The Piano
Prepared By: Maria Darbinian
Prepared For: Professor Daniel Moser
Introduction to Humanities
DeVry University Online
In the 1700’s the piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy first introduced to the world as the "pianoforte" meaning “Soft loud”. “In the last quarter of the 18th century the piano had become the leading instrument of the western art of music that still lives on till today as an exotic instrument played by talented people in the world.” (Wendy Powers, 2003) Music has lived on from the beginning of time by all cultures and races for decades. Music is known to make the heart, soul, and brain one. Without this invention Beethoven would have not made the music that lives on till today and many other talented famous throughout the world. The piano reaches out to the most inner deepest soul all the way to keys that charge up chakras for well-being. A piano has 8 white keys c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c and 5 black known as the Chromatic scale which is 13 including next count which correlates with the 8, 11, 13 chakras.
Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4 on 1655 and passed away in 1731. Bartolomeo Cristofori’s occupation was a harpsichord maker and a designer. By 1688, Prince Ferdinando de Medici of Florence, son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany got Bartolomeo Cristofori because of his talent and reputation. The princes owned forty harpsichords and spinets, and hired Cristofori at the age of 33 to both curate the collection, and build new ones. Cristofori became the custodian of the instruments in the court in starting from 1690. Around 1700, he began to work on an instrument on which the player could achieve changes in loudness just by changing the force with which the keys were struck. Instead of the quill jacks used to pluck the string on the harpsichord, Cristofori’s' innovation was to devise a way in which the strings were struck from below by individual hammers covered in deer leather. He had
References: Arkenberg, Rebecca. (October, 2002) Title of Source: "Music in the Renaissance” Retrieved From: 2000http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/renm/hd_renm.htm Cipolla, Carlo M. (1981) Title of Source: Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy. Retrieved From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_plague_of_1629%E2%80%931631 Duchnycz, Jordan. (May, 2012) Title Of Source: Spirit Of Science 1-15 full movie series Retrieved From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaDOkMEK4uk&feature=related Powers, Wendy. (October, 2003) Title Of Source: The Piano: The Pianofortes of Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731)