Janko - a new way of playing the piano?

[ardcarp]

I think I'd need a couple more brains to try this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK4REjqGc9w&feature=youtu.be

[gradus]

Any chance of a simple explanation as it just sounded like a piano to me albeit with a very odd keyboard.

[ardcarp]

I'm afraid I'm no expert...just a bit fascinated by, as you say, the very odd keyboard. The snag about the Youtube clip is that the guy goes on playing his opening ragtime number for far too long. If you skip forward a bit, he does talk about le truc and plays a Bach prelude. I gather that, rather as on a button- (as opposed to a piano-) accordion, one can play wider intervals and bigger chords without stretching the fingers about so much.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The thing is, it's a very old way of playing the piano. It didn't catch on for a number of reasons, but the main problem was the imperfection of the mechanism. Also, there was no real need for it unless composers actually wrote music that could take advantage of its possibilities.

[ardcarp]

Good old Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jank%C3%B3_keyboard

I had not realised it was a 19th century invention....I assumed it was a new-fangled gadget.