note. Digital pianos have become quite sophisticated, with standard pedals, multiple voices, MIDI interfaces, and so on. However, with current technology, it remains difficult to duplicate a crucial aspect of acoustic pianos, namely that when the damper pedal (see below) is depressed, the strings not struck vibrate sympathetically with the struck strings. Since this sympathetic vibration is considered central to a beautiful piano tone, early digital pianos were not capable of competing with quality acoustic pianos in tone quality. However, more recent high-end digital pianos can simulate sympathetic vibration using physical modelling of strings, although the stereo output of digital pianos cannot yet duplicate the complex sound field of a real piano.
Keyboard and pedals
Almost every modern piano has 88 keys (seven octaves and a bit, A to C). Many older pianos only have 85 (from A to A), while some manufacturers extend the range further in one or both directions. The most notable example of an extended range can be found on Bösendorfer pianos, some of which extend the normal range downwards to F, with others going as far as a bottom C, making a full eight octave range. On some models these extra keys are hidden under a small hinged lid, which can be flipped down to cover the keys and avoid visual disorientation in a pianist unfamiliar with the extended keyboard. The extra keys are added primarily for increased resonance; that is, they vibrate sympathetically with other strings whenever the damper pedal is depressed. Only a very small number of works composed for piano actually use these notes.For the arrangement of the keys on a piano keyboard, see Musical keyboard. This arrangement was inherited from the harpsichord without change, with the trivial exception of the color scheme (white for naturals and black for sharps) which became standard for pianos in the late 18th century.
Pianos have had pedals, or some close equivalent, since the earliest days. (In the 18th century, some pianos used levers pressed upward by the player's knee instead of pedals.) The three pedals that have become more or less standard on the modern piano are the following.
The damper pedal is often simply called "the pedal," since it is the most important. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. Every note on the piano except for (approximately ) the top two octaves is equipped with a damper, which is a padded device that prevents the strings from vibrating. The damper is raised off the strings of its note whenever the key for that note is pressed. When the damper pedal is pressed, all the dampers on the piano are lifted at once, so that every string can vibrate. This serves two purposes. First, it permits notes to be connected (i.e., played legato) when there is no fingering that would make this possible. More important, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whatever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the tone.
Piano music starting with Chopin tends to be heavily pedaled, as a means of achieving a singing tone. In contrast, the damper pedal was used only sparingly by the composers of the 18th century, including Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven; in that era, pedaling was considered primarily as a special coloristic effect.
The soft pedal or "una corda" pedal is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. On a grand piano, this pedal shifts the action to one side slightly, so that hammers that normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and also modifies its tone quality. For notation of the soft pedal in printed music, see Italian musical terms.
The soft pedal was invented by Cristofori and thus appeared on the very earliest pianos. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the soft pedal was more effective than today, since it was possible at that time to use it to strike three, two or even just one string per note—this is the origin of the name "una corda", Italian for "one string". In modern pianos, the strings are spaced too closely to permit a true "una corda" effect—if shifted far enough to strike just one string on one note, the hammers would also strike the string of the next note over.
On upright pianos, the soft pedal is replaced by a mechanism for moving the hammers' resting position closer to the strings. This reduces volume, but does not change tone quality as a true "una corda" pedal does.
The sostenuto pedal or "middle pedal" maintains in the raised position any damper that was raised at the moment the pedal was depressed. It makes it possible to sustain a note while the player's hands have moved on to play other notes, which can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other tricky situations. The sostenuto pedal was the last of the three pedals to be added to the standard piano, and to this day many cheap pianos—and even a number of very fine ones—do not have a sostenuto pedal. A number of twentieth-century works call for the use of this pedal.
