Did you know that Johann Sebastian Bach didn’t like the keys he was playing. He learnt to play the harpsichord but the instrument was limited since it couldn’t restitute any dynamics. Nonetheless, Bach was a virtuoso on the harpsichord. He preferred the organ, by the way.
The Piano takes its name from a pretty long moniker which goes clavicembalo col piano e forte. It was then shorten to Pianoforte, then Piano. The reason for the name is that this was the first keyboard instrument that could play soft (piano) and loud (Forte).
Mozart is one of the first major composer for the Piano. He didn’t use much pedal, that one on the right that serves to sustain the sound.
Beethoven composed for the piano extensively, and helped improve it. When he was young he would go to different nobles houses which proudly displayed grand piano of the best brand, and he would destroy them by bashing them. He’s the one who worked with piano manufacturers to replace the wooden frame with a metal one.
Schumann messed up his hand by using a contraption attached to it. The device was supposed to help the fourth finger, or ring finger, the weakest one, but instead it crippled him. He was lucky to be married to a fantastic piano player, Clara who helped give life to his composition.
There were piano makers everywhere, especially in Paris which had them by the hundreds. Chopin would only play a French brand. When him and his girlfriend family decided to move to Majorca, he had a French piano carried by donkey to his house.
Rachmaninoff was a shy performer, it took him a while to feel comfortable on stage. With that in mind he composed the first movement of his 2nd concerto for piano with very simple, very easy chords that gave him the time to warm up.
