Sunday, July 15, 2007

Stienway's one-off double-keyboard piano




The NY Times have interesting feature about a Steinway piano built in the late '20s with two keyboards and four pedals (but just one set of strings and hammers). The upper keyboard runs an octave higher than the lower (and pulls the keys of the lower 'board down, like on a player piano). The mechanism was devised by Hungarian inventor Emanuel Moor - about 60 Moor pianos were made by Bösendorfer, but this is the only Steinway. There's a nice video, with a chap using the piano to play the Goldberg Variations - composed for a double-manual harpsichord. (Thanks, Ben)

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