1709 bartolomeo cristofori biography
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The Piano: The Pianofortes of Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731)
The Importance of the Piano
The pianoforte, more commonly called the piano, became, by the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a leading instrument of Western art music, for both professionals and amateurs. The modern piano is a highly versatile instrument capable of playing almost anything an orchestra can play. It can sustain pitches in a lyrical fashion, creating all musical styles and moods, with enough volume to be heard through almost any musical ensemble. Broadly defined as a stringed keyboard instrument with a hammer action (as opposed to the jack and quill action of the harpsichord) capable of gradations of soft and loud, the piano became the central instrument of music pedagogy and amateur study. By the end of the nineteenth century, no middle-class household of any stature in Europe or North America was without one. Almost every major Western composer from Mozart onward has played it, many as virtuosi
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Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), a harpsichord maker for a Florentine duke, built the world's first piano. He later made several technical alterations to improve the instrument's acoustics that have remained essential components of its construction.
Almost ingenting is known about the personal life of Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori, except that he was born in the northern Italian city of Padua on May 4, 1655. He became a harpsichord maker, and bygd 1688 his reputation brought him to the attention of Prince Ferdinando dem Medici, son of the grand duke of Tuscany. The prince owned forty harpsichords and spinets, and hired Cristofori to both curate the collection and build new ones. The harpsichord, also called a clavecembalo or clavecin, dated back to the fourteenth century and took the form of strings stretched over a wooden sounding board. Notes emerged when a plectrum, or pick made from a bird's quill or leather, träffad the string. Its main drawbac
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The upright piano was invented in 1709 by Bartolomeo Cristofori. It is a type of piano that has a vertical frame and a keyboard that is parallel to the floor. Upright pianos are usually smaller and more compact than grand pianos, and they are typically used in homes and small music venues.
Hawkins was a civil engineer and inventor who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hawkins created the upright piano and invented the mechanical pencil in addition to his work on mechanical pencils. It was not a new idea for the strings to be placed vertically a long time ago. Because of their height, the strings began at the top of the keys, hence the name Giraffenflgel. The item was in high demand in 1812, according to an issue of the Repository of Arts.
Among these are John Isaac Hawkins, an inventor and civil engineer from the 18th and 19th centuries who is buried among them. John Hawkins’ work on the mechanical pencil was in addition to his invention of the modern upright piano. John H