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MMD > Archives > March 2006 > 2006.03.20 > 03Prev  Next


Source of Ivory Keytops
By Randolph Herr

To Glen R. Perye Jr. who wrote in for ivory:  If you look on eBay
under ivory keys, you will find lots of people selling full and partial
sets of ivory.  I just bought a complete set to recover the keys of
an old Mason and Hamlin Liszt Organ.  This was an organ built to the
specifications of Franz Liszt, who was into organs as well as pianos.

As long as I am on this subject, I have an article about a strange
grand piano in a museum in Europe.  It is a very large grand, but it
does not have any legs; the case continues down all the way to the
floor.  There are two keyboards; the top is the conventional piano
and the bottom one is a reed organ!  There are pumping pedals in the
front like a reed organ or player piano.  It was custom built for
Franz Liszt, and it is nice to imagine him foot pumping a grand piano,
even if it wasn't a player.  The article states that it was also built
with conventional organ foot pedals on the floor.  When Liszt was using
those pedals, the machine had to be pumped by a hand lever that would
be operated by an assistant.

Randolph Herr


(Message sent Mon 20 Mar 2006, 15:37:29 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Ivory, Keytops, Source

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