The Piano: short history

The piano, originally named the pianoforte (piano refers to soft and forte refers to loud, respectively), was invented in 1710 by Bartolomeo Christofori di Francesco, who had the idea of striking the strings with a hammer, which produced a more pronounced and much more sustained sound. This was how the piano, as we know it, started. Soon after Cristofori’s invention, the piano “action” was developed, which not only kept the strings damped when not being played, but also kept the hammers from remaining on the strings after striking them.

The Journey To The Modern Piano:

In the early 1700's, Gottfried Silbermann invented the precursor to the modern damper pedal, which lifts the dampers from all the strings at once. Viennese pianos of the 18th century - often referred to as fortepianos - incorporated wood frames, two strings per note, and used leather-covered hammers. This gave them a softer, clearer sound than today's pianos, but with less sustain.From the late 1700's to the late 1800's, iron frames came into use (allowing up to 3 strings per note), as did steel piano wire "strings." Felt hammers began to replace the earlier leather-covered versions in 1826, damper and sostenuto pedals were perfected, and the keyboard grew from 5 octaves to the modern 7 1/2 octaves (or more).There really weren’t a lot of major changes in the piano over the last 200+ years, which goes to show you that the piano may have been one of those instruments that was just destined to be created!

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