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The tangent piano is a very rare keyboard instrument
Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organ s as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic musical instrument....
 that resembles a harpsichord
Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
 and early 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....
s in design. It normally features five octave
Octave

In music, an octave The octave is occasionally referred to as a diapason.The octave above an indicated note is sometimes abbreviated 8va, and the octave below 8vb....
s of keys and the strings
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
 are acted upon by narrow wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
en or metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
 slips when the keys are depressed.

440, Arnault de Zwolle
Arnault de Zwolle

Henri Arnaut de Zwolle was employed as a physician, astronomer, astrologer, and organist to Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. He is best known for a treatise on musical instruments....
 described what is believed to be the first keyboard instrument which used a tangent action
Tangent (tangent piano)

A tangent, when referred to in the context of the Action of a tangent piano refers to the small slip of wood similar in shape to a harpsichord jack or similar to an unleathered fortepiano hammer which strikes the string to produce sound....
. It is speculated that this was a clavichord
Clavichord

The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval music, through the Renaissance music, Baroque music and Classical music era eras....
 or harpsichord
Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
. Pantaleon Hebenstreit is credited with the creation in 1705 of the first tangent piano.






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Encyclopedia


The tangent piano is a very rare keyboard instrument
Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organ s as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic musical instrument....
 that resembles a harpsichord
Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
 and early 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....
s in design. It normally features five octave
Octave

In music, an octave The octave is occasionally referred to as a diapason.The octave above an indicated note is sometimes abbreviated 8va, and the octave below 8vb....
s of keys and the strings
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
 are acted upon by narrow wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
en or metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
 slips when the keys are depressed.

History

In 1440, Arnault de Zwolle
Arnault de Zwolle

Henri Arnaut de Zwolle was employed as a physician, astronomer, astrologer, and organist to Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. He is best known for a treatise on musical instruments....
 described what is believed to be the first keyboard instrument which used a tangent action
Tangent (tangent piano)

A tangent, when referred to in the context of the Action of a tangent piano refers to the small slip of wood similar in shape to a harpsichord jack or similar to an unleathered fortepiano hammer which strikes the string to produce sound....
. It is speculated that this was a clavichord
Clavichord

The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval music, through the Renaissance music, Baroque music and Classical music era eras....
 or harpsichord
Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
. Pantaleon Hebenstreit is credited with the creation in 1705 of the first tangent piano. Christoph Gottlieb Schroter claimed that he invented the new tangent piano by letting blank harpsichord jacks hit the strings, also incorporating dampers
Sustain pedal

A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal is the most commonly used piano pedals in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals....
 into the action. A famous early piano maker, Gottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann

Gottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organ s, and pianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two....
, was making 'pantaleons
Pantalon

The pantalon was a large variation on the hammered dulcimer, invented by Pantaleon Hebenstreit in the early 18th century and briefly popular in France and Germany....
' by 1727. The Germans
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 gave another name to the pantaleon, the Tangentenflügel and the English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 'tangent piano.'

In 1777, Mozart referred to the tangent piano as the "Spattisches Klavier," after the maker of tangent pianos, Spath. Other names included the Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 cembalo angelico, and the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 clavecin harmonieux et celeste. This is all evidence that the tangent piano spread throughout Europe. By the earliest decade of the 19th century, Spath tangent pianos were sent all over the globe and given a wide 6 octave range, which enabled it to compete with the piano. At the same time, the fortepiano
Fortepiano

Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century....
 began to eclipse the harpsichord and clavichord as the keyboard instrument of choice.

The creation of the tangent piano, and the fortepiano, was a result of an attempt to remedy the lack of dynamics in harpsichord sound. Both the tangent piano and fortepiano offered a variety of sound that was appealing to the changes in classical music, which featured more expressiveness and intensity than the harpsichord could offer. The tangent piano had a short life in popularity, and dropped off somewhere in the late 1700s or early 1800s. The fortepiano, however, buried the harpsichord in popularity by 1800. It then slowly evolved to the massive modern iron-framed giant of 88 keys. The tangent piano's popularity lasted for such a short time, that very little music was written for it. It is possible that CPE Bach's keyboard concerti were written for this instrument or for the fortepiano. In either case, the tangent piano is an appropriate choice for the keyboard instrument in the concerti. In addition, other sons of the famous German composer JS Bach wrote pieces expressly for the tangent piano. Miklos Spanyi recently released a recording for them on the tangent piano ().

Mechanism


A tangent, when referred to in the context of the action of a tangent piano, refers to the small slip of bare wood similar in shape to a harpsichord jack or similar to an unleathered fortepiano hammer which strikes the string to produce sound.

It is similar to the tangent of a clavichord only in the sense that they both are driven ultimately by the player's finger to strike the string to initiate sound. In the tangent piano, the tangent immediately rebounds from the string so that the string is allowed to vibrate freely (that is, it has an escapement).

The instrument can have numerous stops to soften and sweeten the sound: una corda, moderator, harp. Also, a device which allows the performer to raise all the dampers (like the modern damper pedal), and another that will only raise the treble dampers (a typical feature on many early pianos). See Piano pedals
Piano pedals

Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano which change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal , the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining pedal ....
.

Tonal quality

The tangent piano has an unusual sound that fuses the qualities of the harpsichord and piano. The treble resembles the bright sound from a light action piano, and the bass resembles the bass from a harpsichord. The sound from instrument to instrument varies, as does one's personal description of the tangent piano's sound.