What Sort Of Pianoforte or Piano Was Played By Jane Austen and Contemporaries? Pianos, pianofortes and more. History Notes Book 7 Music Pianos books2read.com/suziloveMusicPiano

Definition Pianoforte or Piano: ‘Stringed keyboard instrument with a hammer action, as opposed to the jack and quill action of the harpsichord.  Capable of gradations of soft and loud, the piano became the central instrument of music pedagogy and amateur study. By the end of the nineteenth century, no middle-class household of any stature in Europe or North America was without one.’  Definition via the Metropolitan Museum, NYC.

Around 1700, the Pianoforte, or Piano,  was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who created a hammer action keyboard instrument on which a musician could make changes in loudness by changing the force with which the keys were struck. He called his instrument “gravicembalo col piano e forte”, or,  (harpsichord with soft and loud). Cristofori’s  long name was later shortened to fortepiano or pianoforte, and finally just piano.

Musical Instruments were so important in most of the more affluent households in history that large industries grew all around the world to manufacture instruments, musical accessories, and to print sheet music.  Pianos, pianofortes, harpsichords, and organs were found everywhere and were often the focus of a family gathering. By the end of the 18th Century, the pianoforte, or piano, was the leading instrument of Western music.