Neo-Bechstein

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Neo-Bechstein grand piano in the Vienna Technical Museum

The Neo-Bechstein or Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst grand piano is a piano bw. a grand piano with electromechanical sound generation.

The electro-acoustic piano ( e-piano ) was developed at the beginning of the 1930s at the Physics Institute of the Humboldt University in Berlin (headed by Professor Walther Nernst ) together with the companies Bechstein (mechanics) and Siemens / Telefunken (electronics). The strings were with micro peening (Patent: Hans Driescher) struck and the vibration induction with pickups added, with a tube amplifier amplifies (and with respect to timbre on resonant circuits affected) and loudspeakers played.

A record player and radio receiver could also be connected to the amplifier , which was intended to open up completely new ways of playing (e.g. orchestral part of a piano concerto from the record, known today as music minus-one ) and promote active house music as opposed to passive listening to the radio .

Pickups

For reasons of space, five strings were brought together under one pickup. The corresponding patent came from Hans Driescher.

According to reports, Bechstein built 150 copies, of which at least two are functioning today, one in the Technisches Museum Wien and one in Berlin . The latter is occasionally used in public at avant-garde music events. The location of 22 copies is currently known.

The piano manufacturing company Petrof (Hradec Králové) acquired the license to produce the instrument in 1932. Only four “Neo-Petrof” are currently known: one is on display in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Prague, one was restored ready to play in the Technical Museum Vienna in 2007 and is used for concert purposes. The regulation is extremely critical and must be left to specialists who have sufficiently studied the concept of the instrument.

literature

  • Fritz W. Winckel : The radio piano from Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst. In: The look around. 35, 1931, ISSN  0722-8562 , pp. 840-843.
  • Dieter B. Herrmann: Walther Nernst and his Neo-Bechstein grand piano. An episode in the history of electronic music. In: NTM series for the history of natural sciences, technology and medicine 9 (1972), no. 1, pp. 40-48
  • Hans-W. Schmitz: The Bechstein-Siemens-Nernst grand piano . Technical description. In: The mechanical musical instrument. 16th year, No. 49, April 1990, ISSN  0721-6092 . Pp. 21-27.
  • Peter Donhauser: Technical gimmick or fantastic reality? Telefunken and the first electronic instruments in Germany . In: Stefan Poser (Ed.): Playing with technology. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-7338-0353-1 , p. 56ff. (Exhibition catalog).
  • Peter Donhauser: Electric sound machines. The pioneering days in Germany and Austria. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77593-5 .
  • Peter Donhauser: The electric Beethoven. In: Leaves for the history of technology. 69/70, 2008, ISSN  0067-9127 , pp. 117ff.

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