Jankó keyboard

The Jankó - Keyboard is an alternative keyboard form in the 6- plus -6- arrangement, which was designed in 1882 by Paul of Jankó.

Because a normal sized hand on the usual piano can grab little more than a ninth and different scales require different fingerings, this piano has two inter- cross each other keyboards with three pressure points for each key lever. Instead of the traditional arrangement of black and white keys in a row, this design has a cluster -like keypad arrangement. Instead of the usual 123 centimeters the keypad is only 89 inches wide.

In vertical view, the keys are a semitone apart and horizontally a whole tone. As a result, in contrast to the normal piano chords and scales all have the same fingerings and the same handle shape on the keys, no matter what key you are.

At the time of its invention, the instrument has been hailed as revolutionary. Arthur Rubinstein said of the Janko piano keyboard: " If I were to begin my career anew it would be on this keyboard " ( If I had to start my career again, it would be on this keyboard). Franz Liszt said: " This invention will have replaced the present piano in fifty years! "

Contrary to prediction of Liszt and Rubinstein's advocacy, the Jankó - keyboard has not enforced, especially because few wanted to learn their repertoire on a non- established piano with new fingerings. Also, it was of little use if they had rehearsed a piece on the new keyboard, then at the concert but had to expect to be found a conventional instrument. If the Janko keyboard was invented at an earlier date, as pianos wood instead were manufactured with metal frame with lighter, and were so portable, the Janko keyboard itself might have prevailed. But the piano was established firmly in the Romantic era, was used by many musicians and favored.

Many special versions of this piano arose after Jankó had designed it. Jankó even developed a key arrangement that resembled the small, narrow, black and white keys of the piano known, and patented it in Germany in 1884. The following year, the keys were wider and shorter. Other inventors reported other design proposals for a patent that resembled Jankos and often in the key arrangement differed ( are: Edgar, Cramer, McChesney, Stewart, Adams, Nordbö, Barnett, Reuther and Firestone ). Johannes Beyreuther delivers next instruments, which also follow the 6 -plus -6- principle, which is optimized for this notation. The Jankó design is now used by manufacturers of electronic instruments. Since 2013, the Jankó - keyboard is offered by a piano manufacturer in Baden- Württemberg.