Show development OF THE PIANO x centuries of invention have been needed to bring it to present state of perfection have you ever thought when play ing some melodious sonata upon your piano that the instrument as it Is today la Is the perfection ot of centuries of invention 9 in the beginning it was a harp shaped piece t wood having two or three strings from time to time more strings were added until the cithara citara was invented this was an instrument in the shape of 0 a capital P with ten strings stretched the open space many centuries afterward musicians conceived the idea of stretching strings across an open box about the year 1200 this was done the dulcimer made its appearance and the strings were struck with hammers for another hundred years or so these hammers were held in the hands and then home genius invented a keyboard which being struck by the fingers caused the hammers to t strike the strings this was called 0 or keyed cithara thara cl and from time to time it was modified and improved 4 queen elizabeths time it was called a Nir virginal ginal and then a spinet because the hammers were covered with nith the spines of 0 quills which struck and caught the strings and produced the sound during the period between 1700 and asoo 1800 it was much improved and enlarged and was given the name of 0 harpsichord it was in 1710 that bartholomeo christofolo Christo foll an italian invented a keyboard similar to the one we have now which causes tho the hammers to strike the wires from above and thus developed the piano during the last century the inventive renius genius of musicians the world over has revised and improved it until it has reached the present day perfection fec tion |