Strike up a conversation with Pascal Roge and you’re not sure whether it’s a pianist, a poet or a painter that you’ve got on the other end of the line. Of course, Roge is one of F… ...

And that’s where the piano gets its name from, because it can play both piano and forte. A piano made by Bartolomeo Cristofori. Picture: DeAgostini/Getty Images The very first pianos look quite ...

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the first references to the “piano forte” took place in 1711. The piano was referred to by a few different names back then, ... two keyboards, ...

The instrument had a brand-new hammer and damper mechanism, two keyboards and a range of four octaves (49 keys). Poet and journalist Scipione Maffei described it in 1711 as a ‘gravicembalo col piano, ...

Then, it was named “ gravicembalo col piano e forte ... The Met’s piano keyboard, however, has only 54 keys in comparison to the modern piano’s 88.

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The piano is an incredibly heroic and versatile instrument. An agile linguist, it is at ease speaking dialects of classical, pop, blues, jazz and more. It is ...