Harpsichord-maker, born in Padua, NE Italy. He is usually credited with the invention of the pianoforte in c.1710.
Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (May 4, 1655 - January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano.
Life
The available source materials on Cristofori's life include his birth and death records, two wills, the bills he submitted to his employers, and a single interview done by Scipione Maffei.
Cristofori was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice. However, as Stewart Pollens points out (see References below), this person cannot be Bartolomeo Cristofori, since the census records an age of 13, whereas Cristofori according to his baptismal record would have been 25 at the time. Pollens also doubts the authenticity of the cello and double bass instruments sometimes attributed to Cristofori.
Probably the most important event in Cristofori's life is the first one of which we have any record: in 1688, at age 33, he was recruited to work for Prince Ferdinando de Medici.
It is not known what led Ferdinando to recruit Cristofori. The Prince traveled to Venice in 1688 to attend the Carnival, so he may have met Cristofori passing through Padua on his way home. However, it seems possible that the Prince wanted to hire Cristofori not just as his technician, but specifically as an innovator in musical instruments. It would be surprising if Cristofori at age 33 had not already shown the inventiveness for which he later became famous.
The evidence--all circumstantial--that Cristofori may have been hired as an inventor is as follows. Moreover, Pollens notes, "curiously, [among the many bills Cristofori submitted to his employer] there are no records of bills submitted for Cristofori's pianofortes ... Lastly, the Prince was evidently fascinated with machines (he collected over forty clocks, in addition to a great variety of elaborate musical instruments), and would thus be naturally interested in the elaborate mechanical action that was at the core of Cristofori's work on the piano.
Maffei's interview reports Cristofori's memory of his conversation with the Prince at this time:
which Giuliana Montanari (reference below) translates as:
This suggests that the Prince may have felt that Cristofori would be a prize recruit and was trying to charm him into accepting his offer;
In any event, Cristofori agreed to the appointment, as a salary of 12 scudi per month. Cristofori's initial work space was probably in this area, which did not please him. He later told Maffei:
It can be seen that the very same words from the Maffei interview ("rispos' egli il farò volere io") have been interpreted by Montanari and Pollens in radically different ways, one portraying the Prince as charming if imperious, the other as harsh. In any event, Cristofori did eventually obtain his own workshop, usually keeping one or two assistants working for him.
During the remaining years of the 17th century, Cristofori invented two keyboard instruments before he began his work on the piano.
The first appearance of the piano
It was thought for some time that the earlier mention of the piano is from a diary of Francesco Manucci, a Medici court musician, indicating that Cristofori was already working on the piano by 1698.
The entry in this inventory for Cristofori's piano begins as follows:
The term "Arpicembalo", literally "harp-harpsichord", was not generally familiar in Cristofori's day. Edward Good (reference below) infers that this is what Cristofori himself wanted his instrument to be called.
Another document referring to the earliest piano is a marginal note made by one of the Medici court musicians, Federigo Meccoli, in a copy of the book Le Istitutioni harmoniche by Gioseffo Zarlino. The meaning is "Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, inventor, made [this] in Florence in [date]."
Design
Cristofori's 1726 piano design boasted almost all of the features of the modern instrument. Here are design details of Cristofori's instruments:
Action: Piano actions are complex mechanical devices which impose very specific design requirements, virtually all of which were met by Cristofori's action.
First, a piano action must be arranged so that a key press does not actually lift the hammer all the way to the string. In Cristofori's pianos, the hammer travels freely for about 1-2 mm., between the final impetus given by the key and contact with the string.
Second, a piano action must greatly amplify the motion of the player's finger: in Cristofori's action, an intermediate lever was used to translate every key motion into a hammer motion eight times greater in magnitude.
Third, after the hammer strikes the string, the action must avoid an unwanted second blow, which could easily result from the hammer bouncing up and down within the space confining it. By lifting the intermediate lever with a jack that disengages in its highest position, the Cristofori action made it possible for the hammer to fall (after its initial blow) to a position considerably lower than the highest position to which the key had lifted it. In addition, the Cristofori action also included a check (also called "back check") that catches the hammer and holds it in a partially raised position until the player releases the key;
Cristofori's action was sufficiently complex and hard to build that it was a barrier to later builders, who tried to simplify it. the standard modern piano action is a still more complex and evolved version of Cristofori's original.
Hammers: The hammer heads in Cristofori's mature pianos are made of paper, curled into a circular coil and secured with glue, and surmounted by a strip of leather at the contact point with the string.
