A fortepiano [ˌfɔrteˈpjaːno] is an early type of piano. The term "fortepiano" can refer to any piano made from its invention in 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori up to the early 1800s. Most often, it describes pianos from the middle 1700s to the early 1800s, which were used by composers of the Classical era, such as Haydn and Mozart, to write their piano music. Sometimes, the works of Beethoven and Schubert are also considered fortepiano music.

Beginning in the late 1700s, the fortepiano slowly changed over time, leading to the modern grand piano by the late 1800s. The older fortepiano was no longer used and was not seen in music for many years. In the late 1900s, interest in performing music as it was originally played grew, and the fortepiano was reintroduced. Today, specialists build fortepianos in workshops to meet this need.

Construction

The fortepiano has hammers covered with leather and strings that are thin, similar to those on a harpsichord. Its case is much lighter than that of a modern piano. Except for some models from the early 19th century, which were beginning to resemble modern pianos, the fortepiano does not have a metal frame or bracing. The action and hammers are lighter, which makes the keyboard feel lighter to play. Well-made fortepianos are also very expressive.

When the fortepiano was first created, it had a range of about four octaves. Over time, its range increased. Mozart wrote his piano music for instruments with about five octaves. Beethoven’s piano compositions show a growing range, with his later works written for instruments with about six and a half octaves. Modern pianos, which reached their full size in the 19th century, have a range of about 7 + 1⁄3 octaves.

From the beginning, fortepianos often had devices to change the sound, similar to the pedals on modern pianos. However, these devices were not always pedals. Sometimes, players used hand-operated stops or knee levers instead.

Sound

The fortepiano, like the modern piano, can change the loudness of each note based on how the player presses the keys. However, the fortepiano's sound is softer and does not last as long as the modern piano's sound. Sudden loud notes, called sforzando accents, are more noticeable on the fortepiano because they sound very different from quieter notes in both tone and loudness, and they fade quickly.

The fortepiano also has different sound qualities in different parts of its range. Its low notes may have a slightly buzzing sound, its very high notes may sound like tinkling bells, and its middle notes are smoother, closer to the sound of the modern piano. In contrast, modern pianos have a more consistent tone across all their notes.

History

The piano was created by Bartolomeo Cristofori, a maker of harpsichords, in Florence. The first clear record of his invention is found in a list from the Medici family, who supported Cristofori, dated 1700. Cristofori kept improving the instrument until the 1720s, and three of his surviving pianos date from that time.

Cristofori is most admired for his piano action, the system that controls how the keys move the hammers. This design was more refined and effective than some later versions. However, other changes were needed to make the piano work. Simply attaching Cristofori’s action to a harpsichord would not have produced a strong sound. Instead, Cristofori used thicker, tighter strings and a stronger frame than those on harpsichords. Like later pianos, his instruments had hammers that struck two strings at once across the entire keyboard range.

Cristofori also added a type of soft pedal, a mechanism that made the hammers strike fewer strings. He used a hand stop for this feature. It is unclear if the modern soft pedal directly came from his work or developed separately.

Cristofori’s invention gained attention after a journal article by Scipione Maffei was published in 1711 in Giornale de'letterati d'Italia. The article included a diagram of the piano’s action. The article was later republished in 1719 and translated into German in 1725 by Johann Mattheson in Critica Musica. This German version may have helped spread the fortepiano to German-speaking regions.

Cristofori’s piano spread slowly at first because it was more complex and expensive to build than a harpsichord. For a time, the piano was a favorite of royalty, with Cristofori or similar instruments used in the courts of Portugal and Spain. Queen Maria Barbara of Spain owned several pianos and was a student of composer Domenico Scarlatti. One of the first private individuals to own a piano was the castrato Farinelli, who inherited one from Maria Barbara.

The first music written specifically for the piano was Lodovico Giustini’s Sonate da cimbalo di piano (1732). This was a rare event, and some believe it was a gift from royal patrons. There was no commercial market for piano music at the time, as the instrument was still unusual.

The fortepiano became popular in the 1760s, when public performances on the instrument began and music for the fortepiano was widely published.

Gottfried Silbermann, who worked in Freiberg, Germany, started making pianos based on Cristofori’s design around 1730. He had experience building organs, harpsichords, and clavichords. Silbermann received support from Frederick the Great of Prussia, who bought many of his instruments.

Silbermann’s early pianos were criticized by Johann Sebastian Bach around 1736. However, later models that Bach saw in 1747 were approved by him. It is thought that Silbermann improved his designs after seeing a real Cristofori piano, not just reading Maffei’s article. The action described by Maffei did not match surviving 18th-century instruments.

Silbermann is credited with creating the early version of the sustain pedal, which lifts all the dampers at once, allowing strings to vibrate freely. His device was a hand stop, which could only be used during pauses in music. Even later, during the Classical era, lifting all dampers was mainly used for special effects.

Piano makers after Silbermann created simpler actions than Cristofori’s, sometimes without an escapement, a part that lets the hammer return to rest when the key is pressed. These instruments were criticized, as seen in a 1777 letter from Mozart to his father, but were easier to make and used in square pianos.

Johann Andreas Stein, a student of Silbermann, was a notable fortepiano builder in Augsburg, Germany. Stein’s pianos had hammers that were positioned differently, with the striking end closer to the player. This design became known as the “Viennese” action and was widely used in Vienna until the mid-19th century. The Viennese action was simpler and more sensitive to touch than Cristofori’s. According to Edwin M. Ripin, the force needed to press a key on a Viennese fortepiano was about one-fourth of what is needed on a modern piano, and the key movement was about half as much. Playing the Viennese fortepiano required delicate touch, not the strength needed by modern pianists.

