Upright piano

Upright piano (Fr.: piano droit, piano vertical; Ger.: Pianino), vertical piano, at first built like an upended grand piano (see: upright grand piano), later as a *pyramid piano, *giraffe p., *cabinet p., *cottage p. The tendency has been to build uprights less and less high, with an ever-increasing compromise in the scale, especially in that of the bass strings. The low vertical pianos of today are often called spinet pianos or consoles, both misnomers. In 1800, John Isaac Hawkins of…