Discussion
Keyboard instruments are instruments that have a row of keys that create sound when depressed. Each kind of keyboard instrument creates sound differently than the other. Pianos have keyboards that control small soft hammers that strike stretched metal strings. Harpsichords create sound by plucking stretched strings. Organs create sound by forcing air through differently sized tubes, with various stops to control the timbre and quality of the sounds. Celestas control steel bars that are struck by hammers.
Organs are the oldest of the keyboard instruments and have their beginnings in Ancient Greece. You can read more about it here, at Wikipedia's entry, which details the development over time of the organ. You can hear how the Hydraulis sounds, the original organ created in Ancient Greece. And here is another example of the Hydraulis. You can also watch a video about the oldest organ still playable, from about 600 years ago. Here is the Wanamaker Organ found in Philadelphia.
Organs bring up an interesting point about what constitutes an instrument. Many of the instruments we've discussed to this point require an amplification tool, something that resonates within an enclosed structure to create the sound vibrations. Could the entire building that houses an organ be considered an instrument? Would the type of building change the kind of resonant sound created an amplified from an organ or any instrument?
The Met Museum has a good entry on the creation of the fortepiano. You can see here what Bartolomeo Cristofori's first piano looked like. The Making of a Steinway Piano - We can see a glimpse of the process of creating a piano made by Steinway and Sons.
Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure
Lodovico Giustini: Sonata Op. 1 no. 1 for fortepiano - the first piece composed for the fortepiano in 1732.
Robertsbridge Codex - organ music from 1330.
Johann Staden (1581-1634), Toccata - organ music from late Renaissance.
Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata's K2, K213, K208 - Scarlatti composed 555 sonatas for the harpsichord. Yes five hundred fifty five.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Harpsichord Concerto No.1 in D Minor BWV 1052 - Bach composed a large number of pieces for the harpsichord.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor - on the large organ, the famous toccata and fugue from Bach. Oh, and he composed this when he was 17 years old.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 c Moll KV 491 - one of Mozart's later piano concertos on the early piano.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No.21, K.467 - the second movement is one of his most famous works.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No 11 in A - Major, K.331 - including the famous third movement nicknamed Rondo Alla Turka.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Well Tempered Klavier - this is the whole massive collection of Bach's Well Tempered Klavier, book I and book II.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations - this recording is from Glenn Gould in the 1950s that brought a newfound interest in the compositions of Bach. This recording is from the vinyl.
Joseph Haydn: Piano Sonata E flat major Hob XVI:52 No. 62 - from the late 18th century.
Discussion
When discussing modern keyboards, I mean music created for keyboards in the equal temperament era--from Bach's day--through today. A lot of the examples are 18th, 19th, and 20th century compositions for piano, but I'll also discuss a little bit of the electric pianos we've created over the last 50 years that have produced quite a variety of different sounds. The earliest pianos of the early 18th century only had ranges of about five octaves. So you'll find in music from Bach and Mozart that they don't go much lower than the bottom of the bass clef in the piano stave. By Beethoven's time, the piano has the 88 keys we're accustomed with. This allowed far greater depth and variety to the compositions of the Romantic era.
The 19th century saw a diversity of new pianos, including the toy piano. And the 20th century gave us prepared pianos and electric and digital pianos. Electric pianos do not have soundboards, which are the amplification tools for the strings being struck by the hammers. For electric pianos, the sound is amplified through electromagnetic pickups and an amp, very similar to electric guitars. Digital pianos, on the other hand, have no strings, and the sound is synthesized. These came into being in the 1970s and were used quite frequently in rock and roll as well as in some classical.
Sharing music for this section is going to be terribly difficult as there is so much fantastic piano music from 1800 to today.
Highly Worthy Music for Your Listening and Research Pleasure
Daniel Nicolae Dubei: Perchance to Dream...What Dreams May Come - my recent composition for piano.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique" - performed here on a piano from Beethoven's day so you can hear what he heard, when he could hear.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Quasi una fantasia, Op. 27, No. 2 - Beethoven's famous "Moonlight Sonata". The first movement is the well known lament, breaking with tradition that the first movement is fast.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in Eb major, Op. 73 - an amazing composition!
Franz Schubert: Erlkönig - the early 19th century saw a rise in art songs. I'll add this here as well as later in the discussion about voice. Schubert gives the pianist quite a lot to work with.
Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 21 in Bb major, D960 - one of Schubert's last sonatas, around 40 minutes in length.
Maria Szymanowska: Nocturne in B flat Major - beautiful music from Polish composer, Szymanowska.
Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn: Piano Sonata in G minor - beautiful piano sonata.
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 - Schumann's great piano concerto.
Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 - Schumann's "scenes from a childhood" music.
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 - both Schumanns composed nice piano concertos in A minor.
Frederick Chopin: Nocturne E Flat Major Op.9 No.2 - gorgeous nocturne from Chopin.
Frederick Chopin: Berceuse in D-flat major, Op. 57 - my favorite from Chopin.
Louise Farrenc: Etude in F Sharp Minor, op. 26 no. 10 - great French composer.
Franz Liszt: Piano Sonata in B-Minor S.178 - Liszt showing off his amazing skill.
Franz Liszt: Mephisto Waltz - played with devilish frenetic energy by Khatia Buniatishvili. Liszt composed five total pieces within the Mephisto Waltz world, over about 20 years of time. The last one is called Bagatelle Without Tonality that gets closer to the atonality of the 20th century.
Franz Liszt: La Campenella - another of his famous piano pieces.
Franz Liszt: Transcendental Etudes IV: Mazeppa - one of his most fiendishly difficult pieces.
Teresa Carreno: "La falsa nota" Op. 39 - Venezuelan composer.
Cecile Chaminade: Guitare, Op. 32 - my favorite piece from Chaminade, a French composer.
Claude Debussy: Suite Bergamasque: Clair de lune - Debussy's most famous piece, the third movement of his Suite Bergamasque.
Claude Debussy: Images I: Hommage a Rameau - one of Debussy's best.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 - early 20th century from Russia.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 - Rachmaninoff's follow up concerto is just as great.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C# minor, Op. 3 No. 2 - here is Rachmaninoff himself playing his famous prelude.
Lili Boulanger: Trois morceaux pour piano - Boulanger's gorgeous music.
Germaine Taileferre: Impromptu (1909) - lovely music from Tailleferre.
Germaine Taileferre: Piano Concerto (1924) - great piano concerto.
Unsuk Chin: Piano Etude No. 1 - modern composition.
Tania Leon: Tumbao - another modern piano composition.
Sofia Gubaidulina: Piano Sonata - modern Russian composer.
Julia Wolfe: Compassion - performed by Conrad Tao, who is also a composer.
Missy Mazzoli: Orizzonte - modern composer.
György Ligeti: Etudes pour piano - some of the music Ligeti composed for piano.
György Ligeti: Musica ricercata - small pieces he composed with very specific rules.
Nikolai Kapustin: Toccatina, Op. 36 - great short piece from Kapustin.
Nikolai Kapustin: Toccatina, Op. 36 - the scrolling score video.
Nikolai Kapustin: Impromptu, op. 66, no. 2 - Kapustin playing his own music here.
Nikolai Kapustin: Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 - great set of music.
Nikolai Kapustin: Prelude, op. 53, no. 11 - here he is playing his own music.