History

The piano was invented around 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Italy. He called it the pianoforte because, unlike the harpsichord, it could play both quiet (piano) and loud (forte). Over the next 150 years, builders in Germany, England, France, Austria and America turned it into the instrument we know today. At the beginning of the 20th century, Jerry Cree Fischer called the piano "unquestionably, the most perfect, and consequently the most beloved of all musical instruments