Luthéal
The Luthéal is additional mechanical equipment for concert grand pianos . It was developed in 1919 by the Belgian George Cloetens and has the purpose of "changing the timbre of stringed instruments that are played on a keyboard or by hand." The only remaining Luthéal, in the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum, can be used in any concert grand become. It has four register buttons , two each for bass and treble . They can be used to change the sound so that it is similar to that of a cimbalon or that of the lute register of a harpsichord . In 1924 Maurice Ravel wrote the rhapsody Tzigane for Luthéal and violin - which is now mostly played with the piano - to give it a folkloric sound similar to that of the Hungarian chopping board. Ravel also used the Luthéal in the lyrical fantasy L'enfant et les sortilèges .
Files with the sounds of the Brussels Luthéal are available for samplers .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.mim.be/pleyel-grand-piano-with-lutheal-mechanism accessed on November 20, 2012