Leonardo da Vinci's wacky piano

[Thorn Wilde]

 

 

A bizarre instrument combining a piano and cello has finally been played to an audience more than 500 years after it was dreamt up Leonardo da Vinci.

 

Da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance genius who painted the Mona Lisa, invented the ‘‘viola organista’’ - which looks like a baby grand piano – but never built it, experts say.

 

The viola organista has now come to life, thanks to a Polish concert pianist with a flair for instrument-making and the patience and passion to interpret da Vinci’s plans.

 

Full of steel strings and spinning wheels, Slawomir Zubrzycki’s creation is a musical and mechanical work of art.

 

‘‘This instrument has the characteristics of three we know: the harpsichord, the organ and the viola da gamba,’’ Zubrzycki said as he debuted the instrument at the Academy of Music in the southern Polish city of Krakow.

 

The instrument’s exterior is painted in a rich midnight blue, adorned with golden swirls painted on the side. The inside of its lid is a deep raspberry inscribed with a Latin quote in gold leaf by 12th-century German nun, mystic and philosopher, Saint Hildegard.

 

‘‘Holy prophets and scholars immersed in the sea of arts both human and divine, dreamt up a multitude of instruments to delight the soul,’’ it says.

 

The flat bed of its interior is lined with golden spruce. Sixty-one gleaming steel strings run across it, similar to the inside of a baby grand.

 

Each is connected to the keyboard, complete with smaller black keys for sharp and flat notes. But unlike a piano, it has no hammered dulcimers. Instead, there are four spinning wheels wrapped in horse-tail hair, like violin bows.

 

To turn them, Zubrzycki pumps a pedal below the keyboard connected to a crankshaft. As he tinkles the keys, they press the strings down onto the wheels, emitting rich, sonorous tones reminiscent of a cello, an organ and even an accordion.

 

The effect is a sound that da Vinci dreamt of, but never heard; there are no historical records suggesting he or anyone else of his time built the instrument he designed.

 

A sketch and notes in da Vinci’s characteristic inverted script is found in his Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume collection of his manuscripts and designs for everything from weaponry to flight.

 

‘‘I have no idea what Leonardo da Vinci might think of the instrument I’ve made, but I’d hope he’d be pleased,’’ said Zubrzycki, who spend three years and 5000 hours bringing da Vinci’s creation to life.

[W_L]

Awesome sound!!!

 

Da Vinci came up with a lot of interesting things that most ascribe to military use like helicopters, submarines, and tanks. However, like any renaissance man, he was an artist and a scholar first.

[Thorn Wilde]

Indeed. I think the last thing old Leo would have wanted to see is his inventions used for warfare.

[Bill W]

Actually, that's how Leonardo made  a lot of his income, improving the weapons of war for his patrons.  However, the more I see of his inventions the more astounded I am of his incredible genius.  It isn't just that he was an incredible artist, but he was a visionary who came up with inventions far before their time.  The piano was interesting as well, since I'd never heard he had musical genius as well, but it was almost like having your own private concert from a string quartet. 

[Zombie]

LDV probably got the idea from the hurdy gurdy, which uses the same idea of spinning wheels on strings. These are the drawings



You can see from this pic Slawomir Zubrzycki constructed four spinning wheels to play all the strings

 

It isn't the first instrument built from LDV's design but it's certainly impressive

 

Edited November 20, 2013 by Zombie