Upright grand piano

Upright grand piano term applied to a vertical piano having the string length of a (horizontal) grand piano, built in the 18th and early 19th c., the earliest form of *upright piano, set on a stand. The oldest surviving example is that of Domenico del Mela of Gagliano, Italy, dated 1739, housed in the Florence Conservatory. Its action is an adaptation of that of Bartolommeo Cristofori, with hammers striking from behind the strings. By 1825 the huge rectangles then being made began to be…