Go To: 1700s 1800s 1900s 2000

1700

1700

Bartolomeo Cristofori's "new invention" of the piano e forte recorded, Florence, Italy

1711

Scipione Maffei publishes a journal article about the piano

John Shaw invents the tuning fork

1716

Jean Marius submits hammer-keyboard designs to Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris

1721

Christoph Gottlieb Schroter submits hammer-keyboard designs to the Saxon Court, Dresden

1725

Translation of Maffei's article into German stimulates widespread interest

Pianos advertised, Vienna

1730s

Gottfried Silbermann experiments in Dresden, Germany with pianos derived from Cristofori

Pianos known to be in Portuguese and Spanish courts

1730

Fickert advertises hammer-keyboard instrument in Leipzig, Germany

Kirkman piano makers founded in London, England

1732

First published piano music, by Ludovico Giustini

1739

Domenico del Mela builds earliest known upright piano, Gagliano, Italy

1740s

Christian Ernst Friederici makes upright pianos, Gera, Germany

1745

Franciso Perez Mirabal begins making pianos in Spain

1740

George Frederic Handel plays on a piano, London, England

1747

J. S. Bach plays a Silberman piano at the Prussian Court, Potsdam, and composes Musical Offering

1750s

Pianos advertised for sale in France

1753-62

C. P. E. Bach: Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments published

1760s

Pianos derived from Cristofori built in Spain and Portugal

Pantalons, small hammer-keyboard instruments, made in Germany

1763

Reports of earliest public performances on pianos by Johann Baptist Schmid, Vienna

1766

Probable invention of the square piano by Johannes Zumpe, London

1767

Early public piano performances, one by Johann Christian Bach, London

1768

First public piano performance in Paris

1771

Americus Backers produces the English grand piano, London;

Earliest reported public piano performance in North America by David Propert, Boston

Robert Stodart takes out a patent using the name "Grand" to describe his instrument. This was the first know use of the word "Grand" in a patent

1772

Johann Andreas Stein, a former apprentice of Silberman from 1749 -1750, develops the Viennese action in Augsberg, Germany

1773

First public piano performance in New York

Broadwood Company established, London

1774

John Joseph Merlin comes to England in 1760 Introduced the "Una Corda Pedal" which moved the action to one side just hitting two strings instead of three, making the piano quieter

1775

John Behrendt makes and advertises a square piano in Philadelphia, PA

1777

Sebastien Erard makes his first square piano, Paris

Robert Stodart patents the English grand action, London

1779

Muzio Clementi publishes his first piano sonatas, London

1780s

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach publishes series of sonatas and fantasias for piano

Haydn takes up the piano

1780

Anton Walter making pianos, including one for Mozart, Vienna

1781

Mozart and Clementi 'duel' in Vienna

1783

Paris Conservatoire founded

Broadwood introduced a sustaining pedal, Broadwood is credited with the invention of the sustaining pedal. However, there is a Backers Grand of 1772 in the Russell Museum, Edinburgh with 2 pedals. It has 2 pedals 1 on each front leg pointing inwards. The right is a sustaining pedal, the left a una corda. Americas Backers was probably the first to use the sustaining pedal and the una corda,

1784

William Southwell makes a 5 1/2-octave square piano, Dublin

1784-6

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 14-25 composed

1786

John Geib patents the "grasshopper" square action, used for 70 years, London

Erard establishes piano manufacturing in London

1794

John Broadwood makes 5 1/2-octave grand piano, London

William Stodart patents a large upright piano, a grand set on its head, London

Matthaus Andreas Stein and Nanette Streicher, children of Johann Andreas Stein, move to Vienna

Ibach established, Schwelm

1794-5

Haydn: 'London' piano sonatas and trios composed

1795

Johann Jakob Konnicke makes a 6-octave, 6-keyboard piano, Vienna

Beethoven: 3 Piano Trios, Op. 1 and 3 Piano Sonatas, Op. 2 published

1796

Broadwood makes a 6-octave grand for the Queen of Spain, London

1797

First piano magazine, The Pianoforte, London

James Hewitt: The Battle of Trenton published

1798

Francois-Adrien Boieldieu named professor of piano at Paris Conservatoire

Go To: 1700s 1800s 1900s 2000

1800

John Isaac Hawkins, Philadelphia, and Matthias Muller, Vienna, make small uprights

Alexander Reinagle: Piano Sonatas completed, Philadelphia

1801

Edward Riley obtains a patent for a transposing piano, in which the keyboard moved laterally, allowing keys to work on different notes

1802

Nanette Streicher separates from her brother, Matthaus Andreas Stein, to make pianos in her own name

1803

Erard Brothers of Paris present Beethoven with a piano

1804

Jan Ladislav Dussek plays a concerto with his profile toward the audience, Prague

