A new musical instrument: the violano
The back end of this instrument looks like an ordinary grand piano. However,
after the strings go through the hammer assembly, they branch off in groups of
four, and the wood frame of the piano splits up similarly to become the necks
of a violin, viola, cello, and bass (perhaps multiple copies of each). The
piano strings are attached at the tops of the fiddleheads. One muscian sits at
the keyboard, striking keys to hit hammers on the strings. Four or more
musicians sit in front of the pianist, with the viol necks passing over their
shoulders, and finger and bow the strings. You get both piano sounds and
string-quartet sounds out of the same instrument. Most interestingly, the note
played by the piano hammer varies depending on the finger-positions of the
string players. The pianist may strike the same key twice in succession and
get two different notes. This is an extremely difficult instrument to play,
requiring both the pianist and the string players to coordinate very precisely
to produce the right note. The pianist must account for the hand positions of
all the string players, and the string players must often form chords for both
the note they're playing and the note(s) the pianist is playing.
Presumably the strings will be tuned to open fifths (fourths?) as on ordinary
viols; the instrument must have fewer strings than an ordinary piano, since
there's no room for 22 string players to sit in front of a grand piano. One
probably wants to have two or more violins and/or violas; this means that
the keys on the piano will not be in a major scale, or even in strictly
ascending order.
Written Mar 31, 1999, but conceived earlier
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