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The piano was first called the hammer-harpsichord, afterward by the Italian name forte-piano, as it could give both loud and soft tones, while the harpsichord produced only loud ones.

The next name given to it was forte-piano, which signified soft, with power; and this name became piano-forte, which it still retains.

Thus he wrote to Artaria in 1788: "I was obliged to buy a new forte-piano, that I might compose your clavier sonatas particularly well."

His instrument was called forte-piano or pianoforte, because it would strike loud or soft.

It is, perhaps, needless to say that the vastly enlarged possibilities, both technical and tonal, of the newly invented forte-piano were largely the outcome of this seeking for colour in music.