Bartolomeo Cristofori

Bartolomeo Cristofori was a brilliant Italian instrument maker. He is most famous for inventing the piano. This invention changed how musicians express emotion through sound. Before the piano, keyboard players used instruments like the harpsichord. Harpsichords pluck strings to make sound. This makes it difficult to change volume by how hard you press the keys. Cristofori wanted to create a machine that could play both soft and loud.

Cristofori's new invention was called the "arpicembalo." This name literally means "harp-harpsichord." The instrument used two sets of strings at unison pitch. It featured a soundboard made of cypress wood. The earliest known version had a range of four octaves, from C to c'''.

This range was a standard compass for harpsichords of that era. His work required deep mechanical skill to manage how the strings were struck. This mechanism allowed for the dynamic control that musicians desired.

Before perfecting the piano, Cristofori invented several other unique keyboard instruments. One was the spinettone, which means "big spinet."

This was a large, multi-choired instrument. It used a disposition of 1 × 8' and 1 × 4'. This design might have helped it sound louder in crowded orchestra pits. He also created a highly original oval spinet.

This instrument was a type of virginal. It featured the longest strings positioned in the middle of the case. He also built a clavicytherium, which is an upright harpsichord.

Cristofori's career was shaped by his relationship with the Medici family. He was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice. In 1688, at age 33, he was recruited by Prince Ferdinando de Medici. The Prince was a great lover of music and machines. He even collected over forty clocks. Ferdinando likely hired Cristofori as an innovator rather than just a technician.

The Prince paid him a salary of 12 scudi per month. Cristofori moved to Florence and eventually established his own quiet workshop.

We know much about his work through historical inventories and documents. An inventory from the year 1700 provides the first unambiguous evidence of the piano. It describes the "arpicembalo" as a new invention. Another musician, Federigo Meccoli, wrote a note about the instrument in a book. He credited Master Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua for the invention in the year 1700. By 1711, records suggest Cristofori had built three pianos. One went to a Cardinal in Rome, while two were sold in Florence.

As the Medici family's prosperity declined, Cristofori began selling his instruments to a wider market. The king of Portugal purchased at least one of his creations. In 1726, a portrait was painted of Cristofori. He stood proudly next to a piano while holding a diagram of the instrument's action.

Although the portrait was destroyed during the Second World War, photographs still exist. Cristofori continued to improve his invention until near the end of his life. He died on January 27, 1731, at the age of 75.

Only three of Cristofori's original pianos survive today. These instruments allow us to study his mechanical genius. One 1720 instrument is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It has a 54-note range, though parts have been replaced over time. Another 1722 instrument is kept in the Museo nazionale degli strumenti musicali in Rome.

The third is located in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Leipzig. These surviving pieces connect us to the very beginning of the piano's history. They show how one man's curiosity changed the world of music.