The dots under the pianoforte notes mean those notes are played staccato. It means that those notes are played short and clipped. And I think you can sub a piano for a pianoforte. If I'm not mistaken, the pianoforte was a forerunner to the piano and somewhat similar.
Pianoforte is just another (lesser used) term for piano. Arguably it is the more proper term. Prior to this I had never heard the term "sul" but just looked it up to find that it's short for "sul corda" which means "on the string of". In context this means play the first two notes on the g string and the second two notes on the d string. It's not surprising that I've never heard the term having never played a stringed instrument other than a piano(forte). (and the dots under the notes (as opposed to next to the notes) do mean that a note is played staccato.)
There was also "fortepiano", which I think was a different design path that got dropped in favour of the pianoforte, but I may have misremembered that and it might just be an even more obsolete synonym for pianoforte ... (Off to Google now...)
And that's about all the help I can be. :)
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Prior to this I had never heard the term "sul" but just looked it up to find that it's short for "sul corda" which means "on the string of". In context this means play the first two notes on the g string and the second two notes on the d string. It's not surprising that I've never heard the term having never played a stringed instrument other than a piano(forte).
(and the dots under the notes (as opposed to next to the notes) do mean that a note is played staccato.)
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