Piano is just 300 years old? There's more.

Haydn wrote a gazillion baritone trios

There are quite a lot of aficionados for fortepianos.  Generalizations are always difficult.  Many fortepianists are excellent musicians but in general I dislike the instrument. It sounds like a pre pubescent harpsichord to me.  It’s easier for a sensitive pianist to scale down a Steinway to play Mozart than to have a fortepianist try to project Beethoven 

This timeline intrigued me. It struck me as illogical as it tells us that the earliest instruments were flutes.  My Grove Dictionary says there is a lot of controversy on this subject.  I always supposed some sort of rudimentary drum, but thinking it through now that can't be right either.  The answer is clear and can't be in doubt:  The first musical instrument had to be the voice.  Cheers and thanks for this stimulating post. 

The pianos of Stuart & Sons represent a fairly recent technological advancement in piano design and modern exotic materials are now appearing in pianos.  I am sure the merits of these "improvements" can be debated, but tiny changes have been happening.  It would be particularly nice if piano actions can be made more durable, but, I suppose piano makers have no interest in innovations that will decrease demand for new pianos.  

Their history of AC/DC jumped from the first album in 1975 to Back In Black in 1980. They missed a whole lot of good music with Bon Scott in between.