http://www.pianohowtoplay.com/piano-history.html
If the visual arts have its medieval, renaissance, romanticist, modern and contemporary art periods, the history of music also has its share of upheavals and evolution in styles. The periods in western music history are the medieval period, the renaissance period, the baroque period, the classical period, the romantic period, the impressionist period, and finally we have 20th century piano music which is still evolving now.
Piano history didn’t begin, however, until the baroque period with its invention by Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (1655-1731) during the Medici family’s reign in Florence.
Before the piano was invented in the early 1700s, there were already stringed musical instruments that were played with the use of keyboards such as the clavichord, the harpsichord, and the spinet or virginal. When perusing further back into the timeline of piano history, one must mention the sweet singing dulcimer which is played by striking some stretched strings with a special mallet.
Going back to the subject of the first piano, original 1720 Cristofori inventions could at present be viewed in Germany’s Musikinstrumenten-Museum at Leipzig University, in the Rome’s Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali, and in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, in the United States of America.
Styles or genres in playing piano throughout history include the concerto, the sonata, the trio, the quintet, and the solo. Most students of piano nowadays just learn the solo piano style. The solo style in turn is classified into the scherzo, the mazurka, the waltz, the polonaise, the ballade, the nocturne, the prelude, and the etude. These musical terms are somewhat familiar to anyone with a basic knowledge of piano, for the composers of classical music use these in their titles.
In any short history of the piano, these famous composers should come up for discussion; Beethoven, Mozart, Bach. A last word– enjoyment can be enhanced by knowing some piano history, but the pleasure of listening to music has never depended upon such knowledge.