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exhibit
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information
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online
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Name
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Bartolomeo Cristofori
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Date of birth
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4.5.1655
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Date of death
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27.1.1731
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Biography
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Bartolomeo Cristofori was active in Padua until 1687. In either 1688 or 1689 he moved to Florence. From April 1st, 1698 on, he was employed with a fixed salary at the court of Ferdinand de Medici; from 1761 he held the post of curator of the court's instrument collection Cristofori experimented, along with other instrument makers at the end of the 17th century, with a new type of keyboard instrument.
The idea was to replace the harpsichord's plectra, which plucked the instrument's strings (giving the player no control over dynamics), with hammers, which would strike the strings. Depending upon whether it was played with a hard or soft touch, sounds ranging from loud (forte) to soft (piano) would be produced, hence the instrument's name. Cristofi developed the fortepiano without knowing just how great and far-reaching an impact his invention would have.
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Works
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Spinet, 1693
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Fortepiano, 1726
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