As in modern pianos, the hammers are larger in the bass notes than in the treble.
Frame: Cristofori's pianos use an internal frame member (bentside) to support the soundboard; This system was also applied by Cristofori to harpsichords. The use of a separate support for the soundboard reflects Cristofori's belief that the soundboard should not be subjected to compression from string tension. Cristofori's principle continues to be applied in modern pianos, where the now-enormous string tension (up to 20 tons) is borne by a separate iron frame (the "plate").
Inverted wrest plank: On two of his surviving instruments, Cristofori employed an unusual arrangement of the tuning pins: they are inserted all the way through their supporting wrest plank.
According to musical instrument scholar Grant O'Brien, the inverted wrestplank is "still to be found in pianos dating from a period 150 years after [Cristofori's] death." these devices pull the string in the direction opposite to the hammer blow, just as in Cristofori's original arrangement.
Soundboard: Cristofori used cypress, the wood traditionally favored for soundboards in the Italian school of harpsichord making. Piano making after Cristofori's time ultimately settled consistently on spruce as the best material for soundboards;
Strings: In Cristofori's pianos, there are two strings per note, throughout the compass. Modern pianos use three strings in the mid and upper range, two in the upper bass, and one in the lower bass, with greater variation in thickness than Cristofori used.
In two of the attested pianos, there is a forerunner of the modern soft pedal: the player can manually slide the entire action four millimeters to one side, so that the hammers strike just one of the two strings ("una corda").
The strings are somewhat thicker than harpsichord strings of the same period.
It is difficult to determine what metal the strings of Cristofori's pianos were made of, since strings are replaced as they break, and sometimes restorers even replace the entire set of strings. According to Stewart Pollens, "the earlier museum records document that all three [attested] Cristofori pianos were discovered with similar gauges of iron wire through much of the compass, and brass in the bass."
More recently, Denzil Wraight and Tony Chinnery, who have built replica Cristofori pianos, have taken the view that Cristofori favored brass strings, except occasionally in very demanding locations (such as the upper range of a 2' harpsichord stop).
Tonal quality
Of all historical pianos, Cristofori's sound the most like harpsichords--in particular, more like harpsichords than do the Viennese-style early pianos of the later 18th century, which are probably the most familiar to modern listeners. To hear the sound of Cristofori instruments (both restored and replicated), consult the external links given below.
The initial reception of the piano
Our knowledge of how Cristofori's invention was initially received comes in part from the article published in 1711 by Scipione Maffei, an influential literary figure, in the Giornale de'letterati d'Italia of Venice.
One reason why the piano spread slowly at first was that it was quite expensive to make, and thus was purchased only by royalty and a few wealthy private individuals. The ultimate success of Cristofori's invention occurred only in the 1760s, when the invention of cheaper square pianos, along with generally greater prosperity, made it possible for many people to acquire one.
Subsequent technological developments in the piano were often mere "re-inventions" of Cristofori's work; For the history of the piano after Cristofori, see Fortepiano and Piano.
Surviving instruments
Ten instruments that survive today are attributed to Cristofori:
An early (17th century) harpsichord, with a case made of ebony Two oval spinets, from 1690 and 1693.The later instruments, dating from Cristofori's old age, probably include work by assistant Giovanni Ferrini, who went on after the inventor's death to build pianos of wider range using the same basic design.
Assessments of Cristofori
Cristofori was evidently admired and respected in his own lifetime for his work on the piano. Cristofori was actually only 76 at his death]
An anonymous 18th century music dictionary, found in the library of the composer Padre G. Giuliana Montanari]
After his death, however, Cristofori's reputation went into eclipse. As Stewart Pollens has documented, in late 18th century France it was believed that the piano had been invented not by Cristofori but by the German builder Gottfried Silbermann. Silbermann was in fact an important figure in the history of the piano, but his instruments relied almost entirely on Cristofori for their design.
In the second half of the 20th century, Cristofori's instruments were studied with care, as part of the general increase in interest in early instruments that developed in this era (see authentic performance). The modern scholars who have studied Cristofori's work in detail tend to express their admiration in the strongest terms; Stewart Pollens says "All of Cristofori's work is startling in its ingenuity"; and the early-instrument scholar Grant O’Brien has written "The workmanship and inventiveness displayed by the instruments of Cristofori are of the highest order and his genius has probably never been surpassed by any other keyboard maker of the historical period ...
Cristofori is also given credit for originality in inventing the piano. While it is true that there had been earlier, crude attempts to make piano-like instruments, it is not clear that these were even known to Cristofori.
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