Bartolomeo Cristofori

Bartolomeo Cristofori ( born May 4, 1655 in Padua, † January 27, 1731 in Florence ) was an Italian maker of musical instruments. He is considered the inventor of the piano.

Life

Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4, 1655, the son of Francesco Cristofori of Padua, which belonged to the Republic of Venice. Of his early life nothing is known. 1690 he was appointed by Ferdinando de ' Medici, son of the Tuscan Grand Duke Cosimo III. de Medici, as an instrument builder and tuner brought to his court in Florence. During this time Cristofori began work on a new striking mechanism that would allow a dynamic game. The inventory of musical instruments from 1700 lists a arpicembalo che fà il piano e il forte on ( A harpsichord that can play loud and quiet), which is usually dated to the year 1698 and was a first piano. It had a range of four octaves. Cristofori remained even after the death of Ferdinand in 1713 at the Grand Ducal workshop, produced by more Pianoforte and refined their technique.

He also restored some valuable older harpsichords and developed two new keyboard instruments, the spinettone (a big spinet with several tabs ) and a representative oval spinet, the bass strings were placed in the center.

Bartolomeo Cristofori died on 27 January 1731.

Invention

Was the basis for dynamic playability (ie, variable volume) of the pianoforte a sophisticated mechanism, in which a hammer was thrown through a jack against the string and immediately released back to the free swinging. By pressing the button, a damper was raised at the same time, who caught the vibrating string after releasing the button. Cristofori spanned two equally tuned strings (called a choir ) next to each other to allow a higher volume.

In 1726 Cristofori had completed his instrument. Today there are three originals, one is located in Leipzig, one in Rome and one in New York. A total of ten instruments of various types are obtained from his workshop.

The first collection of sonatas, which was specially composed for Cristofori's pianoforte, comes from Lodovico Giustini.