| Musical instruments with keyboards have been | | | | The piano's pivotal turning point arrived in the late 1770s |
| evolving since 220 B.C. when a Greek engineer named | | | | when Johann Christian Bach redesigned it and more |
| Ctebius created the "Hydraulis" to demonstrate, of all | | | | composers came forward with more music for the |
| things, the principle of hydraulics. | | | | piano. Soon there were solo piano performances to |
| The Hydraulis led to the organ and a technical | | | | packed concert halls in Europe and from there, the |
| evolution of that instrument that has spanned centuries. | | | | piano found its way to Great Britain and America. |
| Meanwhile came more instruments based on the | | | | Here the piano evolved from a fashionable status |
| concept of multiple strings, hammers and keyboards. | | | | symbol in the mansions of the rare few to the mass |
| First was the dulcimer, a multi-stringed instrument | | | | assembly lines of Jonas Chickering and Heinrich |
| played with hand-held hammers. It has been claimed | | | | Steinweg. Thanks to their industry, the public came to |
| that the dulcimer was invented in the 9th Century A.D. | | | | regard the piano as a necessary part of every |
| by Persian Abu Nasre Farabi, who called it a Santur. | | | | American household in the late 1800s. Knowing how to |
| The dulcimer has even been called "the first piano," but | | | | play it was considered the best way to win admiration, |
| wait. The invention of the piano is most widely credited | | | | love and respect, especially if you were a woman. |
| to the Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) in the | | | | By now the piano had been through all manner of |
| early 1700s. | | | | transformation: square, vertical upright, grand and |
| By then, several more stringed keyboard instruments | | | | variations of same, with all the accompanying technical |
| including the clavichord and harpsichord had come into | | | | changes. Piano design and manufacturing thrived in |
| play. The harpsichord couldn't control the sound volume | | | | Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain and America. |
| and the clavichord couldn't produce the tone needed | | | | But at the turn of the century, just when the piano had |
| by the artist to perform in large halls. Cristofori had the | | | | achieved prominence as the primary source of home |
| solution. | | | | entertainment, oops, here came the movies and the |
| Cristofori replaced the string-plucking mechanism with | | | | phonograph. Not to mention the player piano, which |
| leather padded hammers. Now he had a keyboard | | | | "automated" what many piano owners couldn't do. |
| instrument that played "piano" (meaning "soft"), and | | | | Then the gramophone and the radio took over where |
| "forte" (meaning "loud"). This first piano was called | | | | the player piano left off. |
| "pianoforte." | | | | Renewed public interest didn't hit until the 1930s when |
| While Johann Sebastian Bach and others failed to | | | | piano makers introduced the miniature upright. From |
| embrace the pianoforte, Lodovico Biustini published | | | | there the piano has reached unprecedented standards |
| "Sonate da Cimbalo di Piano e Forte," the first work | | | | of quality through significant technical and cosmetic |
| specifically for piano, in 1732. Yet nearly half a century | | | | change brought on by new materials, processes, |
| passed before the next composer was to write | | | | techniques and innovative genius. Today this amazing |
| specifically for the piano. It was Muzio Clementi, whose | | | | 5,000-piece invention is not the household staple that it |
| "3 Sonatas, Opus 2" in 1770 triggered the emergence | | | | used to be, but it remains a solid investment and the |
| of the new playing techniques and styles of | | | | treasure of those who find fulfillment in the piano as a |
| expression needed to master the piano. | | | | means of creative expression. |