what was the piano called before piano?

Answer 1

The full name of the piano is the pianoforte (alternately fortepiano), or even more elaborately, the gravicèmbalo col piano e forte, or harpsichord with soft and loud [sounds]. That full italian explanation isn't exactly correct either though since the harpsichord was a stringed instrument producing sounds by plucking the strings via a keyboad, and the modern piano is a percussion instrument where sound is produced by soft hammer striking the strings.

Answer 2

Piano, stringed keyboard musical instrument, derived from the harpsichord and the clavichord. Also called the pianoforte, it differs from its predecessors principally in the introduction of a hammer-and-lever action that allows the player to modify the intensity of sound by the stronger or weaker touch of the fingers. For this reason the earliest known model (1709) was called a gravicembalo col pian e forte (Italian for “harpsichord with soft and loud”). It was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker of Florence, Italy, who is generally credited with inventing the piano. Two of his pianos still exist. The case of one, dated 1720, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the other, dated 1726, is in a museum in Leipzig, Germany.

Answer 3

The piano is derived from the harpsichord and the clavichord. Also called the pianoforte, it differs from its predecessors principally in the introduction of a hammer-and-lever action that allows the player to modify the intensity of sound by the stronger or weaker touch of the fingers. For this reason the earliest known model (1709) was called a gravicembalo col pian e forte (Italian for “harpsichord with soft and loud”). It was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker of Florence, Italy, who is generally credited with inventing the piano. Two of his pianos still exist. The case of one, dated 1720, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the other, dated 1726, is in a museum in Leipzig, Germany.

Answer 4

There is an instrument similar to the piano called a harpsichord. I don't know if it predates the piano but I do like the sound.

The piano uses a hammer to strike a string. I'm not sure exactly how it does it but I understand the harpsichord plucks the string rather than simply striking it.

Answer 5

after the gravicembalo came the spinet, virginal, harpsichord, fortepiano, Hammerklavier and then piano as we know it. this finally happened around 1840s.
An excellent history of the instrument is to be found in Arthur Loesser's book, Men, Women, and Pianos, published by Dover press.

Answer 6

Pineapple.

Answer 7

People refer to it as "Some big box with metal strings plus makes a hell-of-a-lot of noise when i try to sleep inside of it" kind of contraction.