Challen Pianos London were established. Their clam to fame is that they made the worlds largest grand: twelve feet long

1807

Pleyel established, Paris

The sticker action was invented by William Southwell

1808

Erard patents the agraffe, a metal stud through which strings pass from the tuning pin

Bracing bars of metals were used to support the wooden frame in Broadwoods grands

1809

Erard patents pinblock bushings, used to strengthen pinblock from string pressure on tuning pins

Erard introduces the "Roller Double Escapement" or compound escapement action

1810

English and Continental makers design 6-octave pianos, English from C-c, German from F-f

"Upright grands" made in England and "giraffes" in Germany and Austria

1811

Robert Wornum patents small upright, London

Conrad Graf established, Vienna

Prague Conservatory founded

1816

Nanette Streicher makes 6 1/2-octave grands, C-f, Vienna

1817

Thomas Broadwood, London presents a grand piano to Beethoven, Vienna

Vienna Conservatory founded

1819

Carl Sauter Company established, Spaichingen, Germany

1820

First successful use of metal in grand piano frame by Thom and Allen, London

Freres Aucher, of France was one of the first piano makers with a folding keyboard, came to be know as a ship's piano

1821

Sebastien Erard patents the double-escapement "repetition" action, basis of modern grand action, Paris

1822

Erard makes a 7-octave piano

1823

Jonas Chickering begins making pianos in Boston

Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Piano Sonatas Nos. 31 & 32 published

1825

Alpheus Babcock patents first single-piece metal frame for squares, Boston

1826

Henri Pape patents use of felt for hammer covering, Paris

Robert Wornum patents tape-check action, the basis for modern uprights, London

Clementi: Gradus ad parnassum published

Benjamin Carr: Analytical Instructor for the Pianoforte published

1828

Ignaz Bosendorfer making pianos, Vienna

Henri Pape first uses cross-stringing in small "console" uprights, Paris

Schubert: Last three piano sonatas composed

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction on the Art of Playing the Piano Forte published

1833

Chopin: Etudes Op. 10 published

1835

Grotrian-Steinweg pianos established by Friedrich Grotrian

1837

Knabe Company established, Baltimore

Schumann: Carnaval, Davidsbundlertanze, and Symphonic Etudes composed

Liszt and Thalberg 'duel' in Paris

1839

Moscheles: Methode des methodes published

Czerny: The Compete Theoretical and Practical Pianoforte School, Op. 500 published

Liszt establishes the solo recital, performing from memory without assisting artists

1840

Herz modifies Erard's "repetition" action

1841

Becker Company established, St. Petersburg

Liszt: Norma, Don Juan, and Robert le Diable Fantasies published

1843

Chickering patents one-piece metal frame for grands

Antoine-Jean Bord invents capo d'astro bar (downbearing bar at tuning-pin end of strings)

Leipzig Conservatory founded

1844

Schwander opens his piano action making factory in Herrburger, Germany

1845

Leopold De Meyer tours U.S.

1846

Henri Herz tours U.S.

1847

Gaveau Company established, Paris

1848

Debain invents an automatic mechanical piano, Paris

1849

Ed. Seiler Company established, Liegnitz/Kitzingen

1850

Heintzman Company established, Toronto

1851

"Great Exhibition" displays state-of-the-art pianos, Erard favored, London

1852

Mathushek Company established, New York

Weber established, New York

1853

Steinway & Sons, New York established

Chickering builds new factory, second largest building in U.S., Boston

Liszt: B minor Sonata composed

Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3 composed

Louis Moreau Gottschalk returns to U.S. as a touring virtuoso

Bluthner piano company established in Leipzig, Germany

Bechstein established in Berlin, Germany

1854

Mason & Hamlin established in Boston

1855

William Mason establishes chamber music series in New York

1856

Wurlitzer Company established, Chicago

Thalberg tours U.S.

Lebert & Stark: Grand Theoretical and Practical Piano School published

1857

George Steck Company established, New York

Peabody Conservatory founded, Baltimore

1859

Henry Steinway, Jr. patents cross-stringing for grands

August Forster Company established, Lobau, Germany

1860

Julius Feurich established, Leipzig

Broadwood & Sons make their last square; uprights dominant in European homes

1862

At London Exposition, Steinway wins a medal with cross-strung grand

DH Baldwin established in Cincinnati, Ohio

1864

Petrof Company established, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

1865

Grotrian Company established as successors to Theodore Steinway, Braunschweig, Germany

