Double keyboard Steinway

Bet you haven't seen this one before :wub:

Steinway's Double-Keyboard Piano | New York Times Video

I want one ;)

Holy AWESOMENESS!!!!! I totally want one too! Thats sooooo wicked cool. I freaking drooling everywhere now! ;)

I don't really see the point. If one wants to play the Goldberg Variations, they should be played on harpsichord, that is what they were intended for. If there is only one of these in existance, anything written for it would probably never get a chance to be performed unless more were made, and that would involve a LOT of money.

I don't think the question was ever answered, does this piano feature one set or two sets of strings? Is there a difference in tone between the two manuals(?), I can't tell from the video. If they are the same or different would make a huge difference as to what would be possible on it. If they were the different, then some people who want those huge chords would have tone colour issues, and others would suddenly think now that any chord is possible, icluding those spanning two octave plus and write things that are still impossible to play. Just some random thoughts.

It is a truly very interesting instrument, but is it worth it?

Nah, its not worth it. I doubt there will ever be any real use for this instrument despite its sheer AWESOMENESS!!!! ;)

I don't think the question was ever answered, does this piano feature one set or two sets of strings? Is there a difference in tone between the two manuals(?)

Well, I think I read somewhere that it is just one set of strings. So I guess it sounds the same over both manuals (also I think you can see in the video that there's only one set of strings/hammers.

I think it could be used to create some pretty cool stuff. Like he showed in the video how you could use the upper manual for really stretched chords. And it'd get easier to play repetive notes and the occasional "crossing jumps" with the left hand. It may be a tad unneccessary with two manuals but it certainly opens up a bit more options and makes some passages alot easier. If I had one I'd definately write for it. But I guess all you can do is dream :innocent:

I have seen harpsichords with more than one manual, and even pedal boards. I have also heard of pedal pianos, which are really rare. The place where the multiple manuals and pedal boards orginated were on the organ, oddly enough, in more than one country during the same period. (Every seen a Carillon? The keyboard is weird enough and it also has a pedal board, but more like the origional ones when keyboards were first developed).