As a great lover of the sound of early pianos, I'd be interested to know if any like-minded souls could tell me exactly when and why the term "fortepiano" for the instrument came to be used. Was it just to differentiate it from the modern pianoforte, or was the term in usage in the 18th century? Paradoxically, I notice that the French sometimes employ the term "pianoforte" to denote the fortepiano! It's all very confusing, to me, at least.
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As I understand it both pianoforte and fortepiano derive from the name given by Cristofori to his invention: gravecembalo col piano e forte, (i.e. "harpsichord with soft and loud"). -
I suspect that like "Ploughman's Lunch" this is a term that we assume to be of long standing but which in fact turns out to of relatively recent usage.
Wiki says:
"The use of "fortepiano" to refer specifically to early pianos appears to be recent. Even the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary does not record this usage, noting only that "fortepiano" is "an early name of the pianoforte". During the age of the fortepiano, "fortepiano" and "pianoforte" were used interchangeably, as the OED's attestations show. English novelist Jane Austen, who lived in the age of the fortepiano, used "pianoforte" (also: "piano-forte", "piano forte") for the many occurrences of the instrument in her writings."Comment
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My 'old' [1980] New Grove merely says -
"Fortepiano - A term sometimes used today for the piano of the 18th and early 19th centuries in order to distinguish it from the 20th-century instrument. German writers sometimes use the term 'Hammerklavier' and 'Hammerflügel' for the same purpose."Comment
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MickyD. Melvyn Tan is bringing his own fortepiano to Forde Abbey in Dorset...and playing it of course! No idea how to get tickets, but you could try:
info@fordeabbey.co.uk
The concert venue at FA is a medieval hall (formerly part of a Cistercian monastery) and has fantastic acoustics. Many chamber music CDs have been produced there by leading recording labels. The whole place is worth a visit anyway.Comment
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Forgot to mention it's on Thursday 14th June at 7.30pmComment
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Subsidiary questions:
When was "square piano" first used for the smaller early domestic instrument?
And why is "fortepiano" only used nowadays to mean a "grand", not a "square"; whereas "piano" or "pianoforte" imples both grand and upright?Comment
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Thanks for all the contributions, folks. Seems like there is no one straight answer, but it is all the more fascinating for that!Comment
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A square piano is one that doesn't rock, man.
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Another, somewhat to my surprise, is the term "grandfather clock" for "long case clock".Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
Poughman's lunch does appear to be really rather recent - within 50 years - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman's_lunch
Sorry for the deviation.Comment
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.A square piano is one that doesn't rock, man
...whereas an upright oozes moral rectitude and the grand is just stuck up.
I've just realised I have a rather nicely produced 'coffee table' book about pianos with all sorts of lovely pics of weird and wonderful historic instruments (including a square by Adam Beyer dated 1777). It is called, unsurprisingly, 'Piano' and is written by David Crombie
ISBN 1-871547-99-7. It also has a pull-out of a modern concert Steinway showing all the gubbins.Comment
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