50 Fun Facts About Piano

Who invented the piano around 1700 while Keeper of the Instruments for the Medici court?

He was born in Padua and hired by Prince Ferdinando de' Medici in 1688; three of his pianos survive, in New York, Rome and Leipzig.

Cristofori's original name for his invention described a keyboard of cypress with what quality?

'Un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte' was shortened to pianoforte, then fortepiano, then just piano.

How many keys does a standard modern piano have?

That is 52 white and 36 black, spanning seven octaves plus a minor third from A0 to C8.

How many black keys are there on a standard 88-key piano?

They come in alternating groups of two and three, which is how players find their way around without looking.

On a three-pedal grand piano, what is the leftmost pedal called?

On a grand it shifts the whole action sideways so the hammers hit fewer strings; the sostenuto is in the middle and the sustain on the right.

The combined tension of the strings in a modern grand piano can exceed roughly how much?

That is why a cast-iron plate is needed; Alpheus Babcock patented the single-piece iron frame in Boston in 1825.

How many strings does each note in the treble of a piano typically have?

The bass graduates down to two and then one thick wound string per note.

Roughly how many individual parts can a piano contain?

They support six systems: keyboard, action, dampers, bridges, soundboard and strings. A Steinway grand takes nearly a year to build.

The Imperial Bösendorfer has nine extra bass keys. How many keys does it have in total?

That gives it a full eight-octave range; the extra keys are often coloured black so pianists are not thrown by them.

Who invented the player piano, which plays itself from a paper roll, in 1863?

Rolls later preserved performances by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Scott Joplin himself.

What material traditionally covered a piano's white keys before plastics took over?

Yamaha developed a plastic called Ivorite to imitate its look and feel.

Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 in which city?

German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg started it; a Hamburg factory followed, and the two still build rival versions of the Model D.

What letter designates Steinway's flagship concert grand, just under nine feet long?

About 2,000 'Steinway Artists' worldwide agree to perform only on the company's pianos, unpaid.

The world's largest instrument maker, with a three-tuning-fork logo, was founded in 1887 to make what?

Torakusu Yamaha built Japan's first piano in 1900; the motorcycle business was spun off in 1955.

Which Cristofori piano is the oldest of the three that survive, and where is it?

He had built at least three pianos by 1711, but none of those survive; he died in Florence in 1731.

Roughly how many public concerts did Chopin give in his whole life?

He preferred Paris salons; after his death at 39 his heart was taken back to Warsaw's Holy Cross Church.

Which French novelist was Chopin's lover for nine years from 1838?

Marie d'Agoult was Liszt's partner; Sand and Chopin parted acrimoniously in 1847, two years before he died.

Which poet coined the term 'Lisztomania' in 1844 for the frenzy around Franz Liszt's concerts?

Liszt was the first pianist to give solo recitals in the modern sense, playing entirely from memory.

Beethoven's Für Elise, written in 1810, was not published until which year?

Ludwig Nohl found it four decades after Beethoven's death; 'Elise' may have been a misreading of Therese Malfatti, whom Beethoven proposed to that year.

A critic picturing a moonlit boat on which Swiss lake gave Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 its 'Moonlight' nickname?

Ludwig Rellstab coined it in 1832, after Beethoven's death; the composer had headed it 'Sonata quasi una fantasia' and dedicated it to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.

Which Bach work did Glenn Gould record in both 1955 and 1981, bookending his career?

He quit concerts at 31 in 1964, calling them 'a force of evil', and hummed audibly on his records; one of his Bach recordings rides on the Voyager Golden Record.

What unique honour did Van Cliburn receive in New York after winning the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition?

He remains the only classical musician ever given one; his own competition began in Fort Worth in 1962.

How often is Warsaw's International Chopin Piano Competition held?

First held in 1927, it launched Pollini, Argerich, Zimerman and Seong-Jin Cho, and only Chopin's music is played.

Which Argentine pianist won the Chopin Competition in 1965?

Maurizio Pollini had won in 1960 and Krystian Zimerman followed in 1975.

John Cage first used a 'prepared piano' in 1940 because a Seattle venue lacked room for what?

He credited Henry Cowell's string-piano pieces as his inspiration; Sonatas and Interludes gave every key its own timbre.

Under what pen name did a 16-year-old British girl publish 'Chopsticks' in 1877?

