The original upright pianos were about 15% more expensive than the grands. They were about 7 1/2’ tall, very top-heavy, and were inclined to tip over with a real crash! Early uprights were often referred to as "giraffes.”

The word "orchestra" comes from the Greek word "orcheomai," which means "to dance."

The first damper pedal was a lever operated by the knee.

Until about 1890, women were not allowed to study music theory. They were thought to be incapable of understanding theory, and were not allowed into classes.

The first foot-operated damper (sustain) pedal was built by John Broadwood of London in 1783.

GF Handel had a rather unique way of dealing with the singers in his operas. When one of them disagreed with the way he wanted her to sing one of his arias, he held her out a window until she saw it his way.

Franz Liszt performed the first solo piano recital in Rome in 1839. Before then, pianists played between the acts of plays or between the performances of orchestras or chamber groups. Liszt also started the tradition of playing the piano on a bench rather than on a hard-backed chair.

Torakusu Yamaha built his first piano in 1899 - the same year that Scott Joplin published "The Maple Leaf Rag."

Unlike Mozart, who almost never made corrections to his music once he wrote it down, Beethoven often worked on pieces for years, making many changes and corrections.

As a young boy, the sound of a solo trumpet would send Mozart screaming from the room. He didn't like the sound of the flute, either.

When Beethoven was 8, his father arranged a concert to show off the boy’s talents. To make his playing even more impressive, Mr. Beethoven advertised that his son was only six.

In 1903, the Society of American Piano Manufacturers burned a 50' high pile of square pianos in Atlantic City. The reason they gave was that they wanted to stimulate the sales of the newer piano models. As a result, square pianos are now quite rare.

Mozart's sister, Nannerl, became a piano teacher and often played her brother's music. She was four years older than Wolfgang, but outlived him by forty years.

When Napoleon III was married, Queen Victoria gave him a piano that was built in the shape of his hat. It is still in a museum in Tokyo.

The oldest piano still in existence was built in 1720 by B. Cristofori.

At the London trade exhibition on 1851, there was a bed with a piano built into it that would play itself when someone laid on it.

Yamaha started making articles other than pianos out of leftover piano and organ parts. In 1932, Yamaha made 4000 pianos; 20,000 organs, almost 3 million harmonicas; and 369,000 square meters of veneer; as well as mantelpieces and airplane propellers.

Tchaikovsky was working on The Nutcracker when he came to New York to conduct the first concert at Carnegie Hall (May 5, 1891).

No fewer than 1098 patents for items related to the piano were granted during the period from 1825-51. Most of the patents came from England and France, but there were others from Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, and the United States. Only 264 such patents were granted before then.

King Leopold I of Austria had a harpsichord in every room of his palace so that he could try out any musical idea that might occur to him.

Along with his books of exercises for pianists and organists, Charles Louis Hanon composed more serious music for all levels of advancement. His piano exercises are what made him famous, however, and he won a silver medal for them in 1878 at the Exposition Universelle. Editions of the work appeared in the USA and Russia in 1900, and today the exercises are available throughout the world. There are also adaptations available for guitar, accordion, and xylophone!