When you use the phrase "piano keyboard," most people assume that you're talking about one thing only: a irregular collection of black and white keys. Equal-width white keys are all side-by-side, interrupted at half their length by parallel but narrower black keys in groups of twos and threes. The notes of the scale are arranged from left (low) to right (high). Here's a picture of a single octave:
The above may be what is most often seen, but other layouts exist. Consider the following, for example. The notes of the scale are still arranged from left to right, but half steps regularly alternate between two rows. This picture shows two octaves:
The above is often referred to as the "uniform keyboard." Why use it? The linear span for an octave is 25% less than it is on the familiar piano keyboard, meaning that it's easier to play larger intervals. There are only two scale patterns to learn for each mode: one that starts on the upper row, and one that starts on the lower (compared to the twelve patterns for each mode on the familiar piano keyboard).
Now, take that layout and make a duplicate row, so that the first and third play the same notes:
On the above three-row layout, you can play every mode in every key with the same fingering pattern -- it's just a matter of moving your hand to a different starting position. Additional rows give you more possibilities. For any of these keyboards with duplicate rows, if you learn to play a piece and stick to one fewer row than is available on your keyboard, you can instantly transpose to any key by simply moving to a different starting position.
The above six-row uniform keyboard layout is called the "Jankó Keyboard" named after its inventor, Paul von Jankó. Others refer to it as the "6-6 keyboard," referring to the two rows of 6 notes each that make up the western scale.
(By the way, I'm still looking to buy one of these pianos. Please contact me if you have one that you want to part with, or you know of the existence of one which might be acquired. My e-mail address is at the bottom of this page.)
So what does one of these instruments look like? They're unsurprisingly piano-shaped. I've gathered these images from several places and stored copies locally, just in case the originals move or disappear entirely. Click each picture to view a larger version.
The Technisches Museum Wien has an instrument collection which contains two Jankó instruments. Edward Swenson has visited there and took the following pictures (thanks for sending them to me, Edward!). The one on the left shows an upright piano (Pianino [German for small upright piano] built by Rosenkranz in 1890) with a Jankó keyboard coupled with the familiar keyboard, as well as what appears to be a harmonium with Jankó keyboard. The two on the right show just the Rosenkranz instrument.
The Ringve Museum has an instrument collection which contains a Jankó Piano. This page refers to it. The curator, Mats Krouthén, kindly sent me two photos (the ones on the right) of the instrument. It was manufactured by A. H. Francke in Leipzig. (Note: the two photos on the right were provided and produced by the Ringve Museum. The instrument depicted is located at Ringve and is owned by the Norsk folkmuseum NF 1932-0204.)
The National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota has in their collection a Jankó Piano manufactured by Decker Brothers, New York in 1895. Source pages: 1 2
Two sets of retirees visited the Stephen Foster Center (see other links, below) and wrote about the Steinway grand with Jankó keyboard that's in the museum there. Paul Hirsh did, too, and took a great close-up of the keyboard. Source pages: 1 2 3
The Musikinstrumentensammlung im Fruchtkasten am Schillerplatz at the Württembergisches Landesmuseum has an upright piano with Jankó keyboard, made by Carl A. Pfeiffer in 1930. Source pages: 1 2
In 2007, an upright piano appeared on eBay which had its keyboard replaced with a 4-row Jankó keyboard. (I didn't purchase this piano because even though its keyboard is laid out like a Jankó, it retains the key width of the familiar piano keyboard. For me, that nullifies a primary feature of the layout -- the ability for my small hands to reach larger intervals.) The listing is no longer available on eBay's site, but I saved the pictures:
A Japanese site with several pictures of pianos contains two with keyboards which are a derivative of the Jankó. It's called a Rapian keyboard and is the work of Kanpei Mutoh. (As you can see, it's very similar to the Jankó, but has five rows rather than six, with all-white key tops.) Source page: 1
A Japanese company, known first as "Whole Tone Revolution" (at the now defunct http://www.chromatic-keyboard.com/), then "Chroma Systems" (at the now defunct http://www.chromasystems.jp/), and now "Chromatone" (at http://www.chroma.jp/), manufacture a 6-row Jankó-style synthesizer and MIDI controller. (All three of these companies were owned by Wataru Ohkawa, as far as I know.) The red one on the left is no longer manufactured. Source pages: 1 2 3
