WTI Magazine #73    2015 November 27
Author : Giovanni Verde      Translation by:

He is considered the father of the modern piano (pianoforte). Bartolomeo Cristofori was born in Padua on May 4, 1655. Even during his early life in Padua Cristofori works as a harpsichord maker and reaches notoriety. Ferdinando de 'Medici, son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III, calls him at the Medici court in Florence. Ferdinand's father, Cosimo was a big fan of musical instruments, and a keen harpsichordist. It likely is the noble Papafava family, where Bartolomeo's mother works, to present the young talent at the Medici court.

A rich documentation proves Cristofori's great production in Florence. Bartholomew builds spinets, harpsichords and numerous string instruments. Among the commissions received by Bartolomeo during the last years of 1600, one particularly opens the way to the innovative idea of the Italian harpsichord maker: a new tool that exploits a technique different from that used at that time, striking the taut strings, instead of pinching.

These are years of experimentation, prototypes, different projects. The distribution of the new innovative pianos starts in the twenties of the eighteenth century. In those years, despite Ferdinand's death, Bartolomeo Cristofori continues to work at the court of the Medici, while not renouncing to satisfy private requests. Three original pianos have come down to us. One in particular, from 1722, is preserved at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome.

Bartolomeo Cristofori dies in Florence on January 27, 1732, in the San Jacopo tra i Fossi church, and then he is buried in Santa Croce church.

We only have one image of the Paduan harpsichord: the unknown author portrays Cristofori standing next to a keyboard instrument while holding a sheet with the scheme of the mechanical hammer and the words "Bartholomaeus Cristof" while in the background, through a window, we can spot the city of Florence. Found in 1934, the portrait was destroyed together with the Museum of Musicl Instruments in Berlin, where it was shown. We only have a few reproductions of it.

Among the instruments certainly attributed to Bartolomeo Cristofori, a fortepiano from year 1720 is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On the front of the block that supports the mechanical it is engraved, in Latin: "Bartholomaeus De Cristophoris Patavinus inventor faciebat Florentiae MDCCXX" (Produced in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori from Padua, in 1720"; and on the side, in Italian, "Restaurato l'Anno 1875, da Cesare Ponsicchi Firenze" (Restored in the year 1875 by Cesare Ponsicchi, Florence). Unfortunately, it is a sample much altered in its original features, because of the repeated restorations.

The invention of Bartolomeo Cristofori completely shocked the concept and the modality of how to do music. The harpsichord was quickly replaced by the "piano", which introduced the capacity to give strength to different sounds, depending on the pressure applied. One feature that will make the piano, direct successor of Cristofori's invention, one of the most popular and appreciated instruments ever.