The history of the piano

The first piano was built as early as 1694 and was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. The three pianos built by Cristofori that survive today date from the 1720s. The piano replaced the harpsichord as the most popular keyboard instrument of the Romantic era. The piano was first referred to as a pianoforte which means soft (piano) loud (forte) instrument. It was named the pianoforte because, unlike the harpsichord, it allowed the player to control the degree of loudness and softness of a note by the way he/she would strike a key.