Euphemia Allen's only published piece drew variations from Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and even Liszt.

Whose band backed Gershwin's premiere of Rhapsody in Blue at New York's Aeolian Hall in 1924?

Ferde Grofé orchestrated it, and clarinettist Ross Gorman invented the opening glissando as a rehearsal joke.

Which airline has used Rhapsody in Blue as its theme since 1987?

Its opening is said to be as recognisable to concert audiences as Beethoven's Fifth.

Billy Joel wrote 'Piano Man' after working a Los Angeles piano bar under what stage name?

The 1973 song only reached No. 25 on the Hot 100 but is now in the National Recording Registry.

Which actress played Ada, the mute pianist, in Jane Campion's 1993 film The Piano?

Hunter won the Oscar and 11-year-old Anna Paquin became the second-youngest competitive winner; Campion was the first woman to win the Palme d'Or.

Scott Joplin's ragtime enjoyed a huge revival after his music was used in which 1973 film?

Joplin, the 'King of Ragtime' who wrote Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 and The Entertainer in 1902, got a posthumous Pulitzer in 1976.

Which object did Liberace famously keep on top of his piano during performances?

He borrowed the idea from a Chopin biopic; he said 'I don't give concerts. I put on a show' and 'cried all the way to the bank'.

Elton John was born with which name?

He took his stage name from saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry, and won a Royal Academy of Music scholarship at 11.

Which rock and roll pioneer, nicknamed 'The Killer', recorded 'Great Balls of Fire' for Sun Records in 1957?

He played with fists, elbows and feet; his career collapsed in 1958 when it emerged he had married his 13-year-old cousin.

Rachmaninoff wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901 after a three-year depression was lifted by what treatment?

Physician Nikolai Dahl treated him for four months in 1900; the concerto is dedicated to Dahl.

Where did Rachmaninoff die in 1943, having left Russia for good after the Revolution?

In 24 American years he finished only six new works, saying that in leaving Russia 'I lost myself also'.

Which pianist with a 61-year concert career appeared on Germany's 100 Deutsche Mark note?

She fought a court case to marry Robert Schumann in 1840 and later championed Brahms.

Erik Satie's Vexations carries an instruction to play its short theme how many times in succession?

John Cage organised the first complete performance in 1963; it took over 18 hours and only one audience member stayed throughout.

Which Ray Charles recording became an official US state song in 1979?

Blind from about age seven, he was 'The Genius' who fused gospel and blues into soul; Jamie Foxx won an Oscar playing him.

Which two earlier keyboard instruments did the piano combine and surpass?

The harpsichord plucked its strings and could not swell; the clavichord could but was barely audible.

What is the length range of a concert grand piano?

Longer strings give a purer bass, which is why concert halls want the biggest instrument that will fit the stage.

The middle pedal on an American grand, which holds only the notes already being played, is called what?

Jean-Louis Boisselot invented it in 1844; many European uprights skip it or fit a practice mute instead.

Which organ builder copied Cristofori's design and invented the forerunner of the sustain pedal?

Silbermann's device lifted all the dampers from the strings at once; J. S. Bach later acted as his sales agent in 1749.

Which Paris firm built the pianos used by Franz Liszt, while Chopin favoured Pleyel?

Sébastien Érard's 1821 double escapement action made rapid repeated notes possible, a device Liszt exploited.

Sébastien Érard's 1821 invention allowing a note to be repeated before the key fully returns is called what?

Its repetition lever, or balancier, made the fast repeated notes of Romantic virtuoso music practical.

Who patented the single-piece cast iron frame for the square piano in Boston in 1825?

Babcock later worked for Chickering & Mackays, who patented the first full iron frame for grands in 1843.

Some 18th-century Viennese pianos differed from modern ones in what striking visual way?

Viennese-style pianos also used wood frames, two strings per note and leather-covered hammers.

Who first patented over-stringing for grand pianos in the United States, in 1859?

The idea had been invented by Pape in the 1820s; it gave bass strings greater length and a smoother transition.

The 'cottage upright' popularised by Robert Wornum around 1815 is informally nicknamed what?

The nickname refers to its prominent damper mechanism; these small uprights were built into the 20th century.

Which Scot joined Robert Stodart and Americus Backers around 1777 to create the first 'grand' piano?

They set a piano action inside a harpsichord case; Broadwood pianos became famous for their powerful tone.