This is Irving Berlin's piano from the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The Museum of American History is temporarily closed while it is undergoing renovations so the Piano is at the National Air and Space Museum across the National Mall.
Irving Berlin wrote "God Bless America," "Puttin' on the Ritz," and "White Christmas" in case your aren't up on your composers ;). Supposedly he could only write compositions in F-Sharp Major (hard!) and D-Sharp minor (really hard!!). His assistant would then transpose the score to something that other people would be able to use. Yet another of those brilliant Russian Musicians. . .
1 comment:
Actually Berlin had a "transposing piano" - the piano had a wheel (or a lever, on the piano Berlin called his "Buick"). The keyboard could be shifted left or right so that the hammers could hit other strings, allowing the music to be mechanically transposed to other keys.
See Cecil Adams article http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060728.html
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