The Piano Is Named After Its Volume Control
A piano is a keyboard instrument with hammered strings. Its full name says what made it new: it could play soft and loud.
A piano is a keyboard instrument whose strings are struck by felt hammers. Its name is an abbreviation of *pianoforte*, itself short for *gravicembalo col piano e forte* — a harpsichord with soft and loud. That was the selling point: a harpsichord plucks its strings at a fixed volume, but the piano's hammers respond to how hard the key is pressed. Bartolomeo Cristofori built the first around 1700 in Florence. In musical notation *piano* still simply means soft.
- A keyboard instrument. *Play the piano.*
- Softly (music). *Marked piano.*
- Pianoforte — the full name. *A pianoforte.*
- Grand piano — the horizontal form. *A grand piano.*
- Pianist — the player. *A pianist.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | piano | A piano. |
| Plural | pianos | Two pianos. |
| Full form | pianoforte | Pianoforte. |
| Player | pianist | A pianist. |
| Dynamic | p | Play softly. |
- She has played the piano since childhood.Instrument.
- The passage is marked piano.Dynamic.
- Cristofori built the first one around 1700.History.
Italian dynamics in music
- Piano (p) — soft
- Forte (f) — loud
- Crescendo — growing louder
- Diminuendo — growing softer
- Mezzo — half, as in mezzo-forte, moderately loud
Italian *piano*, soft, from Latin *planus*, level or smooth. Shortened from *pianoforte*, soft-loud.
Why is the piano called that?
Because unlike the harpsichord it could play both softly and loudly, so it was named the pianoforte, soft-loud.
Who invented the piano?
Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, around 1700, working for the Medici court.