Piano
The Piano is one of the world's most popular and versatile instruments.
Piano is the Italian word for "soft". See definition of piano at dictionary.com
A piano or pianoforte is a stringed keyboard instrument developed from the harpsichord. The big difference between a piano and a harpsichord is that the tone is achieved by a hammer hitting the string instead of the harpsichords non touch sensitive pluck of the string.
The original name pianoforte suggests that the instrument are able to play both soft (piano) and loud (forte).
A piano from Haydn's, Mozart's and Beethoven's time differs a lot from the modern piano which is the reason some pianists chose to perform classical music on original or copies of instruments from that era, called "hammerklavier".
