A Really "Cute" Square Piano

I found these photos showing rather a "cute" piano while surfing through the web today.

It is really small when compared with other square pianos. It was made by Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co., and its model name is "Colibri."

I read that the square pianos went out of favor at the turn of the 20th century partly because of its rectangular design posed limitations; the soundboard of a square piano is much smaller than those of upright pianos and its action is cumbersome to service.

Usually, square pianos are not symmetric, but this piano is quite close to being symmetric, which makes it more attractive.

I want to own and play this curiosity. A pretty little piano.

Arcimboldo and Assemblages

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century Italian painter who worked at various royal courts in Europe, including Hapsburgs. He is best known for painting a series of very interesting and fascinating (or perhaps grotesque) portraits in which all of their subjects are actually "assembled" by objects or animals.

The portrait pictured above is titled "The Fire," and examplifies Arcimboldo's great wit and imagination. One can actually see all of objects individually, and then see their "assemblage," which depicts a head of a man. However, in the painting, the relative scale between these objects are ignored.

Can his portraits also be regarded as "still lifes"? :)

Frédéric Chopin's Pleyel Pianos

Chopin's Pleyel piano (serial #14810; 1848) at Warsaw's Frédéric Chopin Museum
(Picture by the Museum of Frédéric Chopin)

Chopin's Pleyel piano (serial #13716; 1847) at the Jagiellonian University Museum

Portrait of Chopin by Eugène Delacroix

Chopin's Pleyel upright (serial #6668; 1838) at Valldemossa Monastery, Majorca
(Picture by W. Michael)

Chopin's Pleyel piano (serial #7267; 1839) at La cité de la Musique, Paris
(Picture by J. M. Anglès, La cité de la Musique)

Chopin's Pleyel piano (serial #13819; 1846) at the Cobbe Collection
(Picture by John Challis)



Chopin's Waltz Op. 64 No. 2, played by Artur Rubinstein

It seems Chopin, my favorite and beloved composer, had a lot of pianos, all made by Pleyel.

The last Pleyel grand piano that was in Chopin's possession is the one in Warsaw, pictured above. It was used by Chopin from 1848 until his death in 1849.

Chopin preferred Pleyel pianos, and he shared a friendship with the maker, Camille Pleyel. Camille Pleyel provided his Pleyel pianos at no charge to Chopin in exchange of Chopin's support and promotion of his instrument to others.

The Pleyel piano at the Jagiellonian University Museum in Krakow was played by Chopin during his tours in England and Scotland. This piano still bears a signature by him.

Another Pleyel piano, recently discovered to be in fact Chopin's own piano and is in the possession of the Cobbe Collection, was personally used by Chopin from 1846 to 1848. He brought this piano from Paris to England during his visit, and sold it to Lady Trotter (her daughter, Margaret Trotter, seems to be Chopin's pupil) when he returned again to Paris on November, 1848.

The Pleyel upright (pianino) in Valldemossa Monastery was brought from Paris during Chopin, George Sand, and her two children's stay in Majorca from November 8th, 1838 to February 13, 1839.

They intentionally wanted to stay in Majorca to improve Chopin's failing health, but this same piano was stuck in customs until it was delivered on January 5th. Chopin wrote on December 28th to Fontana, his friend:

"Customs want a mountain of gold for this mess... People [here] are thieves because they never see foreigners and do not know what to ask for things. Oranges are gratis, but a button for my pants costs a fortune. Yet, all this is a grain of sand compared to this sky, this poetry, this color of the most marvelous of places"


Majorca's bitter winter actually worsened Chopin's illness. Because of this, they had to quickly leave and sell this beloved Pleyel to a french couple. However, his stay at Valldemossa monastery was one of the most productive periods of Chopin's life.

Chopin once is said to have remarked, "Pleyel pianos are the last word in perfection."


Beautiful pianos and so many memories.

Today is Valentine's Day~

I need chocolate!!! (even more than love...?) XD

A Tragic Old Grand Piano...

This is an antique grand piano (c. 1880s, manufactured by George Steck & Co) that lives in a piano shop near my university campus. I saw it for the first time when I first visited the shop last summer.

According to the shop's owner, it was rebuilt (meaning its parts, such as hammers and strings, were replaced and its case was refinished) about a decade ago, and now needs a new owner.

This piano must have once been beautiful and owned by a proud and wealthy owner when it was new; it still has intricate cabriole legs and its rosewood veneer still echoes elegance. But now, it has a scratched, poorly-cared, and sun-bleached cabinet, and because it was manufactured by a piano company that is not so widely recognized, it is sadly not being restored to its potential and sold as is.

I feel moved in some way when I see old artifacts and antiques, becoming excited enough to buy them and surprised by their form and design. The artifacts, if well-cared, do not age quickly or change like humans, and their conspicuously incongruent and inherent cultural atmosphere and style makes them look... abandoned.

Anonymous people of the past, who created the piano, left it to the world and simply disappeared. Is this not the future waiting for so many of us...? Anonymity?

Today I saw this piano again, still without an owner, and I left wondering about its ultimate fate.

A tragic old piano.

One of My Favorite "Edifices."

(By Kiko Llan)
(By Andrea Kirkby)
(By Dan Taylor)


"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral."

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Amiens Cathedral, or formally called Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens, is one of the most beautiful and breathtaking monuments from the Middle Ages.

The construction started in 1220 and was not complete until the north tower was finished in 1401. The beautiful nave, pictured above, is the tallest completed nave in France.

The cathedral is my favorite Gothic edifice. A vision of anonymous architects and craftsmen of a bygone era is beautifully perfected and imaginatively executed in this building, and I marvel at how they, with handful of primitive tools and without having knowledge of the modern engineering, can dare to create such an inspiring monument.

The rib buttresses, traceries, stained-glass windows, and sculptures add to the interior's dynamic movement towards the sky. Sadly, many stained-glass windows of Amiens cathedral were destroyed during two World Wars, but one can still easily conjure and imagine a solemn atmosphere of the cathedral before the destruction.

Architecture once was a vocabulary, a statement, of the society as a whole. Now it became a voice of divided individuals and economic interests..

Probably no society today would devote this much time and effort to build such a glorious edifice. Such is the fate of architecture.

One can stop and wonder, what happened? What drove these ancient people, who probably were impoverished and more susceptible to diseases, to build a pyramid or a cathedral, while we the modern men cannot possibly imagine to do so?


Some day I want to visit and pay tribute to this cathedral, and to all the hands that created it, in person.

Japan's Oldest Piano in Existence.

This seemingly unremarkable square piano is actually Japan's oldest surviving piano.

It was made in 1812 (the year when Napoleon was defeated in Russia) in England by Rolfe & Sons and was brought to Yamaguchi, Japan by Philip Franz von Siebold in 1828. Because of this, it is commonly called "Siebold's Piano." Since then, it never left Japan.

It has 68 keys, and was restrung in 1955.

Now this old fortepiano is housed in Kumaya Art Museum in Hagi city, Yamaguchi.

Prague, Antonín Dvořák, and Piano

(By peragro, Flickr ID)

Prague's Astronomical Clock
(By wwwleraar, Flickr ID)


Charles Bridge
(By rodliam, Flickr ID)

The Museum of Antonín Dvořák:
A historic Baroque house by an architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer

Dvořák's Bosendorfer grand piano
(Last two pictures by Hung Chieh Tsai)



Antonín Dvořák is one of my favorite Romantic composers. His music has a lively spirit and simple yet beautiful melody, which I love and admire. The piece introduced here is Dvořák's Slavonic Dance No. 1.

Prague, today the capital of Czech Republic, is a beautifully-preserved historic city. The oldest parts of Prague's famous astronomical clock were made in 1410, and Prague's beautiful Charles Bridge, which is lined with sculptures, was finished in the 15th century. The Gothic cathedral shown in the first picture is St. Vitus Cathedral, which was completed in 1929, almost 600 years after its first stone was laid in 1344.

Dvořák was born near this city, and was buried here also. Thus not surprisingly, a museum dedicated to the composer, the Antonín Dvořák Museum, is in Prague. This museum, founded in 1932, is housed in a beautiful 18th-century Baroque house by an architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer.

A Bosendorfer grand piano (made in 1879; pictured above), owned and used by Dvořák, is currently housed in this museum.

Great composers perhaps need a great setting.

One Movie I Would Like to Watch: Secret

This Taiwanese movie, Secret, (or The Secret That Cannot Be Told), describes a very beautiful love story between two piano-majoring students. It was released in 2007.

Of course, I did not watch it, so I really cannot assess this film, but this movie received very good reviews and rewards by the East Asian public.

The female main character in this movie, Lu Xiaoyu, actually from the 1970s, travels through time to present and meets Ye Xianglun, her eventual lover. The secret that cannot be told is this time gap.

An antique grand piano in this movie is also the part of this secret. The piano is a "time machine" that connects Ye Xianglun and Lu Xiaoyu, but unfortunately it also is located in the school's old music room that is scheduled to be torn down on Ye Xianglun's class graduation day. If the piano disappears, then so does the connection between Lu Xiaoyu and Ye Xianglun.

(The time travel scene can be watched by clicking the video above)

So the story unfolds... And I wish I could watch it. :)

Franz Liszt's Two Chickerings

First and third Picture by J.P. Dalbera; second by ChihPing



These two beautiful pianos are grand pianos owned and used by Franz Liszt, and are currently housed in the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest, Hungary. The pianos themselves were made by Chickering & Sons, the oldest piano manufacturer in the United States (Jonas Chickering started his company in 1823).

The first grand piano (serial #30,540; first two photos) was made in 1867. At the Paris Exposition of 1867, this same piano was so impressive in its sound and craftsmanship that it won the Imperial Cross of the Legion of Honor (La Légion d'honneur). After this exposition, it was given as a present to Franz Liszt, who even then was a famed and widely-celebrated Romantic virtuoso pianist and a composer.

The second grand piano (serial #50,080; third photo) was made in 1879 especially for Franz Liszt. The actual recording of this piano can be seen by clicking the Youtube video.

