Talk:Toy piano

Untitled
A pioneer of Toy piano is the german composer and pianist Bernd Wiesemann (*1938). He played in the 70th and 80th many concerts with Toy piano in Germany. In 1993 he made a CD "Neue Musik für Kinderklavier" ("Kinderklavier" is the german word for Toy piano) with compositions of Mario-Ratko Delorko (*1959), John Cage (1912-1992), Joachim Herbold (*1951), Francisco Estévez (*1946), Andreas Kunstein (*1967), Carlos Cruz de Castro, Bernd Wiesemann (*1938), Frank Scholzen (*1968) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (*1928). This CD was published by the german Label "sound star-ton" and is now (2004) not available. In 2003 Bernd Wiesemann made a Super Audio CD with Toy piano compositions of Oscar Gottlieb Blarr (*1934), Christian Banasik (*1963), Michael Denhoff (*1955), Oscar van Dillen (*1958) and other composers on the label cybele records (www.cybele.de).

Glass bars?
Can someone point me to information about pianos which used glass bars to generate sound instead of strings? I've never heard of this, and apparently neither has the wikipedia piano article... AdinaBob (talk) 23:36, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, it appears that toy pianos used glass bars. AdinaBob (talk) 23:44, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Schroeder didn't really play a toy piano
The article says: "However, given the technical difficulties of the music he is playing, it is unlikely he actually played on a toy piano." Of course he didn't actually play them. Its a comic. This part should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.4.115.3 (talk) 15:42, 4 May 2011 (UTC)


 * No. In the Peanuts cartoon world Schroeder really, actually, did play a toy piano. It's a cartoon toy piano, of course, because Schroeder himself is a cartoon, and so is everything else in the strip, but given the understanding that Peanuts is a cartoon and fiction, it makes no sense to say "Schroeder didn't actually play [a toy piano]". The article currently reads "In the Peanuts cartoon strip, one of the characters, Schroeder, plays classical music (principally Beethoven) on what appears to be a toy piano.[citation needed]" Why "appears"? We'd might as well say "what appears to be a little boy". And why do we need a citation? Does anyone doubt there is such a thing as a Peanuts strip that regularly includes a character named Schroeder who is typically depicted performing on a toy piano? The only thing doubtful here is why an article about the toy piano needs to include this fictional trivia at all. In any case, if there is a place for it at all in the article (and I can't think of one offhand), it clearly does not belong within a section called Use in musical performance. This is not an instance of use in musical performance. I'm removing the passage. TheScotch (talk) 11:20, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Summer Breeze
Seals and Crofts also used the toy piano as a backing instrument in their 1972 song "Summer Breeze". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tubajoe0 (talk • contribs) 08:12, 21 July 2012 (UTC)

removed section, non-encyclopaedic
I have removed the following section. It does not seem to reflect the expectations of an encyclopaedia, instead it seems to be trivialities, and a pit for any reference that may have had some mention of the subject. If this section is to be removed it should be tightened so it is not larger than the article itself, ad it should try to focus on the encyclopaedic components. — billinghurst  sDrewth  11:18, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

I oppose to this viewing. Any musical instrument has a layer of repertoire (see for instance the reference encyclopedias on music "the New Grove". The problem is that "Toy Piano" has been considered a "toy" for many years and only recently has become incorporated in performance as a "serious instrument". Therefore there is a total lack of literature regarding the subject, because it's a very recent trend. My opinion is that, given the lack of traditional literature regarding the repertoire of this particular instrument, wikipedia is a healthy resource to keep it updated. I've been finding a lot of new, fresh repertoire for it towards this medium, that should be free and accessible to people. If we start cutting information, even here, it will be harder and harder to keep people informed regarding subjects that are fairly recent. Perhaps it could be added a "new article" for the purpose - Repertoire for Toy Piano, for instance, to keep this article shorter, however I'm against the pure and simple wipe out of this value information that is nowhere else to be found. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.113.69.89 (talk) 01:55, 9 June 2013 (UTC)


 * You bring your opinions, and they are exactly that. This is an encyclopaedia, and needs to be treated as such, and that is the guidance for the site. If the information is not found anywhere else, then it should not be here, please see Citing sources. That last section is poorly constructed and needs to be savagely culled, and reworked. Twenty one sentence paragraphs is not suitable. — billinghurst  sDrewth  04:03, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

== Use in musical performance ==

Though originally made as a child's toy, the toy piano has been used in serious classical and contemporary musical contexts. The most famous example is the "Suite for Toy Piano" (1948) by John Cage. Other works in classical music for the instrument include "Ancient Voices of Children" by George Crumb and a number of pieces by Mauricio Kagel. Steve Beresford has used toy pianos (along with many other toy instruments) in his improvised music.

British experimental composers use the toy piano frequently, especially the Promenade Theatre Orchestra (1969–73), a quartet of composer/performers (members included John White, Alec Hill, Hugh Shrapnel, and Christopher Hobbs), whose central instrumentation consisted of four matched French Michelsonne toy pianos and Hohner reed organs. Their music was, broadly, repetitive minimalism, often of great technical difficulty (Hobbs's Working Notes (1969) for four toy pianos), great dynamic power (Shrapnel's 4 Toy Pianos (1971)), were used in various combinations with reed organs, and used compositional techniques that were either specific to British experimentalism (such as systems music, invented by John White), or borrowed from other disciplines (such as Alec Hill's use of change ringing systems).

