RTA 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: The Player Piano, Thomas Edison, Emile Berliner
9 Sep 2018
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Document Summary
To call the rudimentary humming of neanderthals technology is a bit generous, but nonetheless, this was the first form of music. Prior to the invention of musical notation in 250 bce, music was a form purely repeated by those who knew the tune. Modern notation originated in the eighth century, and continued to evolve for a millennia. Though the transition to the mainstreaming of the piano was long, eventually the medium was a standard household item by the end of the nineteenth century. Due to the industrial revolution, printed sheet music was massively distributed, allowing for a musical pastime in the home. Piano distribution went through three main stages of growth, the first of which was the introduction of the pianista in 1863 by the french henri fourneux. This piano solved the issue of not having a pianist in the home, and instead, played itself to produce sound from encoded rolls of paper.
