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K-Gr 3—A well-researched, fascinating account of the father of modern-day pianos. Bartolomeo Cristofori was a talented 17th-century inventor born in Padua, Italy, who loved the light and powerful sounds of the clavichord and the harpsichord. He longed to create an instrument that married both of these kinds of notes. With the patronage of Prince Ferdinando de' Medici, Cristofori was able to spend the rest of his life tinkering away in his quest for what would eventually become the pianoforte. Rusch's energetic text is paired ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Readers take a journey to Italy during the closing years of the Renaissance to meet a man whose invention is better known than his name. Hired by Prince Ferdinando de Medici to restore and build musical instruments in Florence, Bartolomeo Cristofori repairs sixteen instruments and builds a couple of spinets, an organ, and six harpsichords from 1690 to 1698. Even with this prodigious output, he dreams of creating a new instrument, one that will produce both the soft sounds of the harpsichord and the loud sounds of the clavichord. Sur...Log In or Sign Up to Read More