Piano Question

[Dana]

      Does anyone know when the piano expanded to the current number of octaves? Did it start out with the same range that it has today?

[Dax]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano  may help. Or google "piano history" . . .

[Dana]

I wanted to give someone here the opportunity to show off their expertise though. And also, I didn't want to do the work (still don't! Hint... Hint...).

[Dax]

Nevertheless, you'll get further in life - and quicker - by doing such things for yourself!

[jochanaan]

Not to do your work for you, Dana , but you can partially trace the development of piano ranges by how wide a range various composers used...

[Dana]

Not to do your work for you, Dana , but you can partially trace the development of piano ranges by how wide a range various composers used...

      That's actually what raised the question in my mind - listening to Liszt's B-minor Sonata, and hearing a lower octave in the piano that I'd never heard before. Anyhoo, the only thing wikipedia or google says is that the range "gradually increased over time." Guess I'll ask one of my professors.

[(poco) Sforzando]

There is no one answer because manufacturers did not always build instruments with consistent ranges as you usually find today. Through the time of middle-period Beethoven, five octaves F-F was standard, and this is the range of works like the Appassionata Sonata in F minor. By his later period, however, Beethoven expects a 6-octave instrument that can go a fifth below and fourth higher, and this extends the bass range nearly to its present lowest A and is an octave below the upper C found today. Brahms expects the low A, and Liszt uses the lowest B in the Sonata. The upper range is harder to me to be sure of. It lacks richness, and there are no dampers above the very top E. Chopin uses the E above Beethoven's top C in the etudes, and Tchaikovsky uses the very top octave in his 1st concerto. But exactly when that upper octave became standard is not something I'm sure of.