Stein treated the wood in his instruments with a process that caused cracks, into which he inserted wedges. This made his instruments last longer. Mozart praised Stein’s work, and several of his pianos survive today.

Stein’s business was continued in Vienna by his daughter, Nannette Streicher, and her husband, Johann Andreas Streicher. They were friends of Beethoven, and one of his pianos was a Streicher. In the early 19th century, more robust pianos were built in Vienna by the Streicher firm, which continued for several generations. Composer Johannes Brahms preferred Streicher pianos.

Another important Viennese builder was Anton Walter, a friend of Mozart. His pianos had a stronger sound than Stein’s. Although Mozart admired Stein’s instruments, as noted in a 1777 letter, his own piano was a Walter. Haydn also owned a Walter piano, and Beethoven wished to buy one. The fortepianos of Stein and Walter are still used today as models for new instruments. Another key builder was Conrad Graf (1782–1851), who made Beethoven’s last piano. Graf was one of the first Viennese makers to produce pianos in large numbers. His instruments were played by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Schumann.

Important French fortepiano makers included Erard, Pleyel (Chopin’s favorite), and Boisselot (Liszt’s favorite).

The English fortepiano began with the work of Johannes Zumpe, a German immigrant who worked in the workshop of harpsichord maker Burkat Shudi. Starting in the mid- to late 1760s, Zumpe made inexpensive square pianos with a simple action, sometimes called the “old man’s head.” Though not a major technological improvement, these instruments became popular.

Obsolescence and revival

From the late 1700s, the fortepiano had many technological changes and became the modern piano (for more details, see Piano). The older version of the instrument was no longer made. In the late 1800s, Arnold Dolmetsch, an early music pioneer, built three fortepianos. However, this attempt to bring the instrument back was too early and did not lead to its widespread use.

In the second half of the 1900s, there was a large increase in interest in historical instruments, including the fortepiano. Old fortepianos were repaired, and many new ones were built to match the style of the old ones. Kits to build fortepianos also became available. Builders used knowledge gained from making harpsichords of historical design to recreate the fortepiano. For example, fortepiano pioneer Philip Belt worked as an apprentice for Frank Hubbard, a well-known maker of historical harpsichords, for two years early in his career. Other builders, such as Margaret F. Hood, Rodney Regier, Chris Maene, and Paul McNulty, also began making fortepianos.

Bringing the fortepiano back has allowed musicians to perform 18th- and early 19th-century music on the instruments for which it was originally written, leading to new understanding of this music (for more details, see Piano history and musical performance). More music schools now offer courses on the fortepiano. There are several competitions for fortepiano players, including the MAfestival Brugge and the International Chopin Competition on Chopin era instruments, organized by the Warsaw Chopin Institute.

Modern fortepiano specialists

Many modern musicians have become well-known for their performances on the fortepiano, including Susan Alexander-Max, Paul Badura-Skoda, Pieter-Jan Belder, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Malcolm Bilson, Hendrik Bouman, Ronald Brautigam, Gary Cooper, Jörg Demus, Richard Egarr, Richard Fuller, Laurence Cummings, Vladimir Feltsman, Tuija Hakkila, Christoph Hammer, Robert Hill, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Geoffrey Lancaster, Robert Levin, Alexei Lubimov, Steven Lubin, Bart van Oort, Olga Pashchenko, Andras Schiff, David Schrader, Viviana Sofronitsky, Andreas Staier, Melvyn Tan, Natalia Valentin, and Jos van Immerseel.

Opinions

People have different opinions about how the fortepiano sounds, and these opinions can change depending on the person or the instrument. Here are three examples of opinions about fortepianos:

• "Even though I enjoy performances on original instruments, I think the fortepiano was not as successful as other instruments and needed improvements. I sometimes find the sound of many fortepianos uncomfortable, and even if a performance is excellent, I sometimes struggle to overlook the sound." (Michael Cookson)
• "Many people first think the fortepiano's sound is less beautiful than that of a modern concert grand piano. However, listening to good recordings can change this opinion. The fortepiano's clear sound and short sustain help highlight the musical style of composers like Haydn and Mozart. Its sound is different, but not worse." (Howland Auchincloss)
• "A reproduction of a 1730 Cristofori piano, made by Denzil Wraight based on a model for Queen Maria Barbara of Spain, produces a lovely sound. While it can sometimes sound metallic or quiet during loud passages, it has a delicate quality and a deeply beautiful sound, especially in expressive sonatas." (Gary Higginson)

Etymology and usage

The word "fortepiano" means "loud-soft" in Italian, just as the official name for the modern piano, "pianoforte," means "soft-loud." Both terms are shortened forms of the name Cristofori first used for his invention: "gravicembalo col piano e forte," which translates to "harpsichord with soft and loud."

The term "fortepiano" is not commonly used in everyday language but is helpful in specific situations where it is important to clearly identify the instrument. For example, the phrase "a fortepiano recital by Malcolm Bilson" makes it clear that the performance is on an early version of the piano. However, in most cases, people use the word "piano" to describe the instrument, as in "Cristofori invented the piano" or "Mozart's piano concertos."

The word "fortepiano" is now used to refer specifically to early pianos, but this usage is relatively new. The Oxford English Dictionary does not record this specific meaning, only noting that "fortepiano" was an early name for the "pianoforte." During the time when fortepianos were common, the terms "fortepiano" and "pianoforte" were used the same way. Jane Austen, who lived during the time of the fortepiano and played the instrument, used the term "pianoforte" (also written as "piano-forte" or "piano forte") in her writings to describe the instrument.