I'll have to dig up some Chopin and some Prokofiev sometime. Of course, the piano is somewhat of a hybrid instrument, and therefore, it doesn't have to sound like its other percussive cousins. There are no surviving instruments like the piano that are percussive, too. There was the clavichord, which hammered metal bars, but it is not used today except in period music. Well, no, and that's because the harpischord *plucks* the strings. It's a very different sound. The harpischord also uses justified intonation rather than tempered, I believe; at least to the extent that it must be tuned specifically to the key you are playing in. You've got to know how to tune a harpischord before you play one extensively-- or such is my understanding. I wish I could remember what instrument bridged the gap soundwise between the archlute and the harpischord. I saw it on a site somewhere, and I can't remember where I found it. The celesta has also died with the times (it's a glassblown instrument that spins on a horizontal wheel, and you play it with moistened fingers), but I wonder-- what instrument classification does it fall under?
- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss