The piano was invented in 1700 by Italian harpsichord maker, Bartolomeo Cristofori. Here's a brief history of the instrument and a short performance on a replica of the Cristofori piano. Learn how the piano got it's name, what the middle pedal does and what the first pianos sounded like.

Learn more about the piano (without my pronunciation errors) here: http://www.gistpianocenter.com/pianos... or check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where I got much of the text for this video): http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cris...

:)