The materials of the piano
Many parts of a piano are made of materials selected for extreme sturdiness. The outer rim of the piano, is made (in quality pianos) of a hardwood, normally maple or beech. According to Harold A. Conklin, the purpose of a sturdy rim is so that "the vibrational energy will stay as much as possible in the soundboard instead of dissipating uselessly in the case parts, which are inefficient radiators of sound." The rim is normally made by laminating flexible strips of hardword to the desired shape, a system that was developed by Theodore Steinway in 1880.The thick wooden braces at the bottom (grands) or back (uprights) of the piano are not as acoustically important as the rim, and are often made of a softwood, even in top-quality pianos, in order to save weight.
The pinblock, which holds the tuning pins in place, is another area of the piano where toughness is important. It is made of hardwood, and generally is laminated (built of multiple layers) for additional strength and gripping power.
Piano strings, which must endure years of extreme tension and hard blows, are made of high quality steel. They are manufactured to vary as little as possible in diameter, since all deviations from uniformity introduce tonal distortion. The bass strings of a piano are made of a steel core wrapped with copper wire, to increase their flexibility. For the acoustic reasons behind this, see Piano acoustics.
The plate, or metal frame, of a piano is usually made of cast iron. It is advantageous for the plate to be quite massive. Since the strings are attached to the plate at one end, any vibrations transmitted to the plate will result in loss of energy to the desired (efficient) channel of sound transmission, namely the bridge and the soundboard. Some manufacturers now use cast steel in their plates, for greater strength. The casting of the plate is a delicate art, since the dimensions are crucial and the iron shrinks by about one percent during cooling. The inclusion in a piano of an extremely large piece of metal is potentially an esthetic handicap. Piano makers overcome this handicap by polishing, painting, and decorating the plate; often plates include the manufacturer's ornamental medallion and can be strikingly attractive.
The numerous parts of a piano action are generally hardwood or plastic. The choice between these two materials is controversial. Some varieties of plastic, incorporated into pianos in the 1950's and 1960's, were clearly disastrous, crystallizing and losing their strength after one or two decades of use. The Steinway firm once used Teflon, a plastic, for some action parts, but ultimately abandoned the experiment. It is possible that some type of plastic may ultimately come to dominate piano actions, but currently, hardwood predominates.
The part of the piano where materials probably matter more than anywhere else is the soundboard. In quality pianos this is made of solid spruce (that is, spruce boards glued together at their edges). Spruce is chosen for its high ratio of strength to weight. The best piano makers use close-grained, quarter-sawn, defect-free spruce, and make sure that it has been carefully dried over a long period of time before making it into soundboards. In cheap pianos, the soundboard is often laminated; i.e. made of plywood.
Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty, plastic is now universally used. The Yamaha firm innovated a plastic, since imitated by other makers, that mimics the feel of ivory on the player's fingers.
The requirement of structural strength, fulfilled with stout hardwood and thick metal, makes pianos heavy. Even a small upright can weigh 300 pounds (136 kg.), and the Steinway concert grand (Model D) weighs 990 pounds (480 kg). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs 1520 pounds (691 kg).
Care and maintenance of pianos
Pianos that are prized and appreciated by their owners are tuned regularly, roughly once every four to six months for domestic pianos, and always just before a performance in concert halls. The effect of being out of tune depends on degree. When a piano is only slightly out of tune, it loses the glowing tonal quality characteristic of a freshly-tuned piano, probably because strings slightly out of tune with one another have weaker sympathetic vibrations. Pianos that are more than slightly out of tune tend to be unpleasant to play and listen to, to an extent that varies with the ear of the listener.Pianos go out of tune primarily because of changes in humidity. Tuning can be made more stable by installing special equipment to regulate humidity, inside or underneath the piano. There is no evidence that being out of tune actually harms the piano itself.
The felt hammers of the piano tend to harden over time. They also form grooves at the points of contact with the strings. Harder hammers produce a brighter tone quality, which may ultimately become undesirable. Piano technicians can soften hammers using special tools. They also sometimes use special solvents that can harden a hammer. In either case, an important goal is uniform tone quality across the piano, since the hammers are not used with equal frequency and therefore tend to wear unevenly. The process of altering the hardness of piano hammers is called voicing. Voicing image.