Oberlin Conservatory founded, Oberlin, Ohio

1867

Chickering and Steinway win the top prizes at Paris Exposition

New England Conservatory founded

1869

Balakirev: Islamey composed

1872

Theodore Steinway patents the duplex scale to enrich the tone

Steinway presents Anton Rubinstein's U.S. tour

Sohmer established, New York

1874

Albert Steinway patents the sostenuto pedal (miDTle pedal on modern grands)

1874

Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition composed

1875

Chickering presents Hans von Bulow's first U.S. tour

1877

British Piano Manufacturing Co. established in London

1878

A Japanese square piano is exhibited at Paris Exhibition

1880

Wurlitzer Company begins making pianos

Theodore Steinway develops the laminated grand piano rim

1881

Mason & Hamlin Company begins making pianos, Boston

1882

Louis Renner Company founded to make piano actions, Stuttgart, Germany

1885

Schimmel Company founded near Leipzig

Aeolian Organ & Music Co., later Aeolian Co., founded to make automatic organs, later automatic pianos

1888

Steinway & Sons makes its last square piano; other Americans continue making them

1891

D. H. Baldwin Company, Cincinnati, begin making pianos

Steinway presents Ignacy Jan Paderewski's first U.S. tour

1893

Estonia Pianos opens in Russia

1895

Story & Clark Company making pianos, Chicago, later Grand Haven, Michigan

Aeolian Company making automatic pianos, New York

1896

Kohler & Campbell Company established, New York

Edward MacDowell: Woodland Sketches composed

1899

Torakusu Yamaha begins making pianos, Hamamatsu, Japan

Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag published

Eubie Blake: Charleston Rag composed

First competition of pianists, Russia

Go To: 1700s 1800s 1900s 2000

1900

E. S. Votey, Aeolian Company, patents pneumatic piano player, the "Pianola"

Baldwin wins grand prize at Paris Exposition

1901

Welte-Mignon invents a player-piano mechanism, Freiburg, Germany

Debussy: Suite pour le piano composed

Ravel: Jeux d'eau composed

Piano Manufacturers Association founded, later PMAI

1903

Winter & Co. established, New York

Rachmaninoff: Ten Preludes, Op. 23 published

1904

American piano manufacturers make bonfire of square pianos, Atlantic City

Chickening produced a quarter grand, said to be the smallest of its kind, it was 5-foot long, and only 50 inches wide.

1905

Hupfeld makes the "Dea" reproducing-piano mechanism, near Leipzig

The Juilliard School founded

Octavius Beale started making pianos in New South Wales Australia

1906

Gulbransen Company established, Chicago

1908

American Piano Co. founded, incorporates Chickering, Knabe, Weber, Haines Brothers, and others

National Association of Piano Tuners founded

1909

Albeniz: Iberia published

1910

Steinway & Sons moves its factory entirely from Manhattan to Astoria, Long Island

Broadwood among the first British piano maker to make player pianos

1911

Bartok: Allegro barbaro composed

Granados: Goyescas published

Kemble piano company established, England

1912

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 composed

Eastman School of Music founded

1913

Aeolian Co. patents "Duo-Art Reproducing Piano," New York

American Piano Co. makes "Ampico" player mechanism, New York

1915

Charles Ives: Concord Sonata composed

1916

Mannes College of Music founded

1917

Manhattan School of Music founded

San Francisco Conservatory founded

1918

Hector Villa-Lobos: Prole do bebe composed

1919

156,000 pianos; 180,000 player pianos manufactured in U.S.

1923

Jelly Roll Morton's first recordings, Chicago

1924

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue premiered

Curtis Institute founded

1925

Henry Cowell: The Banshee composed

1927

Kawai Company making pianos, Hamamatsu, Japan

1928

Earl "Fatha" Hines records Apex Blues, Weather Bird

1928-30

Neo-Bechstein, electric piano with electromagnetic pickups to amplify struck strings

1929

Great Depression seriously limits piano manufacture everywhere

1930

Koichi Kawai leaves Yamaha and starts his own firm, Japan

1932

American Piano Co. and Aeolian merge to form Aeolian American Corporation

Tobias Matthay: The Visible and Invisible in Pianoforte Technique

1933

Art Tatum's first professional solo recordings

Challen Company makes the largest (11-foot-8-inch) grand ever made, London

1935

Alfred Knight Company founded to make uprights in Essex, England

1939-45

World War II effectively halts piano manufacture everywhere

1940

John Cage: Bacchanale composed

American Association of Piano Technicians founded

1945

Mary Lou Williams: Zodiac Suite composed

1947

Conlon Nancarrow begins Studies for Player Piano

1948

Pierre Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 2 composed

1953

Liberace wins 2 Emmy Awards for network television programs

1955

Guangzhou-Pearl River Company established, Guangzhou, China

1958

Samick Company established, Inchon, S. Korea

Shanghai Piano Co. established, Shanghai

Beijing Piano Co. established, Beijing

Van Cliburn wins Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow

Piano Tuners and Piano Technicians Associations merge as Piano Technicians Guild

1960

Harold Rhodes develops the electric piano (Fender-Rhodes)

1961

Pleyel, Erard, Gaveau merge

1963

Kawai America established; followed by Kawai Europe, Canada, Australia and Asia.

