The piano is the most popular instrument in existence and continues to be the premiere instrument as we
enter its fourth century. It is the most complex mechanical device in any home and is capable of fulfilling the player’s every musical wish. With each development since its invention, the piano has increasingly been able to provide infinite nuance of expression, volume and duration of tone. A complex wooden machine with myriad felt coverings and metal springs is coupled with a structure that sustains an average of 20 tons of string tension. Where did it begin?

The history of the piano goes back three full centuries when an Italian harpsichord builder named
Bartolomeo Cristofori produced a breakthrough technological advance, a new mechanism for the harpsichord which gave it the ability to be played with dynamic variations. He called this touch-sensitive invention “gravicembalo col piano e forte,” or “harpsichord with soft and loud.”
But for centuries before that, there were two keyboards widely in use during a parallel era that began in
the 1400s. These were the clavichord and the harpsichord. Each had its own strengths, which made it popular for specific venues and music styles, and it was these, which eventually led to the piano.

Click on the following link for more information on the history of the piano from the Piano Technician’s Guild.  The previous quote comes from the document listed below.

300YearsPiano