Over time, the action of a piano tends to alter in its function, and a skilled technician can restore it to its original level of precision, in a process called regulation. Indeed, many pianos are not perfectly regulated when released from the factory, and benefit from regulation in the store or—if necessary—after purchase. Regulation image.
Pianos are furniture, and in this role they benefit from cleaning and polishing, done carefully to avoid introduction of any fluids into the piano's interior. For many piano finishes, dust removal is better done with a feather duster than a cloth, which minimizes the abrasive effect of the dust.
Pianos have a limited lifetime, usually measured in decades. However, in some decrepit pianos, the soundboard, frame, and often at least some of the action remain in good condition, and piano restorers are able to prepare very fine pianos by replacing a large fraction of its parts. These include the strings, pinblock, bridges, soundboard ribs, hammers, and many parts of the action. Restoration is generally worth doing only if the original piano was of high quality.
Resources
Other Wikipedia articles about the piano:
External links:
- Innovations in the Piano
- Piano acoustics
- Social history of the piano
- Player piano
Books:
- http://www.ashburnham.org/Frederickcollection/index.htm. The Frederick Historical Piano Collection; images and discussion.
- http://www.pianosonline.co.uk. Pianos Online--history, technical information, reviews.
- http://www.ptg.org/tech.htm. Technical information page, Piano Technicians Guild
- http://www.steinway.com/technical/caring.shtml. "Caring for your Steinway," from Steinway and Sons
- http://www.schimmel-piano.de/e/guter-rat.html. Maintenance advice from the Schimmel piano company]]
- An essay on soundboards by piano designer Delwin Fandrich
- The Piano Book by Larry Fine (4th ed. Jamaica Plain, MA: Brookside Press, 2001; ISBN 1-929145-01-2) gives the basics of how pianos work, and a thorough evaluative survey of current pianos and their manufacturers. It also includes advice on buying and owning pianos.
- The pianist's guide to pedaling by Joseph Banowetz (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1985) offers a history of the three piano pedals and covers the wide variety of ways in which they are used by professional pianists.
Other
The piano is a crucial instrument in the tradition of Western classical music. Most composers have also been pianists, and have frequently used the piano as a tool for composition. The piano is also very important to jazz, as well as to various forms of popular music.A person who plays a piano is known as a pianist.
Piano is also a dynamic direction in music, often appearing in sheet music as p, and indicating to the performer that he should play softly. It is the opposite of forte, meaning "loudly".
The Piano is also a 1993 film starring Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Piano."
Synonyms: PianoSynonyms: soft (adj), softly (adv), forte-piano (n), pianissimo (n), pianoforte (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: forte (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Moderation | Adverb: moderately; Adjective: gingerly; piano; under easy sail, at half speed; within bounds, within compass; in reason. |
Slowness | Adverb: slowly; Adjective: leisurely; piano, adagio; largo, larghetto; at half speed, under easy sail; at a foots pace, at a snail's pace, at a funeral pace; in slow time, with mincing steps, with clipped wings; haud passibus aequis. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Piano |
| English words defined with "piano": baby grand piano ♦ concert piano ♦ grand piano ♦ mechanical piano ♦ parlor grand piano, parlour grand piano, piano damper, piano lesson, piano music, piano player, piano sonata, piano stool, piano teacher, player piano ♦ upright piano. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "piano": adjuster, piano action, ASSEMBLER, PIANO ♦ CHIP TUNER, cochlear canal, counselor, orientation and mobility ♦ FABRICATOR, SHOWER DOORS AND PANELS ♦ Hymn Tunes ♦ instructor of blind ♦ LISZT ♦ M.I.T. sampler, maiden, membranous cochlear canal ♦ New beginner ♦ ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY THERAPIST FOR THE BLIND, orientation therapist for blind, orientor ♦ P., P.P., P.P.P, Performers, PIANO REGULATOR-INSPECTOR, piano wire screen, PLAYER-PIANO TECHNICIAN ♦ therapist for blin, tonal regulator, TONE REGULATOR, troll line, trolling line. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "piano": Pianino. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Piano" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (piano), Albanian (baby grand, grand piano, pianino, piano, pianoforte), Basque (piano), Czech (piano, pianoforte), Dutch (piano), Esperanto (piano), Finnish (piano), French (gently, piano), German (piano), Hawaiian (piano), Hungarian (piano), Italian (arrangement, deck, design, even, flat, floor, gently, in a low voice, level, level land, map, piano, plain, plan, plane, plot, project, schedule, scheme, shallow, slow, smooth, storey, story, tabulate, tier), Norwegian (piano), Occitan (piano), Papiamen (piano), Portuguese (piano, pianoforte, pianoforte organ), Romanian (piano), Spanish (piano), Swedish (piano, upright), Welsh (piano). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You've ruined that piano! (The Pink Panther Strikes Again; writing credit: Blake Edwards and Frank Waldman.) Yes, but my father was a piano mover (Groundhog Day; writing credit: Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin) There comes a time that a piano realizes that it has not written a concerto (All About Eve; writing credit: Joseph L. Mankiewicz) Drunk piano player (Tombstone; writing credit: Kevin Jarre.) Okay, when you look at a piano you see Mozart, right (Good Will Hunting; writing credit: Matt Damon; Ben Affleck) | |
Lyrics | And the piano sounds like a carnival ("Piano Man"; performing artist: Billy Joel) Sing us a song, you're the piano man ("Piano Man"; performing artist: Billy Joel) Available on the album Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player (Daniel; performing artist: Elton John) Piano man he makes his stand (Tiny Dancer; performing artist: Elton John) Over my shoulder a piano falls (The Great Beyond; performing artist: R.E.M.) | |
Clever | I am not an organ donor, but I once gave an old piano to the Salvation Army. (references; author: unknown) Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a racecar is not called a racist? (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Piano Player (2002) O Piano (1973) Los que tocan el piano (1968) So You Want to Play the Piano (1956) The First Piano Quartette (1954) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Pictured is a family group of a father, mother and eight children around a piano. One of the younger women is playing the piano and the others are following the music and singing. They raise their hands while singing. It appears to be a family room home setting. These people are a Mormon family. They are presently being studied for their low cancer death rate. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |  | Sigsbee Sounding Machine - invented by Charles D. Sigsbee First efficient piano wire sounding instrument Basic design of ocean sounding instruments stayed the same for the next 50 years Here the sounding machine is used to set Pillsbury current meter at known depth. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Thomson piano wire sounding machine as mounted on USS TUSCARORA This machine was invented by Sir William Thomson, a.k.a. Lord Kelvin Made use of heavy weight and piano wire - line paid out until weight hit bottom This machine revolutionized deepsea sounding Variations would be used for over 50 years. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Caption: Edison Listening to Helen Davis Singing, Victor Young at the Piano, in the Music Room of Bldg. 5; West Orange, NJ; 1912; {14.225/137} (jpg). |
 | African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Interior view of room showing furniture, piano, and chandelier. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Woman giving little boy piano lesson. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Didn't you buy the piano player on the installment plan?. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | People at a party gathered around Fats Waller at the piano. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Jörg Demus, half-length portrait, facing front, standing next to piano on stage. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Piano Keys" by Kim Groves Commentary: "Our old piano." | "Piano" by Laura Giraudo Commentary: "El piano de mi casa, donde improvisamos jazz y no nos sale nada lindo (mentira)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | A solo piano piece typical of a mid Beethoven piano style. | | A new age style excerpt featuring a digital bass, percussion, and piano. |
