# A new piano design



## KenOC

Daniel Barenboim has designed his own piano. "Barenboim launched the instrument at London's Royal Festival Hall, in advance of his Schubert recital series. He intends to perform the entire series on the new piano." Interesting article.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32885683


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## Lukecash12

KenOC said:


> Daniel Barenboim has designed his own piano. "Barenboim launched the instrument at London's Royal Festival Hall, in advance of his Schubert recital series. He intends to perform the entire series on the new piano." Interesting article.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32885683


I'd give three likes if I could. Maybe classical music wouldn't be as stagnant if we had kept developing many ingenious instruments, just as regularly as they had in the past.


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## Ilarion

A dude in Los Angeles named David Rubenstein designed and constructed a 12 foot 2 inch Concert Grand Piano - Having heard it myself I can attest to its immense power and clarity. I wish I could afford one...


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## Ravndal

Sounds a bit like a toy piano for me right now. But id love to hear more, to make up my mind.


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## Hmmbug

I feel like this is something Glenn Gould would have done. He had always been about (and at the end of his career, went off the far end about) clarity and independence of voices, especially in his Bach, but also in his other recordings - Beethoven, Schoenberg, even Chopin. I'm sure he would have enjoyed this new development if he were still living.


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## leroy

interesting though maybe that one isn't quite radical enough, this one is a couple of stories high to get better sound on the lower register


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## Gaspard de la Nuit

Modern pianos were made to be loud and powerful, starting in the 19th century with the piano becoming the premier virtuoso instrument. Unfortunately, they probably lost a lot of what made them attractive to begin with in that process. 

So I think this is neat, the modern piano is ringy but bland as was mentioned, it would be nice to have some more beauty and character attributed to the tone of the instrument.


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## Ravndal

It will be a curiosity. The crossed strings is there for a reason, getting more overtones. A richer sound.


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## Lukecash12

Ravndal said:


> It will be a curiosity. The crossed strings is there for a reason, getting more overtones. A richer sound.


I believe what you're referring to is sympathetic vibration. That simply increases volume and sustain. When it comes to overtones I don't expect there would be terribly much difference. While sympathetic vibration can have an effect on the overtone series this only occurs between keys that fall harmonically in line within the series. So not only is there a small surface involved that is susceptible to vibration, only some strings will have a sympathetic response just to the overtones, which would be those strings in the first few overtones of the series. This is something you can test for yourself by playing one note and another note an octave and a fifth above it, straining your ears to notice that the overtones are barely more audible.

Actually the main factors involved in the volume of overtones are the density and dryness of the wood, as well as the amount of brass in the sound board, size and model of tuning pins, not to mention the tension against the pins... Even the shape of the hammers can be a factor in that. But it must be emphasized that differences in overtones can become negligible at a certain point as it pertains to volume and sustain. Instead, overtones can have a bigger impact on timbre and that's when we get to discussing partials, i.e. basically inaudible overtones that aren't part of the natural series (the more audible overtones are all derivative of perfect intervals) which determine qualities like how "fruity", "tinny", "dense", "wide toned", "crisp", or "mellow" a piano sounds.

So because there are so many contributing factors I would think that this would impact the timbre and pitch clarity more than anything else. Part of why modern pianos sound more "dense" is all of these new elements that add to the sympathetic vibration, e.g. not just the overlapping strings but also the 20th century invention of pin-blocks. I would imagine that the reduction of this phenomenon is purposeful and there are many more ways you can go about doing that.


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## adamlovespianos

Very interesting. I would love to hear how it sounds. Recently, A very interesting piano has also been constructed by a german constructor. https://www.klaviano.com/pianos-for-sale/klavins/das-klavins-una-corda-piano-321705.html

you could hear it here and read more about it. I would love to try it.


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## Taplow

:clap: :clap: :clap:


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