Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1908 — The Pianoforte. [ARTICLE]

The Pianoforte.

The planoforre-whs directly evolved from the clavichord and tflie harpsichord. In 1711 Sclplone Maffei gave a detailed aoeourit of the first four Instruments, which wefe built by Bartolommeo Crlstofori, named by him pianoforte, and exhibited in 1709. Marius In France exhibited harpsichords, with hammer action, In 1710; and Schroter In Germany claimed to have Invented the pianoforte between 1717 and 1721. Marius at first was generally credited with the Invention, for It was not until 1738, when Criatoforl’s Instruments bad become famous, that the Italian advanced hds claim, apd It was In 1703 that he brought forward the proof of his contention. Pianos of that period were shaped like the modern grand, thefirst square piano being built by Frelderlca, an organ bnllder of Saxony, in 1758. The first genuine upright was patented In England and the United States by John Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman, In 1800. —Scrap Book.