Timeline of the modern piano

Written by Bernardt James(Cobus van der Walt), 10 April 2018

The exact date for the birth of the piano is unknown

1700-Bartolomeo Cristofori’s invents the “pianoforte” (“ Italian for soft and loud”) in Florence, Italy.

Beginning of 1700s- Gottfried Silbermann(piano builder) adds the modern damper pedal mechanism, which lifts all dampers from the strings at once to sustain the tone.

1739-Domenico del Mela builds the first known upright piano in Gagliano, Italy.

End of 1700s-The great composer Mozart starts to compose music for these instruments, which were made with wooden frames and only two strings per note.

1800s-British piano making firm Broadwood is the first to make pianos with a range of more than five octaves.

1828-1830-Bösendorfer is one of the oldest luxury piano makers globally, born in Vienna, Austria in 1828. Ignaz Bösendorfer started the company and was appointed the “official piano maker” to the Emperor of Austria in 1830.

1853-The acclaimed piano maker “Steinway and Sons” was founded by Heinrich Engelhard Steinway. His design include cast-iron frames and overlap stringing, or placing strings vertically overlapping.

1900-1949 -The first piano made in Japan was an upright built in 1900 by Torakusu Yamaha. Just two years later, the Nippon Gakki factory produced its first grand piano. Torakusu sends one of his pianos to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where it received an Honorary Prize.

There are many other well known brands of piano makes. I just quoted a few and major brands.

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