- Title: What Makes you Beautiful by One Direction
- Performer(s): Piano Guys
- Culture or Origin: British Pop music
- Orchestration: Piano and Voice
- I immediately thought of the Piano Guys when I was reading the chapter in Thinking Musically this week on instrument classification. According to the Sachs-Hornbostel system for instrument classification the piano would be thought of as a zither-type chordophone. Watching the Piano Guys play the piano and seeing them use it as a drum and plucking and bowing the strings makes me think of the classification system. I understand that the system does take into account all the different ways an instrument can be played, but does it really? Would this use of the piano change the classification? Would it also be considered a membranophone because of how its being played? I understand why the piano is considered a chordophone, and agree. Though I don't think the piano is looked at in this way when categorized.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Week 2
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Reminds me of the 'Viola Organista' that was envisioned by Leonard DaVinci and then created 500 years later! It has the charateristics of a harpsichord, organ and a cello. The Piano Guys played the piano using all of its characteristics as a zither-type chordophone. Comparatively, the 'Viola Organista' uses spinning wheels across the strings instead of hammers (used by the pedals) and uses the keyboard similarly to the piano. Here is a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://gizmodo.com/listen-to-da-vincis-genius-piano-cello-played-for-the-1468934693
Interesting indeed!
Wow! This is a unique performance! I have never seen a piano used in such various ways to play an instrument. This performance could very well make the piano be in different classifications or even in a classification of it's own. I still feel that the piano would be classified as a chordophone according to this performance as well as a percussion instrument.
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