In France in the early 70s, Jean-Jacques Birgé performed on a toy-piano, besides synthesizers, and recorded it in "Le réveil" on his Défense de album in 1975, as Pascal Comelade built all his work on toy instruments, having played all kinds of toy pianos himself since 1978. Yann Tiersen played the instrument in his first album La Valse des Monstres (Monsters' Waltz, 1995). He also uses the toy piano to musically recreate the childhood of the main character in the French movie Amélie, which features a soundtrack composed mostly by him.

A pioneer of the toy piano is the German composer and pianist Bernd Wiesemann (b. 1938). He played many concerts with the toy piano in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993 he released the CD Neue Musik für Kinderklavier ("New Music for Toy Piano"), containing compositions by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Ratko Delorko, Andreas Kunstein, Frank Scholzen, Joachim Herbold, Carlos Cruz de Castro, Francisco Estevez and himself. In 2004 he released the SACD Das untemperierte Klavier ("the not-so-well-tempered piano", a play on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier), containing new contemporary works.

Richard Carpenter used a toy piano as one of five keyboard instruments (the others being a grand piano, upright piano, console piano, and harpsichord) he played in his rendition of Zez Confrey's instrumental "Dizzy Fingers". Carpenter would run from instrument to instrument between each section of the song, which was performed for the TV special The Carpenters: Music, Music, Music.

In 1997, pianist Margaret Leng Tan released the CD The Art of the Toy Piano. On it, she plays a number of pieces written specially for the toy piano as well as arrangements of other pieces, including Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby". In 2010, she released The Art of The Toy Piano II. A documentary directed by Evans Chan entitled Sorceress of the New Piano explores the music making of Tan and had its American debut at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival in 2005.

Walter Egan uses a melody line played on a toy piano for the choruses on his 1978 hit "Magnet And Steel".

Mannheim Steamroller featured a toy piano in their song "Midnight On a Full Moon" from the album Fresh Aire III (1979).

Ben Lee used a toy piano in the song "Catch My Disease" which became popular in 2005 and won several awards.

Some jazz performers&mdash;John Medeski and Larry Goldings, among others&mdash;have used toy pianos.

The toy piano has been used extensively by alternative rock and post-rock bands such as Agitpop, Evanescence, Radiohead, Little Bang Theory, Warren Zevon, Tori Amos, Sigur Rós, Vampire Weekend, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Old Canes, and The Dresden Dolls. Matty Pop Chart has a song on his CD Good Old Water composed entirely on a toy piano.

The experimental pop band Br'er use toy pianos as a characteristic sound on many of their recordings. The Cure used a toy piano during their MTV Unplugged set.

A toy piano provides the pulsing chime in the song "I Belong To You" by Lenny Kravitz from his 5 album.

The B-52's song "Dance This Mess Around" features a toy piano played by Fred Schneider as both an essential musical plot device and live prop.

In the Peanuts cartoon strip, one of the characters, Schroeder, plays classical music (principally Beethoven) on what appears to be a toy piano.

In 2005 Matt Malsky and David Claman sponsored "The Extensible Toy Piano Project", which consisted of an extensive set of freely-available, high-quality toy piano samples, an international composition competition, and a festival at Clark University. One of the winners was Karlheinz Essl with his piece "Kalimba" for Toy Piano and CD playback.

The instrumental "Calliope", on Tom Waits' album Blood Money, features a toy piano, as well as the calliope of the title.

The London band Athlete used a toy piano for the intro of their track "Superhuman Touch".

The rock band Primus used the toy piano (played by Matt "Exxon" Winegar) in the song "Sathington Willoughby" on their album Frizzle Fry.

The band They Might Be Giants used a toy piano in their song "O We".

Composer Michael Hearst uses the toy piano (performed by Margaret Leng Tan) on his song "Jesus Christ Lizard," on the album Songs For Unusual Creatures.

Songwriter Jacco Gardner used a toy piano on the first track of his debut single, "Clear The Air", released on February 19th, 2012.

I agree that the section is too long and too much a mere list. Most of the information it contains would be better summarized. We might say something like "a number of pop musicians have used toy pianos on recording" and then give two examples. TheScotch (talk) 11:37, 24 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Here is all of what Grove has to say about toy piano repertoire: "The toy piano has been featured in John Cage's Suite for Toy Piano (1948) and Music for Amplified Toy Pianos (1960) and included in works by George Crumb, Renaud Gagneux, Mauricio Kagel, Louis Roquin, Zygmunt Krauze, Leonid Aleksandrovich, Grabovsky and others, and compact discs with specially-commissioned – primarily solo – works have been released in the United States (Margaret Leng-Tan) and in Germany (Bernd Wiesemann)." This article can afford to be a bit more expansive perhaps, but Grove makes a good model. TheScotch (talk) 08:00, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

Advert for Schoenhut?
A lot of this article seems to be about one particular company making toy pianos. Are there others out there? Should there perhaps be a separate article about the Schoenhut company? Pam D  13:47, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Re: removing the global "possible bias" tag. Just read the article, and did light clean-up of the History section where Schoenhut is mentioned. In its current version, there doesn't seem to be undue weight given to Schoenhut. It seems to have been either one of or the leading toy piano company right from the start, and several other toy manufacturers and products are covered with in equivalent detail. --Tsavage (talk) 20:19, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

Non-notable points in "Use in musical performance"
I've removed three points from this section, about Jacco Gardner, Br'er, and Tiago Videira. Since all three were uncited and since WP has no article on any of them, I think they can be removed as non-notable examples of usage. The section is already quite full as it is. Brian heim composer (talk) 20:34, 4 September 2015 (UTC)