Jul 19 2007
One piano, two keyboards
The New York Times has a fascinating article about a one-off Steinway concert grand piano with two keyboards. The second, shorter (76 keys) keyboard sits above and plays the same set of the strings as the main keyboard, but an octave higher. This gives the pianist the ability to play very large intervals, such as two octaves, with one hand - a feat not possible on a standard piano.
The piano’s mechanism was invented by an Hungarian composer named Emanuel Moor. The Steinway factory in Hamburg, Germany, built one. The Austrian builder Bösendorfer made around 60. The last remaining Bösendorfer instrument is at a piano studio called Hurstwood Farms in Kent, England.
A video accompanying the NYT article shows pianist Cristopher Taylor playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the Steinway.