1966

Bosendorfer, Vienna, acquired by Kimball, Chicago

1968

Young Chang begins making pianos, Inchon, S. Korea

1969

Japanese piano production exceeds that of all other countries

Yamaha is Japan's largest producer

Astin-Weight patents larger soundboard design for uprights, Salt Lake City

1971

Schimmel acquires Pleyel, Erard, Gaveau

1972

CBS buys Steinway & Sons

1973

Steve Reich: Six Pianos composed

1974

Baldwin buys Bechstein, Berlin

1975

Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated composed

1977

John Adams: Phrygian Gates composed

1980s

Development of computerized player pianos, Bosendorfer, Yamaha, Baldwin, and others

1980

Fazioli pianos presented, Sacile (Portenone), Italy

1985

A group of Boston businessmen buys Steinway & Sons from CBS

Aeolian Corporation disbanded

Wurlitzer buys Chickering name

1987

Baldwin sells Bechstein back to employees

1988

Klavins builds a 12-feet-high experimental upright, Bonn, Germany

1990

Young Chang buys Kurzweil Music Systems, American maker of electronic keyboards

- PianoDisc (Music Systems Research) established, Sacramento

Chavanne Pianos established in France

1991

Boston Piano Company established as Steinway subsidiary, New York

1993

Darrell Fandrich patents new upright action design, Seattle

1995

Steinway and Selmer merge into Steinway Musical Instruments

Baldwin buys Wurlitzer and Chickering names

1996

Piano Disc takes control of Mason & Hamlin, Sohmer, and Knabe

Young Chang opens factory in Tianjin, China

Kimball ceases piano manufacture

1997

Broadwood barless grand piano design patented and launched

Dietrich Heinrich Dotzek of Sweden, takes out a patent for a magnetic assisted upright piano action

1998

The U.S. International Trade Commission starts an investigation into the competitiveness of the US piano industry due to piano imports from China, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea - released in 1999

Steinway acquires Kluge, Europe's largest manufacturer of piano keys

Broadwood celebrates their 270th anniversary

1999

Deutsche Bank announces purchase of Baldwin retail financing units at a cost of 35 million dollars, helping Baldwin Pianos to clear some of it debts and concentrate on piano production.

Go To: 1700s 1800s 1900s 2000

2000

The year 2000 marks the 300th year of piano manufacturing

Piano300 exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Ron Overs (Australia) presents a revoutionary new grand piano action design, offering pianists a level of control, responsiveness and speed unrivalled in grand pianos to date

Kawai launches Shigeru custom grand piano

Pearl River Piano Group announced they were to begin production of the old German make, Ritmuller

Whelpdale, Maxwell & Codd Ltd. and Woodchester Pianos merge into The British Piano Manufacturing Company Ltd.

Schaff Piano Supply Co. buys American Piano Supply Co. (USA)

2001

Steinway begins distributing their Essex line, manufactured by Young Chang

Baldwin files for bankruptcy

2002

Gibson purchases Baldwin Piano Co., including the Chickering and Wurlitzer names.

Bosendorfer purchased by BAWAG - PSK GROUP, Austria's third largest banking group.

Bosendorfer releases Porsche Design 7 foot grand

2003

Steinway celebrates its 150th anniversary at Carnegie Hall in New York

Inter Music (England) purchases the stock of the British Piano Manufacturing Co Ltd., also acquiring the piano names of Bentley, Knight, Welmar, and Woodchester

Bluthner releases its "left-handed" or "backwards" grand piano - with the treble keys, hammers and strings on the left and the bass on the right.

Grotrian (Germany) introduces its Duo Grand Piano - 2 grand pianos placed side by side with keyboards at opposite ends, as in a duo piano concert, with connected soundboards and a common lid.

The British Manufacturing Co. ceases operations in April

2005

Steinway announces to move production of some of the Essex models to the Pearl River Factory in China.

2006

Steinway & Sons' New York factory announces the return in production of the Model O grand with its characteristic round tail, curved bass bridge, and rear duplex scales. The Model O was originally introduced in 1902. By 1923, the last of the Model Os were produced in New York (although the model has since been made at their Hamburg factory).

Schulze Pollman partners with Ferrari Motor Car to launch limited edition pianos based on the Ferrarl 612 Scaglietti series.

Go To: 1700s 1800s 1900s 2000
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This information was found at Concert Pitch Piano