| A boogie woogie piano style. | | Brahm's "Lullaby" played on piano. |
| Piano chords, steel drums, and rhythmic ostinato percussion. . | | A very Mozart-sounding piano excerpt. |
| Piano and saxophone unison minor melody in a jazz shuttle style. | | Contrapuntal piano work typical of a C. PE Bach style. |
| Very quick supporting melody and repetitive piano melody with environmental sounds. | | Highly contrapuntal work for piano. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | He returned to the piano, but the song had vanished |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | From another window open to the air came the sound of a piano, scale after scale rising into the treble |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Other activities that may aggravate the phenomenon are regular typing and piano playing. (references) | |
For example, genes ensure that we have two hands and can use them to do things, like play the piano. (references) | ||
Impaired movements of the fingers may appear as though the patient is playing an invisible guitar or piano. (references) | ||
Business | Mainly European architects such as Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Jan Nouvelle, Ove Arup, Paul Andrew, and Renzo Piano are competing with U.S. architects. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | MAIDEN, n. A young person of the unfair sex addicted to clewless conduct and views that madden to crime. The genus has a wide geographical distribution, being found wherever sought and deplored wherever found. The maiden is not altogether unpleasing to the eye, nor (without her piano and her views) insupportable to the ear, though in respect to comeliness distinctly inferior to the rainbow, and, with regard to the part of her that is audible, bleating out of the field by the canary -- which, also, is more portable. A lovelorn maiden she sat and sang -- This quaint, sweet song sang she; "It's O for a youth with a football bang And a muscle fair to see! The Captain he Of a team to be! On the gridiron he shall shine, A monarch by right divine, And never to roast on it -- me!" Opoline Jones |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Barry Manilow | I'm a writer who sings. That's great. Although I have made quite a career as a performer, and I think I have gotten better at it, but I was never really comfortable doing it. I'm still comfortable behind the piano as a musician. |
Dennis Miller | We want police chases, mudslides, and world leaders caught on tape having sex with their daughter's piano teacher. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Piano" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.85% of the time. "Piano" is used about 1,950 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.85% | 1,947 | 4,408 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.1% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Adverb (general) | 0.05% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,950 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "piano" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Piano | Last name | 400 | 20,615 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Country | Name |
| USA | Baldwin Piano & Organ Company |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "piano": baby grand piano ♦ concert piano ♦ cottage piano ♦ Dumb piano ♦ grand piano ♦ mechanical piano ♦ overstrung piano ♦ parlor grand piano ♦ parlour grand piano ♦ piano accordion ♦ piano action ♦ piano damper ♦ piano hinge ♦ piano key ♦ piano keyboard ♦ piano lesson ♦ piano lines ♦ piano maker ♦ piano music ♦ piano organ ♦ piano player ♦ piano players'cramp ♦ piano playing ♦ piano solo ♦ piano sonata ♦ piano stool ♦ piano teacher ♦ piano tuner ♦ piano wire ♦ play the piano ♦ player piano ♦ playing the piano ♦ pound the piano ♦ prepared piano ♦ set a piano ♦ Square piano ♦ upright piano. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "piano": piano-accompanied, piano-accordion, piano-'come, piano-driven, piano-duet, piano-harpsichord, piano-key, piano-led, piano-legs, piano-like, piano-maker, piano-move, piano-player, piano-playing, piano-sized, piano-sound, piano-stool, piano-string, piano-technique, piano-tuner, piano-type, piano-vocal, piano-wire. | |
