Evolution of the Piano

Emerald City Music is Olympia’s home for world-class classical music performances in an unstuffy environment.

This epic performance tells the tale of the world’s most loved and versatile instrument. Listeners will follow its physical evolution and the iconic music written at each stage of technological development: from the harpsichord through the forte-piano, contemporary piano, prepared-piano, and modern-day instruments like synthesizer. Early composers like Thomas Tallis (1505-1589) and Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) were defining masters of the instrument, inspiring the likes of Beethoven and Chopin to write more challenging and dynamic music as the technical ability of the piano developed during the Industrial Revolution. Pianos soon became progressively larger, louder, and with a wider range of octaves (five by the 1790s and seven by 1820). Enter John Cage, who for a time resided in Seattle creating music that again redefined the abilities of the acoustic piano by “preparing it” by placing objects in the instrument to alter the tonal ability. The evolution of modern-day technologies again reinvented the keyboard to infinitely expand the range of the instrument via the computer-aided synthesizer.