Excerpt from The Evolution of Pianoforte Actions and Pianoforte Technic, With Reference to Dynamics: Thesis
All of the great composers have written for the pianoforte with a full conviction that although it has certain drawbacks, it has on the other hand advantages which make it the composer’s ih Strument and the center of music making everywhere.
The invention of the piano, speaking in the general sense, is not to be ascribed to any one person; the instrument as we know it now, represents a growth. The germ undoubtedly existed in the monochord which was used by the Greeks, especially for the purpose of measuring intervals.
The earliest form of stringed instrument with a keyboard was the virginal, which was very popular in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was of small dimensions, about three feet long, a little more than a foot in breadth and from eight in ches to a foot in depth. It was light enough to be carried easily by one person and was placed on a table when in use.
The first improvement was the spinet which was considerably larger. The virginals and spinets had usually a compass of four octaves with one thin string, generally of brass, to each key.
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