Cross-stringing

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Cross-stringing

Cross-stringing (sometimes called overstringing) is a method of arranging piano strings inside the case of a piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
so that the strings are placed in a vertically overlapping slanted arrangement, with two heights of bridge

Bridge (instrument)

A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air....
s on the soundboard instead of just one. This permits larger, but not necessarily longer, strings to fit within the case of the piano. The invention of cross-stringing in the 1820s is variously credited to Alphaeus Babcock and Jean-Henri Pape

Jean-Henri Pape

Jean-Henri Pape was a distinguished France piano maker in the early 19th century.Pape was born in Sarstedt in 1787. He arrived in Paris in 1811 and secured employment with Ignaz Pleyel, whose piano workshops he directed for several years....
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Encyclopedia

Cross-stringing (sometimes called overstringing) is a method of arranging piano strings inside the case of a piano

Piano

Bridge (instrument)

Jean-Henri Pape

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
was by Henry Steinway Jr.

Henry E. Steinway

Henry E. Steinway was a Germany piano manufacturer and the founder of Steinway & Sons.Steinway was born Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg in Wolfshagen im Harz, Germany, and had a hard and poor childhood, because by the age of 15, his mother, father, and all of his siblings were dead from disease and tragedy....
in 1859. In the late 19th century, cross-stringing gradually took the place of straight-stringing, in which all the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard and do not overlap.

The advantages of cross-stringing is that the case of the piano can be smaller, the bass strings can be longer and the placement of the bass strings is in the center of the piano case, where they receive more resonance than when placed at the side.

Cross-stringing is criticized by some as producing a "murky" sound. According to the pianist Gwendolyn Mok, "If you look inside your own piano, you will notice that the strings are all crossing each other. With the straight strung piano you get distinct registral differences--almost like listening to a choir where you have the bass, tenor, alto, and soprano voices. It is very clear and there is no blending or homogenizing of the sound."