Good word

"The piano ... is capable of a rapidity and clarity of utterance of which the organ is incapable; and no other instrument but the organ approaches its resources in chords, range, and brilliance. Except the organ, it is the only self-supporting instrument; it can furnish absorbing employment for the four hands of two performers. The chief lack is the inability to swell a sustained tone, and some method of adding this final touch of human interest will doubtless be devised in time by some of the many minds engaged upon the problem."

-- Rupert Hughes, Music Lovers' Cyclopedia (1912)