Ending with "piano": two-piano. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
piano | 6,147 | steinway piano | 223 |
piano music | 2,474 | piano bench | 217 |
piano sheet music | 2,389 | baldwin piano | 217 |
free piano sheet music | 1,459 | piano picture | 207 |
piano lesson | 1,026 | learn to play the piano | 204 |
piano tab | 754 | piano for sale | 190 |
piano chord | 640 | mp3 music piano | 184 |
digital piano | 585 | piano solo music | 184 |
yamaha piano | 569 | upright piano | 179 |
flash in piano play | 486 | antique piano | 179 |
grand piano | 459 | piano mover | 178 |
free piano music | 449 | piano key | 176 |
piano note | 370 | piano man | 173 |
play piano | 334 | virtual piano | 163 |
used piano | 333 | piano lamp | 159 |
jazz piano | 330 | the piano | 159 |
piano keyboard | 296 | kawai piano | 148 |
baby grand piano | 292 | piano song | 146 |
piano player | 238 | piano teacher | 146 |
free piano lesson | 229 | yamaha digital piano | 142 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "piano"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | piano, klavier. (various references) | |
Albanian | piano (baby grand, grand piano, pianino, pianoforte). (various references) | |
Arabic | رقيق (aerial, affectionate, airy, angelic, bland, bleeding heart, dainty, delicate, feminine, filmy, fine, flimsy, fluffy, fragile, frothy, gauzy, gentle, gingerly, gossamery, gracious, hearty, kind hearted, kindly, lovely, mellow, mincing, nice, orchidaceous, pastel, photogenic, quiet, refined, romance, sharp, sloppy, smooth, soft-hearted, suave, subtle, sugary, superfine, tender, tenuous, thin, thinning, tilery, trick, warm, watery), بيانو (pianoforte), بيانة, بيان (bulletin, catalogue, declaration, diction, handout, insertion, list, notice, notification, proclamation, program, programme, pronouncement, report, representation, rhetoric, statement), برقة (airily, gently, nicely, politely). (various references) | |
Basque | piano. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | тихо (hist, hush, inwardly, low, mum, quiet, quietly, silently, soft, sotto voce, soundlessly, stilly), тих пасаж, бавно (deliberately, leisurely, slow, slowly), пиано (pianoforte, upright). (various references) | |
Chamorro | pianu. (various references) | |
Chinese | 鋼琴 , 钢琴. (various references) | |
Czech | klavír. (various references) | |
Danish | klaver. (various references) | |
Dutch | piano, klavier (keyboard). (various references) | |
Esperanto | piano. (various references) | |
Farsi | پیانو(مو.), قطعه موسیقی اهسته وارام , ارام بنوازید. (various references) | |
Finnish | piano. (various references) | |
French | piano. (various references) | |
German | Klavier (pianoforte, upright, upright piano). (various references) | |
Greek | πιάνο (pianoforte). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | piano. (various references) | |
Hebrew | פיאנו, פסנתר (pianoforte). (various references) | |
Hungarian | zongora (pianoforte), halkan (below one's breath, inaudibly, low, pianissimo, soft, sotto voce, sotto-voce, stilly, under one's breath), piano. (various references) | |
Italian | pianoforte (pianoforte). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ビル風 (binding, bingo, eddies of wind around high buildings, foot fastening, green pepper, pea coat, pea jacket, peace, peach, peacock, peahen, peak, peanut, peanut butter, peanuts, peas, peek, peep show, Peeping Tom, people, people's capitalism, Peter Pan syndrome, Piaget, pianica, pianist, piano and harmonica, piazza, piece, piecework, piercer, pimento, PR, public relations, Russian food, velvet, village, vintage, vintage year), 洋琴 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ピアノ , ようきん (public money). (various references) | |
Korean | 피아노. (various references) | |
Manx | pianney, feagh (at rest, calm, composed, docile, quiet, restful, still). (various references) | |
Maori | piana. (various references) | |
Norwegian | piano. (various references) | |
Occitan | piano. (various references) | |
Papago | e thagtpagtham. (various references) | |
