Piano crossed with a harp
This is only one of two remaining harp-pianos, the bastard hybrid of a harp and a piano:
Rare harp-piano by Dietz, Austria or Germany, ca. 1840 (Thanks, Steve!)
An extraordinarily rare harp-piano by Dietz, Austria or Germany, ca. 1840. The strings are plucked as on a harp, operated through a piano keyboard.
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I know I've seen one at the Liberace museum.
You could almost call it a harp-sichord.
I like this method of cramming a (more or less) grand piano-shaped instrument into a small room with high ceilings.
hmmm. A harp-piano?
Sounds alot like a harpsichord. In fact it is a harpsichord. Although this model/style may be rare, harpsichords in and of themselves are not. And yes, this is a harpsichord. "Harp-piano" is just the bastardized, uneducated combination of the two words that come to mind when an ignorant fool saw this wonderful instrument.
Sorry to be rude about semantics, but describing this instrument as anything but a harpsichord is foolish.
Well, technically it's a clavicytherium with exposed strings, which isn't terribly common, but certainly not one of only two in the world. To be fair, calling it a "harp-piano" hybrid is pretty ridiculously ignorant.
FLASHDAVY, maybe I'm an uneducated ignorant fool, but I don't think most harpsichord's have pedals. This also looks to me like a piano keyboard. I think harpsichord's have double keyboards.
Ah yes, the shocking ignorance of the experts at "www.periodpiano.com" who catalogue and classify antique pianos. Clearly, they need Flashdavy on staff.
I've done some quick googling and it appears this is actually a keyed harp. Neither a harpsichord or a clavicytherium (more accurately: an upright spinet).
http://books.google.com/books?id=uexrDtt7JKEC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=%22keyed+harp%22&source=web&ots=qalz8D0o1z&sig=-kwZKjNzHsW2bJiDharG3r9qScs
Hmm. Apparently there's a bunch of differant piano/harpsichord-like instruments with upright harp-esque strings. I sort of get the impression that many of the differances are internal, and not the sort of thing you can identify from a picture.
I thought I'd chime in with my musical expertise and offer that it does not appear to be a saxophone.
If, as the teaser suggests, the strings are plucked, rather than struck, it would, indeed, be closer to a harpsichord. "Piano" is shorthand for "pianoforte," the full name of the instrument, thus named because the hammering of the strings allows for a dynamic range from soft ("piano") to loud ("forte"). Instruments with mechanically plucked strings lack this flexibility, unless there are strictly tiered dynamics (one manual plucks more strings than the other or something). Typically, though, harpsichord players adjust their dynamics by actually playing fewer or more notes, since they can't just pound harder.
Anyway, long story short: the harpsichord people win, if the post is accurate.
What a coincidence! I just got back from a conference at which I had my first introduction to the arpicembalo (unless the pedant police want to have me for this), where it turns up in a portrait of the famous castrato Marc'Antonio Pasqualini.
It's times like these that I find it hard to get the Small World song out of my head (and now, alas, out of yours as well. Apologies!)
strings are plucked not hammered => no dynamic range => not piano(forte) => harpsichord
flashdavy has my vote
I believe this collection of comments is called a wank-fest. Unfortunately, not at all rare.
Wow guys! You actually make me believe that my degree of compulsion is quite within limit. I have to refer this thread to doctor Dave who might just review his diagnostic and finally let me out!!!
HarpPunk!
Totally with TimQuinn and Iaminnocent.
I don't really know why I decided to look at the comments of this post, but I was vaguely expecting something along the lines of "What a beautiful instrument, thanks" - not the outraged semantics war that seems to have ensued.
Not a single post showing any interest in the actual subject, beyond what to call it. Personally I find the instrument fascinating, and it's classification within the keyboard family irrelevant.
It is a very beautiful instrument indeed- I ran into a lovely one in the fabulous Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels: http://tinyurl.com/6e6y8k
The one posted here was made by Dietz so it can definitely be defined as a harp-piano, also called a claviharpe- read all about it here: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g2ZJNN98LFAC&pg=PA164&dq=claviharpe
Apparently there are other examples in museums in Leipzig, Munich, as well as Brussels.
Yep, it seems to be a claviharp.
