What makes the fortepiano different from the modern piano?
A. Fortepianos, depending when they were made and who made them, differ a great deal from each other, but they all have a narrower range than the modern piano. From 1775 to 1840, the fortepiano grew from a range of five octaves like the harpsichord, to five and a half octaves, to six octaves, then 6 , but it was only in the 1850s that pianos emerged with the full 7 octave range we know today, and by then they were also very similar in other respects to the modern grand piano. Other than the difference in range, the most important difference between the fortepiano and the modern piano is that the fortepiano was made with a wooden frame, whereas the modern piano has a iron frame (here we are talking not about the shell of the piano, which is still made of wood, but the inside of the piano, where the strings are). The first pianos to be made with iron frames were made by the French company Erard in the 1820s, but for a long time after that, other French pianos and all Viennese pianos cont