Papiamen | piano. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ianopay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | piano (pianoforte, pianoforte organ). (various references) | |
Romanian | pianoforte (pianoforte), piano, pian (pianoforte). (various references) | |
Russian | рояль (box of dominoes, grand piano), фортепьяно, фортепиано (pianoforte), пиано, пианино (pianino, spinet, spinets, upright piano). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | klavir (pianoforte organ). (various references) | |
Shona | mbira (Shona piano). (various references) | |
Spanish | piano. (various references) | |
Swedish | piano (upright). (various references) | |
Tagalog | piyáno. (various references) | |
Turkish | piyano (baby grand, pianoforte), píyano, hafif sesle, hafif (airy, blancmange, cushy, digestible, distant, dulcet, easy of digestion, feeble, feint, frail, frivolous, lenient, light, lightly, lightweight, loose, mild, slight, small, soft, subdued, tenuous, unsound, unsubstantial, weak, wishy washy). (various references) | |
Turkmen | pianino (r). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | рояль (grand, pianoforte), фортепіано (pianoforte), піано. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | pianô máy (piano organ). (various references) | |
Welsh | piano. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "piano": pianoforte, pianofortes, pianos. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "piano": fortepiano. (additional references) | |
Words containing "piano": fortepianos. (additional references) | |
| |
"Piano" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bifano, Bisagno, epano, Ifano, liano, mijanou, pagano, Paiawon, paido, pailo, paina, paine, paino, Panau, pano, Panor, Panozo, paon, Parayno, Peabo, peana, peano, peno, penow, Pesando, piaco, pian, piana, pianer, piani, piank, Pianna, pianola, Pianovka, pians, piant, pianto, pianure, piazo, picanor, Picauo, Pigato, pilao, piman, pinan, pino, pirano, Pisani, pisano, Pranon, pribnow, pxana, pyan, Pyanj, Pyankov, pyion, Riano, Tiano. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "piano" (pronounced pēa"nō or pēa"nu) |
| 3 | -a" n u | Anna, arcana, banana, bandana, cabana, dulciana, grana, Kana, Lantana, manna, nana, savanna, savannah. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-i-n-o-p" | |
-1 letter: naoi, nipa, pain, pian, pina, pion. | |
-2 letters: ain, ani, ion, nap, nip, pan, pia, pin, poi. | |
-3 letters: ai, an, in, na, no, on, op, pa, pi. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-i-n-o-p" | |
+1 letter: anopia, pianos. | |
+2 letters: anopias, anopsia, antipot, aphonia, aphonic, apnoeic, appoint, atropin, campion, caption, dipnoan, epinaoi, epinaos, lampion, maintop, nonpaid, opaline, oppidan, opuntia, paction, padroni, paisano, passion, pignora, pintado, pintano, pogonia, poniard, ptomain, rampion, saponin, senopia, sinopia, soaping, soprani, tampion, timpano, utopian. | |
+3 letters: adaption, adopting, adoption, anoopsia, anopsias, antiphon, antipode, antipole, antipope, antiporn, anviltop, aphelion, aphonias, aphonics, apocrine, appoints, apposing, aproning, atropine, atropins, campions, canopied, canopies, caponier, caponize, captions, champion, coapting, complain, diapason, diaphone, diaphony, dipnoans, dopamine, galoping, hyponoia, isopodan, japonica, lampions, maintops, napiform, oedipean, opalines, opaquing, ophidian, opiating, oppidans, oppilant, optician, optional, opuntias, outpaint, pachinko, pactions, paisanos, palimony, palinode, palomino, panbroil, pangolin, panoptic, papillon, paranoia, paranoic, paranoid, paroling, parsonic, parvolin, passions, pavilion, pavillon, pavonine, pelorian, peponida, phelonia, picaroon, pignolia, pinafore, pintados, pintanos, pivotman, platonic, poaching, pogonias, poignant, pointman, polkaing, pollinia, pomading, poniards, ponytail, popinjay, potation, procaine, prochain, prolamin, protamin, ptomaine, ptomains, pupation, pyranoid, raindrop, rampions, saponify, saponine, saponins, saponite, satinpod, senopias, sinopias, siphonal, spondaic, talapoin, tampions, topazine, unipolar, utopians, vaporing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Names: Frequency 15. Names: Company Usage 16. Expressions | 17. Expressions: Internet 18. Translations: Modern 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
