I adore the sound of that unichord piano!

1:38

Flentrop made the world’s best organs

He starts playing the Square Piano at 4:50.

This is a bit inaccurate. The piano was invented in 1700, not the second half of the 18th century en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeo_Cristofori?wprov=sfla1 ; JS Bach, who died in 1750, was able to play an early version by Silbermann (Zumpe's master). Its inventor, Christofori, called it a "harp-harpsichord with loud and soft" (piano i forte) - no clavichords were involved in his thought processes. And as well as the "square" clavichords (a clavichord can only work if the strings are perpendicular to the keys), there were also "square harpsichords", aka virginals. Anyway, although a Zumpe piano action is mechanically kind of a cross between a clavichord's, a harpsichord's and a "real" piano's (there is a little stick rising from the key, a bit like a clavichord tangent), its physical _principle_ is much closer to a harpsichord: you just swap the jack, with its plectrum and damper, for a hammer and separate damper. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Zumpe?wprov=sfla1

Thank you for explaining that in a simple way.

Eindelijk een acceptabele balans linker hand t.o.v. rechter. Moest al 23 versies door op youtube. Wat een lieve blik die meneer.

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This is dope thanks man

There is an interesting , and more direct, precursor to the piano, though: the _dulce melos_, which is described in the 15th c. van Zwolle MS. It used a very simple hammer action, not unlike the Zumpe: an instrument of this type ("dulcemel para taner") is listed in the inventory of Queen Isabella of Spain.

What a collection! I recently purchased and early Tomkison square pianoforte 1805!

What a great collection of period keyboards and what an exquisite display!

So cool! I like the litle clavichord

cool instruments but what happened with the video resolution, letterboxing and so on. it looks like a proper recording somehow got trashed midway through the editing software. please upload original quality if you can, but good job anyways!

I love that you played "Ashokan Farewell." It's a beautiful tune, and it sounds so nice on that piano.

Interesting summary of the history of the square piano! I own a John Osborne square piano, marked "No. 5." I purchased it in Norwich, CT, but do not know where to look further to delineate its provenance. Can you suggest any sources for this information? Thank you, Diane Powell; [email protected]

Buena interpretación, pésimo audio y edición.

I love the different dampers and the lute stop! I wish some modern builders would include those, and while they're at it, I wouldn't mind a Jannisary pedal :)

These had a lute stops too?! Why can't my piano have a lute stop too, dammit! :'(

This is wonderful

Très belle interprétation et sonorité ! bravo !

Lovely! I adore antique pianos. Is your CD on Amazon? The Unicord is very beautiful!! What warm, beautiful tones it has. I'd love one of those!!!

The Clavichord is so cute!

Thanks for posting :D

Excellent.

This is Bach. This shows why so few organists are good playing him. Read the text as he always emphasized. The Engel Schaar, angel host, could never move so slowly, and they're warriors, can the wimpy tremolo! Probably a fine performer technically but uninformed.

I liked this registration and tempo a lot. I think the high point at 1:20 needs to be prominent - and this interpretation does it justice. The usual performance is very speedy and loud and does not fit to the text in my opinion. I have just listened to 15 of these, and this is my favorite. And regarding the picture, WHERE ELSE would this be more appropriate? Bach would have had no problem with it, regardless of what craziness goes on at a football game. Thank you !

nice tempo

Bravissimo!

Thanks, Tom. I'm glad that you enjoyed the performance. Since I was performing a large chunk of the OB in one concert (23 per evening), I had to experiment with various registrations. Who wants to hear plenum for every chorale, right? For this one, I used the 8' Principal with the 4' Flute on the "Great" with 16' Bourdon and 8' Principal in the pedal.

I am so glad that you enjoyed both the sound of the instrument and my playing. Many thanks!