The Lineage of the Piano — 300 Years from Cristofori to Lang Lang

What Is the Piano

The piano — formally the pianoforte — is the instrument capable of both piano (soft) and forte (loud) playing. It is a hammered-string keyboard instrument invented by the Italian craftsman Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700.

The previous main keyboard, the harpsichord, plucks strings with a plectrum and so cannot vary dynamics with touch. The clavichord does strike its strings, but its sound is extraordinarily faint. Cristofori’s invention was decisive because it combined expressive dynamics with a practical volume.

Over three centuries, this instrument grew into the world’s largest solo, ensemble, and compositional platform — the “center of Western music.”

The Trinity — Instrument, Composer, Pianist

Any account of the piano’s history inseparably weaves three threads:

1. The instrument — craftsmen and manufacturing technology (Cristofori, Silbermann, Broadwood, Érard, Steinway, Bösendorfer, Yamaha, Kawai)
2. The composers — those who wrote for the piano (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninoff)
3. The pianists — those who play it (Liszt, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Gould, Richter, Argerich, Kissin, Lang Lang, Tsujii, Fujita)

These three influence one another, and instrument, work, and performing style transform together.

Five Phases of 300 Years

Phase 1: The Birth of the Fortepiano (1700–1770)

Cristofori (1655–1731) invents the instrument around 1700 — a hammer that strikes the strings, a damper that arrests them when the key rises. At first it fails to impress; even Bach, on trying an early example, is said to have declared “the harpsichord is still better.” Silbermann refines the design, and only in the 1760s does the piano become a serious instrument.

Phase 2: The Viennese Classical Era (1770–1830)

The age of Mozart (1756–1791) and Beethoven (1770–1827). Mozart’s 27 piano concertos and Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas and 5 concertos establish the core repertoire of piano music at once. The instrument is Viennese (Stein, Walter). The compass gradually expands (5 octaves → 7).

Phase 3: The Romantic Era (1830–1900)

Chopin (1810–1849) and Liszt (1811–1886) stand as the twin pillars — “the poet of the piano” and “the magician of the piano.” Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Grieg generate solos and concertos on a huge scale. Two schools of instrument compete: French (Érard, Pleyel) and German (Broadwood, Steinway). In 1855 Steinway is founded in New York, and the modern piano’s standard form is settled.

Phase 4: Impressionism and the Early 20th Century (1900–1950)

Debussy (1862–1918) and Ravel (1875–1937) open a coloristic pianism. Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich in Russia. Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) is the last complete embodiment of the pianist-composer. Horowitz, Rubinstein, Schnabel and others usher in the age of the recording.

Phase 5: The Modern Era (1950–)

The generation of masters — Richter, Gould, Argerich, Pollini, Brendel, Uchida Mitsuko — gives way to the current generation of Kissin, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Tsujii Nobuyuki, Fujita Mao. Alongside runs the parallel lineage of jazz piano (Evans, Monk, Keith Jarrett). Age of YouTube, competitions, world tours.

Twelve Scenes

1. c. 1700 — Cristofori invents the “pianoforte”
2. 1747 — Bach plays a Silbermann piano before Frederick the Great
3. 1795 — Beethoven debuts in Vienna at 25
4. 1830s — Chopin becomes the darling of Parisian salons
5. 1839 — Liszt invents the “recital” format
6. 1855 — Steinway founded in New York
7. 1873 — Rachmaninoff born, with extraordinarily large hands (13ths within reach)
8. 1913 — Debussy’s Préludes Book 2 completes Impressionist piano writing
9. 1948 — Horowitz’s legendary NBC broadcast
10. 1955 — Gould records the Goldberg Variations and stuns the world
11. 1965 — Argerich wins the Chopin Competition
12. 2009 — Tsujii Nobuyuki wins the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

The Sheer Volume of Piano Music

No other instrument has been written for on this scale:

• Beethoven — 32 sonatas, 5 concertos, many variation sets
• Chopin — over 200 works, almost all for piano
• Liszt — more than 700 piano works and transcriptions
• Schumann — early career devoted almost entirely to the piano
• Rachmaninoff — four concertos, preludes, études

“Play the piano and you have access to 90% of Western music” — a special position among instruments.

The Piano Is a “Small Orchestra”

88 keys, 7-plus octaves, 10 fingers — with these one person can render:

• Melody + harmony + counter-melody + bass simultaneously
• Percussive accents and string-like legato alike
• The full dynamic range from pp to fff

One person carries an orchestra. That is what gives the piano its decisive position as a solo instrument.

The Big Three Manufacturers Today

• Steinway (US/Germany) — Founded 1853. The de facto standard for the modern piano. Many pianists sign as “Steinway artists”
• Bösendorfer (Austria) — Founded 1828. The sound admired by Liszt. Famous for the 97-key Imperial model
• Yamaha / Kawai (Japan) — Rose rapidly in the second half of the 20th century, now standard in halls and conservatories around the world

Japanese makers joined the world standard — a major topic of late-20th-century industrial history.

Articles in This Series

Eleven articles (excluding this overview), in chronological order:

1. Evolution of the keyboard — Harpsichord to Cristofori to Steinway
2. Bach and keyboard music — Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg, from harpsichord to piano
3. Mozart and Haydn — The classical piano concerto completed
4. Beethoven — 32 sonatas, composing past the instrument’s limits
5. Chopin — Poet of the piano, Parisian salons
6. Liszt — Magician of the piano, inventor of the recital
7. Schumann and Brahms — German Romantic introspection
8. Debussy and Ravel — Impressionist color
9. Rachmaninoff and Scriabin — The final form of Russian Romanticism
10. 20th-century pianists — Horowitz, Gould, Argerich
11. The present — Kissin, Lang Lang, Tsujii, Fujita, and the fusion with jazz piano

The Whole Arc

The piano — a “single-person orchestra” — became the central instrument of Western classical music in 300 years. Its lineage is the product of a three-way relationship of craftsman, composer, and performer. The evolution of the instrument opened new expressive possibilities for composers; great pianists drew out what instrument and work could do.

In this series, we follow those 300 years as a trinity of people, instrument, and music. The next article begins with the evolution of the keyboard instrument itself.