CONCERTINO PER PIANO GIOCATTOLO
by Giuseppe Fiori
Bontempi Stage Piano
25 dec 2011
Bontempi è un'azienda italiana di strumenti musicali attiva da oltre 50 anni con sede a Potenza Picena.
È conosciuta principalmente per la costruzione di organi in plastica detti Chord Organ, piccoli strumenti a tastiera nei quali il suono è prodotto da aria soffiata attraverso delle ance da un piccolo motore. Bontempi ha prodotto anche diversi modelli di tastiera elettronica.
Bontempi ha costruito inoltre strumenti musicali a scopo educativo come tastiere, chitarre, batterie e percussioni varie destinati al mercato dei giocattoli.
The toy piano, also known as the kinderklavier (child's keyboard), is a small piano-like musical instrument. The present form of the toy piano was invented in Philadelphia by a 17-year-old German immigrant named Albert Schoenhut. He worked as a repairman at Wanamaker's department store, repairing broken glass sounding pieces in German toy pianos damaged in shipping. Schoenhut conceived of the toy piano as it is known today in 1872, when he substituted durable steel plates for the traditional fragile glass bars. Toy pianos come in many shapes, from scale models of upright or grand pianos to toys which only resemble pianos in that they possess keys. Toy pianos are usually no more than 50 cm in width, and made out of wood or plastic. The first toy pianos were made in the mid-19th century and were typically uprights, although many toy pianos made today are models of grands. Rather than hammers hitting strings as on a standard piano, the toy piano sounds by way of hammers hitting metal bars or rods which are fixed at one end. The hammers are connected to the keys by a mechanism similar to that which drives keyboard glockenspiels. Some new toy pianos are electronic.
Toy pianos ostensibly use the same musical scale as full size pianos, although their tuning in all but the most expensive models is usually very approximate. Similarly, the pitch to which they are tuned is rarely close to the standard of 440 Hz for the A above middle C. A typical toy piano will have a range of one to three octaves. The cheapest models may not have black keys, or the black keys may be painted on. This means they can play the diatonic scale (or an approximately tuned version of it), but not the chromatic scale. Typically, diatonic toy pianos have only eight keys and can play one octave. Other variants may have non-functioning black keys between every key (which would make it appear to play the quarter tones between E/F and B/C), but they either do not play, play the same notes as an adjacent white key, or play a special sound effect. History
Albert Schoenhut conceived of the toy piano with metal sounding bars in 1872 and established the A Schoenhut Company to manufacture the new instrument. By 1917, A Schoenhut produced a catalogue showing 10 pages of upright and grand pianos of all shapes and sizes, with one page devoted to miniature piano stools alone. The models had nicknames beginning with "P", such as Packer, Padder, Papa and Poet. Keys were made of imitation ivory and a dozen pianos could be bought for US$348.
By the 1950s, the toy piano market was dominated by two main toy piano makers: Jaymar and Schoenhut - counterparts to the Steinway and Baldwin for adult pianos. Wooden keys and hammers were replaced by moulded plastic ones. In the late 1970s, Schoenhut was acquired by Jaymar, although the two retained their distinct identity. Jaymar/Schoenhut experienced difficulty during the recession of the 1980s, folding and eventually re-emerging as the Schoenhut Piano Company in 1997. Today there are two other major toy-piano manufacturers - Haring from Brazil, and the Zeada from China.
From 1939 to 1970 Victor Michel improved toy-piano conception. Michelsonne French toy-pianos are known from their inimitable sound.
An annual Toy piano festival is held in San Diego.
[edit]Use in musical performance
Though originally made as a child's toy, the toy piano has been used in serious classical and contemporary musical contexts. The most famous example is the "Suite for Toy Piano" (1948) by John Cage. Other works in classical music for the instrument include "Ancient Voices of Children" by George Crumb and a number of pieces by Mauricio Kagel. Steve Beresford has used toy pianos (along with many other toy instruments) in his improvised music.
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John Cage - Dream (1948) - Fausto Bongelli, pianoby 59sto805 views
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