Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A piano.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A musical instrument of the percussive group, the tones being produced by blows of hammers upon stretched strings, and the hammers being operated from a keyboard. ,
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music A lesser used term for the
piano (the musical instrument).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a keyboard instrument that is played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike tuned strings and produce sounds
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The earliest mention of the name pianoforte (_piano e forte_), applied to a musical instrument, has been recently discovered by Count Valdrighi in documents preserved in the Estense Library, at Modena.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 Various
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The question of a pianoforte is rather a troublesome one, as my room is too small to hold any but a cottage piano, and cottage pianos are not to be hired, for some reason or other, but can only be bought, and that for not less than two hundred pounds, and it really does not seem worth while to go to such a heavy expense in such a matter.
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A bust of Wagner stood in the corner, and on the wall behind the pianoforte was a large painting in sepia, dim, with strong lights and shadows.
The Black Cross Olive M. Briggs
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It is not easy to say which of his many compositions for the pianoforte are the most important.
Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers Paul Rosenfeld 1918
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It is a pity that you have not a Schanz pianoforte, which is much more favourable to expression; my idea is that you should make over your own still very tolerable piano to Fraulein Peperl, and get a new one for yourself.
Joseph Haydn Hadden, J Cuthbert 1902
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The pianoforte is the most universal musical instrument of the civilized world.
The Pianolist A Guide for Pianola Players Gustav Kobb�� 1887
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The keyed instrument, of which our pianoforte is the living representative, had found its keyboard and a practical method of eliciting tones, which, whatever their weakness, were at least better than those of the lute, the chitarrone, the psaltery or harp.
A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present 1874
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As an illustration of Schubert's cleverness in treating the pianoforte, which is already sufficiently evident in the dramatic accompaniments of his larger songs, before mentioned, attention is called to the
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The essential foundation of the pianoforte was the metal strings, necessitating hammers for inciting the vibrations, and affording in the superior solidity incident to metal support a firmness and susceptibility to development.
A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present 1874
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Few English gentlemen (if any) could accompany their own songs on the pianoforte in my youth, Ida; most of them then had a wise idea that the pianoforte was an instrument 'only fit for women,' and would have as soon thought of trying to learn to play upon it as of studying the spinning-wheel.
myth commented on the word pianoforte
Because piano just isn't long enough.
March 27, 2009