Alfred Dolge wrote Pianos and their Makers, a guide to the history of piano manufacture up through 1911 (when the book was published). It refers to the Jankó keyboard and how it was, in Dolge's opinion, poised to revolutionize piano instruction and playing. Hard to find. Here are scans from the book detailing two instruments by Paul Perzina. One is a reversible-keyboard piano and the other is a "practice clavier" -- both with Jankó keyboards. There are also detail photos of the actions from each:
Piano World, a site dedicated to information about the piano, has a page about to the Jankó Piano. Depicted are a Broadwood grand and Decker Bros. upright. Source page: 1
Musurgia, an instrument dealer, has a postcard for sale with a picture of a woman playing the Jankó grand at the Stephen Foster Museum (see above). Source page: 1
Very recently, companies have started producing pianos with Jankó keyboards. Blüthner is willing to fit their grand pianos with such a keyboard for a 7000-euro surcharge. Below are some pictures of a Hassler (a Blüthner brand) piano recently for sale in Spain. (The dealer, Ken Ecury, was extremely nice and sent me several. Thanks!) Source page: 1
From the numerous patents filed by him, it's clear that Jankó is correct (Jankó-Klaviatur, Jankó Klavier, Jankó Keyboard, Jankó Piano). Some even contain his signature, which uses an acute accent over the final 'o' in his name (c.f. U.S. Patent 474016 from 1892). On the other hand, U.S. patent 497426, filed by Decker, Winkler, Preiss, and Werner in 1893, does not use the accent in Jankó's name, and refers consistently to the "Janko keyboard." While I'm still in the process of examining source documents to substantiate it, my hypothesis is the accent in his name was a casualty of Anglicization, specifically in America. (It was the norm at the time for names to lose their diacritical marks, in the same way that immigrants coming to America were trying to distance themselves from their previous national identities.)
Other sources write "Janko Piano" and "Janko Keyboard." I'm not saying they are wrong. "Jankó Piano" and "Jankó Keyboard" are the forms I prefer to use.
Many other folks have written biographic snippets of Jankó. As I find them, I'll include references here. Or maybe I'll finally slog through some translation work from German articles and books and write my own (Langenscheidt, here I come). Watch this space.
From International Who's Who in Music and Musical Gazetteer, César Saerchinger ed., Current Literature Publishing Company, New York, 1918, p. 304 (the book is now in the public domain and can be downloaded from Google Books):
Jankó, Paul von:
B. Totis, Hungary, June 2, 1856: son of Count Esterhazy's estate administrator; grad. Vienna Polytechnic Inst., stud. music there under Hans Schmitt, Joseph Krenn and Anton Bruckner; stud. mathematics at Berlin Univ., 1881-2; also stud. piano as private pupil of H. Ehrlich; invented the Jankó piano keyboard in 1882, described in his book "Eine neue Klaviatur" (1886); demonstrated same with success on concert tours, 1886, other pianists having followed his example. Now officer of the tobacco-administration in Constantinople; section-chief, 1904. Author: "Über mehr als 12-stufige gleichschwebende Temperaturen" (1901, in Stumpf's "Beitrage zur Musik," iii). Hans Schmitt wrote études for for his system and the Scharwenka Cons. in Berlin introduced it in 1906. A Janko-Society was founded in Vienna 1905. Address: Constantinople, Turkey.
From Baker, Theodore, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, G. Schirmer, New York, 1919, pp. 434-5 (the book is now in the public domain and can be downloaded from Google Books):
Jankó, Paul von, b. Totis, Hungary, June 2 1856; studied at the Polytechnic, Vienna, and also at the Cons. (under Hans Schmitt, Krenn, and Bruckner); then (1881-2) at Berlin Univ. (mathematics), and with Ehrlich (pf.); since 1892 living in Constantinople. His new keyboard, invented in 1882, is really a new departure in piano-mechanics, though standing in distant relationships to the older 'chromatic' keyboard advocated by the society 'Chroma.' It has six rows of key in step-like succession; the arrangement of the two lowest rows (typical of the other two pairs) is as follows:
Second row: c# d# F G A B First row: C D E f# g# a# C etc.the captials representing white keys, and the small letters black ones. The 3d and 4th rows, and the 5th and 6th rows, are mere duplications of the 1st and 2d; and correspondingly keys in the 1st, 3d, and 5th rows, and in the 2d, 4th, and 6th rows, are on one and the same key lever, so that any note can be struck in three different places. The fingering of all diatonic scales is alike; chromatic scales are played by striking alternate keys in any two adjoining rows. The width of an octave on the ordinary keyboard corresponds exactly to that of a tenth on the Jankó keyboard, on which latter large hands can easily stretch a thirteenth. A full description of the keyboard was published in pamphlet-form by its inventory (1886), who has also produced it in numerous concerts. It has been taken up by several pianists (Wendling, Gisela Gulyas), and is taught in some music-schools (Leipzig Cons., Scharwenka Cons.). In 1905, a 'Jankó-Verein' was founded in Vienna.
