The cultural framework

In 1648 the protestant northern provinces of the  Netherlands gained their independece but the catholic southern provinces remained under the rule of the spanish Habsburgs (modern Belgium). The kingdom of the Netherlands ruled by the Oranien-Nassau dynasty soon grows to one of the wealthiest states of Europe by the busy overseas trades with Asia and America and the dutch cities esp  Amsterdam soon overshadow their southern neighbours in Flanders like Antwerp, Brussels or Bruges. This includes a "Golden Era" of the Arts including painting and horticulture- but the music falls into decline.

The important exception is manifest in Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, organist of the Oude Kerk of Amsterdam, one of the most important keyboard composers of the late 16th century; but apart from his compositions his utmost importance is as a (well paid obviously) teacher of the most important dutch and german keyboard composers of the  17th century.

The southern Spanish Netherlands remained a region of unrest, fighting for independence from Spain and supported by France, England, or the independent northern provinces – in ever-changing coalitions – to weaken each other and to gain control of this rich province of the Hapsburg empire.

The flourishing musical culture of this region influencing the whole of Europe in the previous centuries suffers under the permanent unrests, uprisings and military expeditions.The Ruckers (and Couchet) workshop in Antwerp and the Dulcken family carries on the harpsichord tradition well into the 18th century, but the economic situation in Antwerp is in steady decline.

The small city-states of northern Italy, with their ruling noble families like the Medici, Este, Sforza, or Gonzaga, are small but often very wealthy due to trade. The competition between them (as well as with the neighboring republics of Venice and Genoa and the Papal States) and attempts from outside to bring them under French, German (nominally they were partly part of the Holy Roman Empire), or Spanish control have shaped their history and culture for centuries. However, their decline slowly begins in the 17th century. The Mediterranean trade, which had made states like Venice rich, loses more and more significance—the Ottoman Empire dominates the southern and eastern Mediterranean coasts, and the expeditions of the Portuguese and Spanish to India (hence the naming of the Caribbean islands as the West Indies) and East Asia shift European (American and) Eastern trade to the sea route across the Atlantic, from which the fleets of the Italians are practically excluded. Furthermore, the old transalpine trade relationships also lose importance as a terrible war rages in Northern Europe for decades.

Yet music flourishes: opera and oratorio, church music, and courtly musical life serve as models for all of Europe; a stay or even an education in Italy is the final refinement of skills for many aspiring young composers from the North. During this period, Italy acquires its reputation as the premier land of music in Europe.

The 17th century is not only a turbulent and warlike time on the European mainland but also on the British Isles. Although England had already fought its major religious conflicts internally under the Tudors—Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth—in the second half of the 16th century (no less cruelly than in other countries), with the deposition (and beheading in 1649) of Charles I, an era of the most brutal civil war in England and Ireland begins. The period following Cromwell's victory, the Commonwealth era, and the dominance of Puritan-influenced beliefs is outwardly a very music-hostile epoch: Church music is more or less undesirable, and public musical life practically does not exist. Making music becomes a private (and almost secretly practiced) indulgence on the borderline of vice. In this situation, domestic playing on a keyboard instrument remains one of the few ways to enjoy music.

This only changes again with the accession of Charles II in 1661; although succession conflicts repeatedly break out after his death, cultural life stabilizes under his rule. However, the later judgment of England as a country without music, despite some notable exceptions like Henry Purcell, has its roots in the events of the 17th century.

Like most German countries and cities, Nuremberg was heavily affected by the Thirty Years' War. The depopulation—between 1618 and 1648, more than a third of the inhabitants in some areas lost their lives—left Central Europe recovering only very slowly. And particularly the old trade metropolises like Nuremberg and Augsburg never regained their former importance.

Nevertheless, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Nuremberg played a significant role in cultural life once more. Composers like Pachelbel and his student Leffloth attest to the high level of keyboard artistry that flourished there. And an important component of all pianos came from Nuremberg for centuries: the strings. The art of metal wire drawing was significantly improved in Nuremberg (with the invention of the mechanical drawing bench around the turn of the 16th century) and was fundamental for the use of strings made from brass and other metals in pianos.

France emerged from the Thirty Years' War significantly strengthened. The absolute French monarchy under the Sun King Louis XIV is regarded in many respects as a model for all of Europe, also in many cultural areas. Just as many small European princes subsequently had their own miniature Versailles built, they emulated the French court in all aspects of courtly representation. Thus, soon, court orchestras based on Lully's model in Paris emerged in many residences across Europe.

Paris also set aesthetic standards in the field of music for keyboard instruments. The model of the harpsichord suites by the Couperin family had an influence that extended well into the following century. From the mid-17th century onward, there were two prevailing styles in music, the Italian and the French; and in the field of music for keyboard instruments, everywhere except in Italy, only one. Consequently, composers such as Purcell, Handel, Bach, and others generally composed for the harpsichord following French stylistic principles.

The capital of the mighty Habsburg Empire, in which (before the division of the House of Habsburg into a Spanish and an Austrian line) the sun never sets, itself was threatened for centuries by the Ottoman Turks, whose conquests in Southeast Europe ended multiple times just at the gates of Vienna (most recently in 1683). In the 17th century, Vienna became a cultural center for the part of Europe that remained Catholic.

