Challenge: the triumph of the Janko keyboard

From a review of my brother Edward Tenner's *Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology*:

"For example, the conventional Western musical keyboard used on pianos and organs has always had its problems. The sheer size of the keyboard makes it hard for children to learn. Some compositions which require many of the black keys are difficult even for experts to perform. Transposition of a musical composition into a different key can be extremely difficult. The conventional keyboard requires a performer's fingers to stretch so much that in the 19th century, according to Tenner, surgeons were employed to sever the tendons between a player's fourth and fifth fingers in order to increase their span. Why not redesign the keyboard to make it easier to play?

"In the late 19th century a Hungarian nobleman named Paul von Janko did just that. He made the black and white keys on the keyboard the same size, both narrower and shallower than conventional keys, and arranged them in two staggered rows of whole tones. Above and below the home rows were banks of identical keys, making six rows of keys in all. The Janko keyboard looked complicated, but it was actually much easier to play. An octave was only six keys wide.

"At first the keyboard looked like a success. A Berlin conservatory began teaching courses on the Janko piano. Companies in the United States and Europe began to manufacture it. Prominent European pianists started to perform on it. Trade journals published enthusiastic articles. A Janko association was formed in Berlin. Even the great Franz Liszt became interested. But soon the popularity of the Janko piano began to wane. Part of the problem was technical: most performers could not afford to take their pianos with them on tour, and many concert halls did not have access to a Janko piano. But the real problem ran deeper. The music that the pianists were performing was supposed to be difficult, often extremely difficult, and the Janko keyboard made it easy. Performances on the Janko keyboard were often too flashy. The tension inherent in listening to a performer play a complex piece of music disappeared. By the 1920s the Janko keyboard had faded away, and could be seen only in museums." http://new.bostonreview.net/BR28.5/elliott.html

See also https://web.archive.org/web/2006012...ed.ac.uk/colloquia/conferences/esem/aaba.html which quotes from Percy Scholes' *Oxford Companion to Music*:

"This had six rows of short finger-keys so placed in relation to one another that that the fingers could easily wander anywhere on them ... any particlar note being playable from three of them ... The finger-keys were narrow and the span of the octave was much diminished; consequently wider intervals could be spanned and large chords were easy. All major scales had the same fingering and so had all minor scales. Public demonstrations were given to show the increased facility offered and much interest was aroused. Liszt and Rubinstein praised the system. It was quite believed by many musicians for some years that the Janko Keyboard would supersede the existing one."

For more on the Janko keyboard, see
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/janko.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janko_keyboard

Challenge: make the Janko keyboard the success that for a while it seemed it would become. As my brother notes, "Few inventions in the arts have been so acclaimed shortly after introduction." *Our Own Devices*, p. 176 He goes on to suggest (p. 177) that "Perhaps a great composer could have shown the expressive possibilities of the keyboard without falling into the flashy virtuosity critics were condemning. None appears to have tried."
 
Well, to somebody used to seeing OTL's keyboards, it looks absolutely baffling.

However, reading the Wiki article, and looking at how the thing works, it would be something of a revelation. For kids, and adults with small hands, the most impressive thing might be the ability to play across bigger intervals, as an octave becomes simple, and a twelfth pretty manageable. However, for most, the ease of transposition will be the main thing. All you have to do to transpose is pick a new starting note, then play the exact same pattern. Essentially, pick your note, then concentrate solely on the music, as though you'd started in the right place.

For a brass player who occasionally has to transpose some weird and wonderful keys, that sounds like a God-send to pianists. Imagine you're accompanying a singer you've never worked with before, and that top note is a little too strained: simple to rectify now. Even a vaguely competent pianist will be able to go down a tone and fix the problem. If it does catch on, the only pain will be in the transition process, which will probably be fairly lengthy. Some of the 'regular keyboard' piano teachers may struggle to adapt, and the fact that a kid being taught on a Janko would sound much better, much quicker, will lead to parents flocking to the new method. The market for old style pianos will likely dry up too.


As to how: well, that's more difficult. If a renowned composer, performer, or both begin to champion the thing, it might have more success. Say Liszt writes music for Janko, which is almost impossible to play without? Or maybe one of the greatest virtuosos of the age takes to it, and demands to have one at venues? Of course, they would have to be one of the best in the world, otherwise they'd be told to sling their hook...
 
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