Paladino

[capitaljack]

Hello!

Paladino describes an instrument he has made in letters to the Duke of Modena, calling it "Pian e Forte." Although this instrument was capable of soft and loud, it is not clear if it is a type of harpsichord fitted with a device or a true hammered piano.

[Bill Kibby]

Information like this has very little value without details like dates, or places. The date was 1598, and it is well-documented, among several early uses of similar names before Cristofori, but there is nothing to suggest that these were pianos as we know them. Incidentally, "piano" doesn't mean soft, and "forte" doesn't mean loud!

[athomik]

Incidentally, "piano" doesn't mean soft, and "forte" doesn't mean loud!

Just to clarify, in music notation:

Piano p - Soft

Pianissimo pp - Very soft.

Pianississimo ppp - Very, very soft; the softest common dynamic marking.

Forte f- Loud.

Fortissimo ff- Very loud.

[Bill Kibby]

You are talking, quite rightly, about the normal, international, modern interpretation of the musical expressions. I am talking about the actual Italian meanings, as they would have been in 1598. PIANO is a plane or level, such as the decks on a ship, and in music it implies the normal level of sound. FORTE means strong, or powerful, implying a greater than normal level of sound. The effect is much the same, but it infers that soft is the norm, a concept which is alien to many modern musicians, who imagine that mixing is always a matter of turning something UP!

[athomik]

...but it infers that soft is the norm, a concept unknown to many modern musicians, who imagine that mixing is always a matter of turning something UP!