Member Reviews

The Creation of Music is the fictional story of Bartolomeo Christofori, the creator of the piano.

Starting when Chrisofori was a child, we see how his life progressed and how he was chosen to event the piano and the struggles with which he needed to deal along tge,way.

We hear about his marriage, the struggle to have children and devastation that can happen in life and where it can lead. And within these sect of the book, we see that he is very much human.

Given that not much is act known about Christofori, this brings to life both a man and what led to the piano, probably the most important instrument to Clinton existence.

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I really enjoyed this book more than I expected. I think it might be a stretch to call it a historical fiction, but I did like the journey. After awhile Cuori's story started to annoy me and I couldn't figure out why her POV was so included. All I'll say is to trust the process. I do believe that without her side of the story, the climax wouldn't have had as much impact. I would highly recommend this to music lovers. You'll never look at a piano the same way. I was disappointed that the soundtrack comes out so far after the book is published. I think a lot of people are going to miss out on that by reading it without it. I would also have liked to see the songs included in the index. Overall I think the story outweighs those cons though.

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Creation of Music

I visited Florence last year and got to see the earliest examples of the ‘new invention’ - the Piano. Being immersed in this story has really made me want to return! This experience is what tweaked my interest in ‘The Creation of Music’. This story’s timeline spans over a decade of family relationship and struggles in adapting to adversity, new cities and loss. I’m pretty ambivalent about this story. I had high hopes about learning more about the creation of the piano. In reality, this story barely covered it.

While the setting is 16th century Italy, the modern language and cursing made for a disjointed read. It kept getting confused about which time period I was in. Also, I highly doubt a young child in this time period would have had a lot of access to multiple books.

Thank you to NetGalley for the gifted ebook in exchange for my honest thoughts.

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Maybe 2.5

This is an enjoyable story about Italy and the creation of the piano. However, I feel like the piano was not the forefront of the story and that's what I expected. I love having a narrative of the people and their lives but a few things were hard for me. First of all, the dialogue was just not believable (to me) as plausible for how people would have spoken in 15th century Italy. Everyone felt like a "perfect" character with always perfect resolution. All in all, I finished the book and enjoyed picturing the Italian cities and countryside. Thanks to NetGalley for this book.

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This book is an absolutely beautiful piece of art! Getting to know the piano's inventor was absolutely a delight, and something about this book feels very charming and cozy, even if the plot might not necessarily be reflecting that. Bell's prose is absolutely marvelous and drew me in from the first page. It did feel a bit lengthy at times, however, it's not something that bothered me too much. While I'm not typically a fan of historical fiction, this book truly delivered. It provided something truly unique, and it's such a worth-it read.

This book would be such a sensation to read while listening to the soundtrack once it comes out! I can't wait to recommend it to my friends!

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