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The ancestry of the piano can be traced to the early keyboard instrumentsof the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries -- the spinet, the dulcimer, andthe virginal. In the seventeenth century the organ, the clavichord, andthe harpsichord became the chief instruments of the keyboard group, asupremacy they maintained until the piano supplantedthem at the end of the eighteenth century. The clavichords tone wasmetallic and never powerful; nevertheless, because of thevariety of tone possible to it, many composers found the clavichord asympathetic instrument for intimate chamber music. The harpsichord with its bright, vigorous tone was the favorite instrument for supporting the bassof the small orchestra of the period and for concert use, but the character ofthe tone could not be varied save by mechanical or structural devices. The piano was perfected in the early eighteenth century by a harpsichord maker in Italy. This instrument was called a piano e forte, to indicate its dynamic versatility; its strings were struck by a recoiling hammer with a felt-padded head. Thewires were much heavier in the earlier instruments. A series of mechanical improvements continuing well into the nineteenth century, including the introduction of pedals to sustain tone or to soften it, theperfection of a metal frame, and steel wire of the finest quality,finally produced an instrument capable of myriad tonal effects from the mostdelicate harmonies to an almost orchestral fullness of sound, from a liquid,singing tone to a sharp, percussive brilliance. | 
