You would be hard-pressed to find an instrument that generates the depth of emotional response that the Piano evokes. From the deep blues playing of the Mississippi Delta to the eternal tapestries of the 19th century romantics it's strange to imagine that once upon a time the Piano did not actually exist!
Before I began studying and working on Pianos it never occurred to me, that... just as there was a time before rock and roll, there once was a time where the sound and feel of a Piano resided only in the dreams of those who longed for more than what the instruments of their time could provide. In fact, it wasn't until around the year 1700 (there is some speculation as to the precise date) that a breakthrough in keyboard instrument design came about and the first Piano was born. It's invention is commonly credited to an Italian Harpsichord maker named Bartolomeo Cristofori, and his contribution is one that has undoubtedly had a lasting influence over the coarse of musical history from that time on.
Although sharing the same name, the early Pianos differ quite drastically in their design both internally and externally from what we know as the modern Grand Piano. Cristofori was a Harpsichord builder and his early Pianos bare a closer resemblance to the Harpsichord than the modern Piano. The defining difference between the Harpsichord and the early Piano was the Pianos ability to offer its player a large dynamic range, and Cristofori coined his new instruments name from just that. In Italian the name was "Gravicembalo col piano e forte" which translates in English to "Harpsichord with soft and loud".
Below is a sketch of a Cristofori piano built in 1720, currently residing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
