silbermann also played a big role in the history of the piano. he built the first german fortepiano in 1732. during the 1740s, king frederick the great of prussia became familiar with silbermann's pianos and bought a number of them. he employed carl philipp emanuel bach who was playing silbermann fortepianos and wrote music for this particular fortepiano model. they were also played by johann sebastian bach during his visit to potsdam where during his second visit silbermann pianos met bach's "complete approval".