The Music Box: The Story of Cristofori
Kindergarten-Grade 2-A simply told story of Bartolomeo Cristofori, a 17th-century Italian harpsichord maker and musician whose love of both music and volume prompted him to invent the piano. Fascinated with sound, Cristofori experimented with wire and hammers, stoppers, and dampers, eventually creating an instrument he named the gravicembalo col piano e forte. The book suggests he decided to call it the piano, "for short," which differs from the truth a bit, since its name was actually shortened to "pianoforte" and it continued to be called that for some time. Due to fictionalizing in the text, readers may need to rely on the three-page afterword about Cristofori, his times, and the piano for the facts of the story. Uninspired drawings, pasted-on photographs, and some poor-quality reproductions illustrate the text. A flawed introduction to one of the most common instruments and one of history's lesser-known musical figures.Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NYCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.