How the Piano Came to Be

A familiar keyboard instrument acquires a long and sometimes legendary ancestry in Ellye Howell Glover's illustrated account of piano history. She begins with stories of ancient stringed instruments, including the tale of Hermes finding musical possibilities in a tortoise shell. Her account moves through harps, psalteries and dulcimers to the clavichord, virginal, spinet and harpsichord, explaining how strings, keys and the means of sounding a note changed along the way.

The later discussion turns to early piano makers and the practical problems of hammer action, string vibration and the rebound of the hammers. Rival claims to invention sit beside details of surviving instruments and the piano's reception among musicians and critics. Glover combines mechanical explanation with anecdotes about performers, royal owners and manufacturers. Readers interested in the instruments behind older keyboard music can use this short history to picture their construction and understand the different sounds and playing possibilities she describes.