Wednesday, May 4, 2005

 

Spotlight: Bartolomeo Cristofori, the Italian harpsichord maker who is credited with inventing the first piano, was born on this date in 1655. The oldest of Cristofori's existing pianos is in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Outwardly, it resembles a harpsichord, with 54 keys on its single keyboard. The other two Cristofori pianos are in Rome and Leipzig. The word "piano-forte" came from the Italian for "soft-loud," indicating the ability to play the piano at different volumes.

Quote: "I hope to refine music, study it, try to find some area that I can unlock... These can't be the only notes in the world, there's got to be other notes some place, in some dimension, between the cracks on the piano keys." -- Marvin Gaye

Word of the day: vibrato: an instrumental or vocal musical effect produced by rapid, tiny variations in pitch and frequency (© )

Today's News:

• Egypt: "most beautiful mummy ever" unveiled in Saqqara Pyramids (story)
• Asian-Americans: seen on TV as asocial, workaholic (story)
• Cher: bids fans a final farewell at Hollywood Bowl (story)

Today's History:

• Haymarket Square riot: labor unrest in Chicago leaves 8 dead; workers were demanding 8-hour workday (1886)
• Grammy Awards: held for first time; won by Perry Como and Ella Fitzgerald (1959)
• Kent State University: four antiwar protesters shot to death by National Guard in Ohio (1970)

Today's Birthdays:

• Horace Mann: father of US public education (1796-1859)
• actors: Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), Pia Zadora (51)
• George F. Will: Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist (64)