Sébastien Érard was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano.
Sébastien Érard
Érard piano
1914 Érard upright piano made in London
Erard harp mechanism
The piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, through engagement of an action whose hammers strike strings. Most pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, representing each note of the chromatic scale as they repeat throughout the keyboard's span of seven and a quarter octaves. There are 52 white keys, known as “naturals”, and 36 black keys, known as “sharps”. The naturals repeat a pattern of whole steps and half steps unique to any given starting note. These patterns define a diatonic scale. The 36 sharps repeat a pattern of whole steps and minor thirds, which defines a pentatonic scale.
Image: Steinway Vienna 002
Image: Piano droit Weinbach (2)
Image: Piano Range
The 1726 Cristofori piano in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Leipzig