The significance of Vienna as the home of major piano composers did not begin with the Viennese Classical period. In the 17th century, one of the most important keyboard composers, Johann Jacob Froberger, lived and worked here. He integrated the traditions of Italian (Frescobaldi) and German (Sweelinck and his pupils) keyboard composition and passed them on to his successors in Vienna (Poglietti, Kerll, and others).

After the 30 years' war the Imperial City Augsburg received a constitution demanding religious parity of Catholics and Protestants: Every public office was doubled to be maintained by one representative of each denominations, whether mayor or scribe. A settling of a craftsman  is a relatively complex procedure with numerous testimonies and attestation and statements from both sides, but on the other side this also offers a basis of contact and exchange between the strictly separated communities.

Johann Andreas Stein after his move to Augsburg c.1750 soon becomes a major attraction or the town, Almost any musician of rank  is keen to pay a visit him when passing Augsburg, so Mozart in 1777, Beethoven probably 10 years after. Many disciples of him transfer the piano manufacture to other towns, his daughter Nannette moves to the upcoming metropolis of piano Vienna.

A family portrait in a civil patrician salon Basel in late 18th century gets depicted by the painterJohann Jacob Burckhardt of 1775. Particularly remarkable is the situation on the right: Music is an activity of the grown children.  Daughter playing keyboard instrument (here a typical contemporary oblique spinet), the  son tuning his violin. The scenery is a metaphor for the future „being in tune“ with a marriage consort, music making one of socially acceptable situations  for future spouses to meet and children should be educated for.

German harpsichord building before  1700 left only few traces, probably a consequence of the 30 years' war. Producing clavichords and harpsichords traditionally was a side business of organ builders, even more so at times when repearing and building new organs did not provide enough income. Only in a few prospering cities specialised workshops focussing on harpsichords could manage, as in the Prussian capital Berlin, or the port city Hamburg exporting to the Scandivian and Baltic regions. The harpsichords by the Haas/Hass family, Fleischer and Christian Zell differ considerably by their unique constructions, decoration and disposition from the rest of German instruments of the time and reveal the orientation towards a wealty clientele.
In Berlin the admiration for music of some Hohenzollern family members (particularly Friedrich II and his sister princess Anna Amalie of Prussia) attracted the most prominent composers who represent the stylistic changes in mid-18th c. music: the brothers Graun, the  Benda family, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach as  court harpsichordist or the flutist Johann Joachim Quantz, the teacher of Friedrich. In response also the instrument building flourished and achieved top standard, whether the flutes by Kirst or the harpsichords of Mietke, no less prominent in the Berlin and Potsdam castles than the pianos of Silbermann.

Dresden is remodelled under the reign of Augustus II the Strong prince-elector of Saxony and king of Poland tbe renowned as one of the most excellent cities in Europe. The famous baroque ceremonial buildings corresponded in excellence in the quality of the Dresden court orchestra than maybe the best in Europe. But Saxony's brilliance did not last. The Seven years' war ruined the country but even the decline of Saxony had severe cultural consequences.

Gottfried Silbermann who worked during these glorious times is not only one of the most excellent organ makers of the 18th century (main works: Dresden Frauenkirche 1732-36, sadly not reconstructed during rebuilding, and Hofkirche 1750-54, completed posthumously; Mozart commented: „Es sind über die Maßen herrliche Instrumente“ - excellent beyond measure), but also by his re-constructing of the pianofortes by Cristofori one of the key figures for the spreading and slow diffusion of the piano. His pianos were especially appreciated in Berlin, he delivered about  15 to Frederic II for every of his castles in (the majority destroyed in WWII). But even more relevant for the piano success story  were the numerous disciples of Silbermann's like the  „12  apostles“ emigrating to London (and among them eg Johann Christoph Zumpe),  the co-founders of english piano making.

The protestant Imperial city amidst catholic Bavaria is from 1663 to 1806 seat of the Perpetual Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, a convention of the territories and monarchs within the empire, their ambassadors taking temporary or permanent quarters within town.

This encouraged the establishments of keyboard making workshops. The most important of these the workshop of „Späth und Schmahl“ are still well known for the  tangent pianos. Regensburg is one of the earliest keyboard manufacturing centres in the modern sense focussing on export. Up to the early 19th century the Regensburg makers exported their Instruments to Italy, France, Russia, America, the Baltic and the other German speaking territories.

For Straßburg 1648 is a year of grave change: the former Imperial city becomes part of France at the end of the 30 years' war. Town and country become the more a centre of mutual cultural exchange across the Rhine. Since Straßburg joined the reformation early the town is a focal point for protestants on both banks of the Rhine.

One name shines out in the 18th century representing the close link of German and French musical culture in the Alsace: Silbermann. The founder of this organ makers' dynasty, Andreas S. of Kleinbobritsch in Saxony, moves to Straßburg around 1700. From then on to far in the 19th centuy his specific style shapes the still famous alsatian organs of that time. More relevant for piano making, however, are his younger brother Gottfried (-> Dresden) and his son Johann Andreas S.; although they all also produced harpsichords and clavichords Gottfried Silbermann's attempt to imitate Cristofori's „Gravecembalo col piano e forte“  is the trigger for piano production north of the alps.