I think most of the other people are thinking about a Giraffe piano. There had been a vogue for noisy Turkish March style music, and this was a way of getting a large frame and a louder instrument into a smaller room. These were upright pianos and they looked like this...
http://www.pianoworld.com/gallery/piano_pictures3.htm
FOOLS! This is definitely a claviharpsipianocord! You are all ignorant moronidiots! Only I know all!!!
The biggest difference between this and a harpsichord is in the soundboard and bridge orientation. In a harpsichord, like on a violin, the strings are attached at one end, pass over a bridge that sits on a soundboard (the belly, or top, of the violin) and are then attached at the other end. The soundboard is parallel to the strings.
With a harp, on the other hand, the soundboard is perpendicular to the strings, and the strings pass through holes in it. Harps generally don't last too long because all the string tension is supported by the soundboard itself, which is necessarily a fairly thin and fragile piece of wood.
lutes and guitars are more like violins and harpsichord, but the strings are anchored into the bridge itself, which is glued onto the soundboard.
I don't know what the mechanism is for these claviharps, but I expect it's similar to a harpsichord. Of course, like a clavicytherium (upright harpsichord) it would have to be modified from the usual action in order to pluck horizontally. The clavicytheria I've seen do this with triangular rockers that transform the vertical motion of the key into the horizontal motion of the jack which slides past the string to pluck it.
Oh, and just to clear up the other inaccuracies in this thread: Harpsichords generally don't have pedals, but it's not unheard of. They aren't used like piano pedals though, but just for changing registers. Most harpsichords do these changes with hand-stops, or by sliding keyboards in and out to couple them.
And while many harpsichords have two manuals (keyboards), it's certainly not a requirement. Very little music is written that requires both keyboards, (Bach's Goldberg Variations being the best known example) though they can be handy even when not absolutely required.
And that harp-piano must be a real pain to tune... I'd need to stand on a chair or something to reach the bass tuning pins, and have an assistant play the keys...
And here I just thought, "wow, it doesn't look too different from what a grand piano would look like if made upright"
Pianos are, essentially, hammered harps. And not half as interesting as these instruments, which show Jimmy Page wasn't overly original after all:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jibrilbaldhead/3092980934/
This is the perfect instrument on which to play Bach's Rube Goldberg Variations.
This reminds me of the classic scene from "A Day At The Races" where Harpo Marx destroys a piano, and then plays what's left like a harp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBk5Ne5x1hQ
To hell with pianos, harpsichords, clavicytherums, and harp-pianos!
CLAVICHORD 4 EVAR!!!!
In the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, there exists a furniture item called a Harpsichord which looks eerily similar to the above.
http://rgonots-sylph.net/cpg1410/albums/userpics/10002/Teb080711110606a.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v421/ah_sing/Sheeny%20Gallery/Harpsichord.png
(images found via images.google.com)
I do believe, as the world's foremost expert on such subjects, that I must reveal that this is not a piano-harp, harpsichord, nor clavicytherum. It is a harp-piano. This is an easy mistake to make, of course, since they look so similar, but while piano-harps and harpsichords pluck the stings when a key is pressed a harp-piano presses the key when a string is plucked. A simple error, although a fatal one nonetheless. I do mean fatal: if you try to play a harp-piano like a piano-harp you will die.
Macroscopia: Heaven forbid someone find interest in something in a different way than you. That would just be too much! Some of us spectrum types are interested (occasionally obsessed, even) with the nature and classification of things. I chose to comment accordingly. I never claimed to be an expert and knew I was talking out of my ass, but I enjoyed the research and learned quite a bit. That doesn't mean I had no interest or aesthetic appreciation in the object, just that I chose not to comment on it. Your hyper critical, self-righteous post certainly wasn't anything novel or unique in the dialogue.
There's a bunch of differant piano/harpsichord-like instruments with upright harp-esque strings. I sort of get the impression that many of the differances are internal, and not the sort of thing you can identify from a picture. dallas piano lessons
I believe that CLAYTON is wrong. I believe this because I went 2 the link he provided. Once there I immediately looked at the picture th caption clearly stated that it is also called a clavicytherium. If u need 2 doubled check go to http://books.google.com/books/id+uexrDtt7JKEC&pg=PA24&lpg=%22keyed+harp22&source=web&ots=qalz8Doo1z&sig=-kwZKjNzHsW2bJiDharG3r9qScs