Piano

　　The ancestry of the piano can be traced to the early keyboard instruments

　　of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries -- the spinet, the dulcimer, and

　　the virginal. In the seventeenth century the organ, the clavichord, and the

　　harpsichord became the chief instruments of the keyboard group, a supremacy

　　they maintained until the piano supplanted them at the end of the

　　eighteenth century. The clavichord's tone was metallic and never

　　powerful; nevertheless, because of the variety of tone possible to it,

　　many composers found the clavichord a sympathetic instrument for intimate

　　chamber music. The harpsichord with its bright, vigorous tone was

　　the favorite instrument for supporting the bass of the small orchestra of

　　the period and for concert use, but the character of the tone could not be

　　varied save by mechanical or structural devices.

　　The piano was perfected in the early eighteenth century by a

　　harpsichord maker in Italy(though musicologists point out several

　　previous instances of the instrument). This instrument was called a

　　piano e forte (soft and loud), to indicate its dynamic versatility; its

　　strings were struck by a recoiling hammer with a felt-padded head. The

　　wires were much heavier in the earlier instruments. A series of

　　mechanical improvements continuing well into the nineteenth century,

　　including the introduction of pedals to sustain tone or to soften

　　it, the perfection of a metal frame, and steel wire of the finest

　　quality, finally produced an instrument capable of myriad tonal effects

　　from the most delicate harmonies to an almost orchestral fullness

　　of sound, from a liquid, singing tone to a sharp, percussive brilliance.