The Instruments

The pianoforte began to gain popularity in England during the 1760’s. Cristofori had been the first maker to use hammers to hit the strings as early as 1709. Since that day, the pianoforte developed and provided more variation of tone and greater volume than the harpsichord. Square pianos were the earliest to reach London, after the closure of Silbermann’s workshops in Freiburg had resulted in 12 workmen coming to London. One of these, Johannes Zumpe, worked for Tshudi before starting his own workshop. His square pianos were advertised in London from 1763 and J.C. Bach introduced a 5 Octave Zumpe pianoforte to the public in London in 1767. By 1777 John Broadwood, Robert Stodart and A. Backers had designed a piano in a harpsichord case. By 1778 Broadwood had become the leading manufacturer of harpsichords and was also experimenting with the new piano. Improvements to the piano continued to be patented. By 1784 Broadwood was making more pianos than harpsichords and in 1793 he made his last harpsichord.