The First Piano

The story of the piano begins in 1709 in Florence, when the Italian harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori constructed what he called "Gravicembalo co piano e forte" (literally, "harpsichord with soft and loud"), Cbristofoi had replaced the plucking machanim with a series of hammers, so that when the note was pressed, the hammer struck the string creating the note.

One major difference, however, was that the dynamic control offered the new instrument unlike the harpsichord, the pianoforte (as it was abbreviated) allowed the player to vary the volume of the sound depending on how hard the keyboard was pressed. But whilst Crisofori received brief attention for his endeavours, interest quickly waned.

He had produced about twenty pianos by this time, after which hi is presumed to have returned to manufactoring harpichords. Only two of the original models are known to exist.