The artistry expressed on the cabinets of these pianos is just breathtaking.

I wish I can play one of these pianos.

My Beloved Knabe Piano

This is my grand piano, made in 1895. (Yes, it is roughly six times older than me!)

When I was searching to buy a grand piano last year, I found this old piano on craigslist.

It was located in Baltimore's historic house built in 1856, and a seller (who was in London) wanted to remove this piano from the house, which he restored.

He said that he bought this house and my piano together in 1999, and although he never played the piano, he kept it all these years because he really loved it. But his job relocated to London, and he decided to sell it at last to a person who would have it restored. Because pictures on craigslist were small and bad in quality, I requested larger pictures from the seller.

I was stunned when I saw the pictures sent by its owner. The century-old Victorian piano was beautiful, with its scrolled floral legs and pierced music desk; however it also showed an age and dustiness. Yet I was deeply captivated by a setting in which the piano belonged. It was standing in a very large yet empty drawing room, and was deeply immersed in an atmosphere of a bygone era. It never left its sanctuary in its entire life, and I could easily imagine how it was used a century ago by an elegantly-dressed lady or a gentleman... Although my home is in a Chicago suburb and there was no way for me to see it in person, I wanted to see and actually touch this beautiful piano.

During 1890s, the United States boasted hundreds of piano manufacturers, and Wm. Knabe & Co. (founded in 1837) was one of the best during the 19th and the early 20th century; its reputation was competed only by Chickering and Steinway. I knew this much, for during my spare time I read about pianos and their manufacturers with a keen interest. (Now a Korean piano company, Samick, owns the right to use Knabe name for its line of pianos)

The piano was surprisingly affordable. It was mostly because it was in its original condition and needed to be restored and because the seller, who must have been fond of this piano, was very considerate. Even without seeing the instrument I realized that its worn hammers, its century-old action, and its cabinet needed to be reworked or restored by a piano rebuilder. These restoration works on piano are collectively called "rebuilding," and are quite costly.

I decided to choose this piano as my own piano. It was a hard decision, but perhaps... deep down I wanted to be a person who has a heart to have this beautiful relic restored to its former glory. I tried to forget it many times, but could not. It looked hauntingly beautiful in that empty room.

Purchasing this beautiful piano was like having a very exciting dream that is yet stained with many strokes of nervous worries and doubts. I carefully asked my mother to buy this instrument for me. She was reserved, but she also seemed to love its beautiful cabinet. Surprisingly she agreed.


I called a professional piano mover, and ordered to ship it from Baltimore to Chicagoland. Later when my piano was being placed inside of my home, this mover who answered my phone told my mother how my piano was the oldest piano that he ever delivered...

The piano, being "almost" modern in design, has 88 keys and three pedals. Although it shows its age and its two agraffes are broken, its tone is still quite remarkable.

The Writing in Progress...

Capsule!

Yes, definitely one of my favorite song by capsule. :)

"Capsule" is the name of Japan's Electro music group formed by a producer named Yasutaka Nakata and vocalist Toshiko Koshijima.

They produced very unique and charmingly witty albums, but their music can be utterly "meaningless." :D

A lovely piano that I would love to have.

(Picture by the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This utterly ornate piano is actually displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The piano was made by the London branch of Erard, a very respected French piano manufacturer in the 19th century; Erard pianos were favored and played by many of the greatest composers and virtuosos of the day. Its birthday is around 1840s, and being a very old piano, its number of keys is far more less than the modern piano's, which is 88.

A part of its description given by the museum is as follows:

"This piano, made in the London branch of the Érard firm, features the double repetition action, felt-covered hammers, and a constructed metal frame. The richly marquetried Louis XV–style case by George H. Blake was commissioned by the second Lord Foley, baron of Kidder, minister for Witley Court, his residence in Herefordshire/Worcestershire."

Certainly a beautiful instrument, and I wish I can play it for just once.


Reference: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amcm/ho_59.76.htm

A Knabe Piano~!

This beautiful piano is an antique grand piano crafted in 1884 by a long-respected American manufacturer named Wm. Knabe & Co. of Baltimore. (serial#: 26898).

Coincidently, this piano was being rebuilt in a piano shop near my university, and I was lucky enough to visit this shop regularly to check its progress.

(It was an object of curiousity and of interest, partly because I own a similar piano made by the same company)

Finally, last Friday, I found out that this once-dissembled piano was in fact finished and assembled at last. Therefore I visited the shop and took these pictures on Monday.

It plays beautifully. I was surprised by its touch and sound, for its old action was fully rebuilt and replaced with new parts. This kind of rebuilding is quite difficult and challenging for older pianos, for they inherently have a different action design. Still, I felt that the touch of piano's keys were slightly heavier, perhaps resulted because of this change.

While in the shop, I also noticed that the owner of the piano shop was worried, for he said that this piano's owner was quite disinterested about its completion. He was concerned that the owner might not be able to pay for his work on this piano, given today's troublesome economical situations...

"The" first post.

This is my first post. :)

I will bravely begin this journey, maybe in order to find (or create?) another world which I would enjoy...