or Forte Piano, is a musical instrument, which is too well known to require any detailed description. We shall here, however, notice some of its peculiarities. The voice, it has been observed, is the original musical instrument; of this all other instruments are to be considered but as imitations; and it is remarkable with what promptitude, as well as accuracy, the voice of man obeys the impulse of the heart. Even a coarse ear is hurt by an error in its tone, amounting to what is called a comma; and a limited voice can execute melodies which include 12 notes, or an octave and a fifth. Between these extremes the motion of the glottis does not amount to one twelfth of an inch, which must therefore be divided by the most ordinary singer into more than 1000 parts. All this too, without any seeming effort of thought, is done in an instant, and repeated with rapidity, without mistaking one of the divisions.

The great object in the construction of musical instruments is, to bring them as near as possible to express the sounds produced by the human voice; the violin, however, and a few of the simple wind instruments, are the only ones found fully to express those momentary gradations of sentiment, and those tender and delicate emotions with which the heart is agitated. For the purpose of removing this defect of harmonic instruments, the swell was added to the organ. Similar improvements were also attempted on other instruments of the same kind, and the same way. The harpsichord was shut up like the swell organ, and was opened by means of pedals, when the performer wished to enforce the sound. But as this was found not to succeed well, other methods were tried, and in particular unisons were added to each note, which were brought on, either by means of pedals, or by another set of keys; and in this way the power of the harpsichord was greatly improved. Among all the keyed instruments, the English piano forte seems to merit the preference, on account of the superior force of tone, adequate sweetness, and great variety of voice, of which, by the ingenuity of British artists, it has now become susceptible. It has been called a national instrument, because it is said to be an English contrivance, the invention of the celebrated poet, Mason. Mr Mason had seen some attempts that were made by the Germans to make keyed dulcimers, which were in some measure susceptible of the forte and piano; but as they were all constructed on one principle, and required a particular touch of the finger, which was of difficult acquisition, and which spoiled it for harpsichord practice; as they were also deficient in delicacy and justness; and as the performer was by no means certain of producing the very strength of sound intended, Mr Mason removed all those imperfections, by detaching the mallet entirely from the key, and giving them only a momentary connection. It is by this improvement that the English piano forte is distinguished from all others. Mr Mason's general principle may be fully understood by the following description. In the figure on Plate CCCCXVIII., the parts are represented in their state of inaction. The key ABK turns, as usual, on the round edge of the bar B, and a pin b, driven into the bar, keeps it in its place. The dot F represents a section of the string. ED is the mallet, having a hinge of vellum, by which it is attached to the upper surface of the bar E. At the other end is the head D, of wood, covered with some folds of prepared leather. The mallet lies in the position represented in the figure, its lower end resting on a cushion-bar K, which lies horizontally under the whole row of mallets. The key AR has a pin C, tipped with a bit of the softest cork or buckskin. This reaches to within \( \frac{1}{2} \)th of an inch of the shank of the mallet, but must not touch it. The distance E e is about \( \frac{1}{4} \)d or \( \frac{3}{4} \)th of the length of the shank. When the end A of the key is pressed down on the stuffing (two or three thicknesses of the most elastic woollen list) it raises the mallet, by means of the pin C, to the horizontal position E d, within \( \frac{1}{2} \)th or \( \frac{3}{4} \)th of an inch of the wire F; but it cannot be so much pressed down as to make the mallet touch the wire. At the same time that the key raises the mallet by means of the pin C, it also lifts off the damper G (a bit of sponge) from the wire. This damper is fixed on the end of a little wooden pin G g, connected with the lever g H, which has a vellum hinge at H. This motion of the damper is caused by the pin I, which is fixed into the key near to R. These pieces are so adjusted, that the first touch of the key lifts the damper, and, immediately after, the pin C acts on the shank of the mallet. As it acts so near to its centre of motion, it causes the head D to move briskly through a considerable arch D d. Being made extremely moveable, and very light, it is thus tossed beyond the horizontal position E d, and it strikes the wire F, which is now at liberty to vibrate up and down, by the previous removal of the damper G. Having made its stroke, the mallet falls down again, and rests on the soft substance on the pin C. It is of essential importance that this mallet be extremely light. Were it heavy, it would have so much force, after rebounding from the wire, that it would rebound from the pin C, and again strike the wire.

For it will be recollected, that the key is, at this time, down, and the pin C raised as high as possible, so that there is very little room for this rebound. Lessening the momentum of the mallet by making it very light, making the cushion at the top of the pin C very soft, and great precision in the shape and figure of all the parts, are the only securities against the disagreeable rattling which these rebounds would occasion. In respect to the solidity and precision of workmanship, the British instruments are unrivalled, and vast numbers of them have been sent to all parts of the continent.

As the blow of so light a mallet cannot bring much sound from a wire, it has always been found necessary to have two strings for each note. Another circumstance contributes to enfeeble the sound. The mechanism necessary for producing it makes it almost impossible to give any considerable extent to the belly or sound board of the instrument. There is seldom any more of it than what occupies the space between the tuning pins and the bridge. This is the more to be regretted, because the basses are commonly covered strings, that they may be of a moderate length. The bass notes are also of brass, which has a considerably lower tone than a steel wire of the same diameter and tension. Yet even this substitution for steel in the brass strings is not enough. The highest of them are much too slack, and the lowest ones must be loaded, to compensate for want of length. This greatly diminishes the fulness, and still more the mellowness and distinctness of the tone, and frequently makes the very lowest notes hardly appreciable. This inequality of tone about the middle of the instrument is somewhat diminished by constructing the instrument with two bridges; one for the steel, and the other for the brass wires. But still the bass notes are very much inferior to the treble.