Cf. R. Hausmann, Die J.-Klaviatur (1892); K. W. Marschner Das J.-Klavier (1899); H. Schmitt, Zur Geschichte der J.-Klaviatur (in 'Wiener Rundschau,' 1899); R. Hausmann, Das J.-Klavier und seine technische Vervolikommnung (in Ztschr. Int. M.-G.,' vol. v); G. Scrinzi, The J.-Keyboard and Simplification (ib.) H. F. Münnich, Materialen für die J.-Klaviatur (1905).
I've always been fascinated by these kinds of encoding systems. In a way, these music keyboards are like the few Dvorak typing keyboards in the predominantly QWERTY world. For details on other music keyboard layouts, see my keyboard layouts pages.
I first caught the uniform keyboard bug after purchasing a uniform keyboard accordion. Read all about it.
Robert Gaskins, who runs the concertina.com web site, has an informative article on various types of keyboard layouts which have appeared on concertinas over the years. He gives mention to Jankó in this article. Very informative.
Mario Aschauer has written a fascinating article about Jankó, based on his correspondence with Marie Katholicy-Soffé during the latter half of the 19th century (the correspondence is in the collection at the Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek in Vienna). The article is published in Biblos 51, 2 (Phoibos Verlag, Vienna, 2002).
Hans Palm has a page about the uniform keyboard layout.
Paul Hirsh likes this keyboard layout, too. He refers to it as the "6-6 keyboard." He's put together this page with other examples of the keyboard, including an online flash-based playable version. He also put up a bibliographic page, containing the full text about Jankó from the Dolge book.
Alex Mauer converted a sythesizer to a uniform keyboard using Lego blocks. Paul Hirsh has this page on it.
The Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center in White Springs, FL has in its museum collection a Steinway grand with a Jankó keyboard. Several people have visited the museum and taken pictures of the instrument. This article mentions the instrument and provides information about the center. No pictures.
The Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung has a piano with Jankó keyboard made by Carl Heinke in 1900, according to this page. No picture, but a nice man from Berlin wrote me recently and said he'd send me some pictures of the instrument. I'll post them as soon as I receive them.
Edward Swenson of Swenson's Piano Shop in Trumansburg, NY, has assembled an extensive bibliography of piano building. It contains a mention of the Jankó keyboard.
The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, Netherlands, owns a piano with a Jankó keyboard. No pictures.
There's an interesting reference here which mentions "Richard Hausmann (professor, Berlin; Janko-Klaviatur), autograph letter signed with envelope, 1906 Jun 14" in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University.
Herbert Henck has this page which discusses the evolution of various keyboard layouts. He mentions Jankó and presents several source materials.
Martin Maurer sells free reed instruments. His page on melodicas mentions one with a Jankó keyboard. No picture.
Harald Rieder has constructed several chromatic synthesizer keyboards. This page has several pictures of those instruments, as well as a short discussion of Jankó and his keyboard.
The Center For Musical Antiquities has a concert program for sale which mentions a Jankó Piano (Grand Musical Concert at Holyoke City Hall given by Prof. Willmar Robert Schmidt, the eminent artist on the new Janko-Piano, Tuesday, February 8th, 1897, 8 o'clock, P.M., assisted by Mrs. Mac Randall Allen, Soprano). Here's the page and a picture of the program.
Paul Vandervoort is another Jankó enthusiast. Back in 1976, he designed an armature to be placed over a traditional piano keyboard (mention in this article). He's been playing a hand-built Jankó MIDI controller for many years as a professional musician. He's also been developing a MIDI controller for commercial production. No details have been publicly released yet, but the company web site has pointers to several patents to whet your appetite.
