Ye Olde Keyboards

This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from March 10, 2017. It can be found in our archives at  https://archive.org/details/pcast242

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This week’s dig through the Podcast Vault brings back a fairly recent montage that shares some keyboard concerti featuring “old keyboards”. As one of the most versatile musical instrument families, keyboards have amassed great importance and popularity. The keyboard allows a performer to play several notes at once and in close succession to one another, a feat that few other instruments can accomplish. Because nearly any composition can be played on a keyboard, whether it’s chordal harmonies, a single melody or a combination of the two, the keyboard has been utilized by nearly every major composer since the 16th century.

As I reported in the original post that accompanied this week’s encore montage, the first known keyboard instrument was the hydraulis, a type of pipe organ invented in the late 3rd century BCE in Ancient Greece. This type of organ disappeared after the fall of the Roman Empire in 5th century CE and it would be nearly a thousand years before another appeared. The first large installation pipe organ was developed in the 13th century, followed by the invention of the clavichord in 14th century France. The clavichord was the most prominent keyboard instrument until the appearance of the piano 400 years later, although very different from the piano we know today as it was smaller, lighter, and had a limited pitch range.

Leading up to the 20th century, keyboard instruments saw enormous growth with the development of the harpsichord and its relatives. Pipe organs were used predominately in churches, while the harmonium and harpsichord found a home in popular music until the advent of the modern piano in the 1900s.

Since keyboard instruments were first invented, there have been attempts to make them smaller and lighter while retaining sound quality. The invention of electricity made way for the electric piano in the 1920s, which was similar to the electric guitar in that it amplified the vibration of the strings through electricity. The electronic piano was first invented 50 years later and became the first keyboard instrument to simulate the timbre of a piano without the use of strings. While both were popular, they were quickly eclipsed by the digital piano and electronic synthesizer in the 1980s.

With the exception of Poulenc’s Concert Champêtre, the remainder of the proposed works are from the baroque and early classical period. As our bonus feature, I found another harpsichord piece by modern Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. I took this from a YouTube playlist entitled ”Harpsichord modern compositions”

I think you will (still) love this music too.