fortepiano

[ fawr-tuh-pyah-noh ]

noun

1. a piano of the late 18th and early 19th centuries with greater clarity but less volume, resonance, and dynamic range than a modern grand, revived in the late 20th century for the performance of the music of its period.

fortepiano

/ ˌfɔːtɪpɪˈænəʊ /

noun

1. an early type of piano popular in the late 18th century

Word History and Origins

Origin of fortepiano¹

First recorded in 1760–70; early variant of pianoforte

Word History and Origins

Origin of fortepiano¹

from Italian, loud-soft

Example Sentences

In 1986, he left the group to concentrate on solo and chamber music, with an emphasis on the harpsichord and the fortepiano, a softer-sounding predecessor of the modern grand piano.

From New York Times

I’ve never seen in Mozart so many fortepiano dynamics; it’s abrupt and a permanent change of color.

From New York Times

Opera Orchestra played on modern instruments, with the exception of a fortepiano, but it needed modern amplification.

From Los Angeles Times

An impossible challenge: Choose a single track from the dozens in Robert Levin’s tirelessly lively, eloquent collection of Mozart’s piano sonatas, recorded on their composer’s own fortepiano.

From New York Times

Robert Levin here offers the first survey of Mozart’s piano sonatas to be recorded on the composer’s own walnut-clad, ebony-keyed fortepiano, an Anton Walter construction dating roughly to 1782 that Mozart used privately and publicly in Vienna from around 1785.

From New York Times