Rameau: Minuet in Rondo Form

From Bastien's Easy Piano Classics

Czerny: Hundert Übungsstücke, Op. 139, No. 16 Andantino

Electra-Piano T

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Here's an-other post with the user manual:

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Purcell: Air in D minor, Z. 676

From Bastien's Easy Piano Classics

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 9 Brief Conversation

Holst: Cranham (In the Bleak Midwinter)

I got this arrangement from flutetunes.

Electra-Piano

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Haydn: German Dance, Hob. IX:12, No. 7

Notation from free-scores

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 8 Long and Short

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 7 In Steps Together

Swell Pedal

Recently, I was thinking about the Pianet's swell pedal (or knee swell on the earlier models), and I realized that this is different from a volume pedal.  As far as I can tell, the swell pedal is a term that comes from organs.  Here's a video from the American Guild of Organists that explains and demonstrates it:

The Sound on Sound article about Ernst Zacharias notes that he "was supposed to be learning the organ" when he was young and that he built "his first organ keyboard in 1948."  This may explain this bit of organ influence on the Pianet.

Swell pedals can change the dynamics, but they can't cut off the sound completely.  As the user manuals for the early models (Mark 1, C, CH) explain:  "Der Knieschweller erlaubt eine Lautstärkenregelung vom Pianissimo bis zum Forte."  "The knee swell allows a volume from pianissimo to forte."

The Pianet N manual has this to say about the swell pedal:  "The initial intonating effect when playing the Pianet may be practically eliminated to produce a smooth sound if the swell is jerked down briefly after the keys are struck.  Conversely, with the swell full on, you can depress a key and sharply close the swell for a blunt, woody sound corresponding to the 'new sound' prevailing in the world of musical entertainment today."  "Practically eliminated" but not "completely eliminated," so when Barry Carson writes in his Pianet N Background and History (which accompanies Nord's sample of the Pianet N and which I've posted here) that "volume was often controlled by a volume pedal, just as can be done on your Nord keyboard," it's not entirely accurate.  When I play the Pianet N sample on my Nord Electro 5, I can completely eliminate "the initial intonating effect" and fade in the Pianet's sound from silence, but this wouldn't be possible on an actual Pianet.  The initial striking of the note would be at least faintly audible.

As far as I know, the Pianet was the first keyboard instrument (with the exception of organs, of course) to have a swell pedal, long before volume pedals became commonplace with digital keyboards.  I've seen complaints about the Pianet's lack of a sustain pedal, but I think the swell pedal is a more interesting feature.  Like the Pianet's action of releasing a reed to make it sound rather than striking it, the swell pedal makes the Pianet a unique instrument.

Czerny: Hundert Übungsstücke, Op. 139, No. 15 Allegro moderato

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 6 Conversation III

Czerny: Hundert Übungsstücke, Op. 139, No. 14 Allegro molto

Pianet N

Along with the new ones I run across, I'm also going to post some of the older Hohner keyboard pictures I found.

Here's a Pianet N:

 

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Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 5 Conversation II

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 4 Conversation I

 

I have quite a few pieces in reserve, so for December, I'm moving to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule.

The Association's "Never My Love"

I'd suspected before that the electric piano in the Association's "Never My Love" was Pianet, and I started doing some research into it about a month ago, after listening to Insight Out (the album on which "Never My Love" appears).

In his book The Wrecking Crew, about the session musicians in Los Angeles in the 1960s, Kent Hartman writes that producer "Bones Howe routinely encouraged [Larry] Knechtel to cut loose with whatever came to mind, just like on his memorable, off-the-cuff, one-take Hohner pianet solo during the bridge section on 'Never My Love' by the Association" (p. 224).  Although Hartman neglects to capitalize "Pianet," he does identify both the instrument and the player.  I don't think his assessment of the song is very accurate, however.  There's more of an organ solo than a Pianet solo, and it occurs near the end of the song, not in the bridge.  Still, the Pianet is the standout instrument from ~2:53 on.

The documentary film The Wrecking Crew may even show the specific Pianet used.  At around 40:05, there's a picture of bassist Ray Pohlman, who is listed among those credited with arrangements on the back cover of Insight Out:

The keyboard on the right is either a Cembalet or Pianet; without seeing the range of the keys, it's difficult to tell, but obviously, I'm leaning towards Pianet.  The position of the connections on the back panel (visible just under the neck of Pohlman's bass) indicates that it's definitely an N model.

As a side note:  I believe this is the first time I've ever seen the Pianet's key cover/music stand actually being used as a music stand.

Pianet T

I follow some vintage keyboard repair shops on Instagram, and months ago, I decided to embed any Pianet-related pictures they post.  This is the first Pianet I've seen since then:

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"Liebe Schwester, tanz mit mir"

This is an-other one I got from a website of German folk tunes.  Because it's pretty short, I went through it twice.

Badfinger's "Storm in a Teacup"

Recently, I listened to Badfinger's Magic Christian Music, and I noticed what I'm pretty sure is Pianet in "Storm in a Teacup," which is included as a bonus track.  The particular version I have is in stereo, and the Pianet appears in the left channel.  There's a series of rapidly repeated notes at ~0:28 that has a timbre and attack very characteristic of the Pianet.

The liner notes explain that the song appeared on the EP Wall's Ice Cream, which consisted of tracks from various Apple Records artists and was released in the U.K. on 18 July 1969.  Badfinger was credited under its original name, The Iveys.

The song was written by Tom Evans (guitarist and later bassist in the group), but aside from that, I can't find any more information about it.  I'm assuming that the Pianet was played by Pete Ham, who was the lead guitarist but who also played keyboards on some of the band's songs.  Judging by the time period, I would guess that the specific Pianet is a model N, which seems to be the predominant model after 1965 or so.

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 3 Little Invention

I held the last notes a bit longer than what's written because otherwise the ending felt too abrupt.

Electra-Piano

Along with one of the Pianet M, EP Service also has a couple videos of the Hohner Electra-Piano:

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 2 Walking

Pianet M

A while ago, I found a short demonstration video of the Pianet M from EP Service, a vintage keyboard shop in the Netherlands:

Bartók: First Term at the Piano, Sz. 53, No. 1 Step One

 

Czerny: Hundert Übungsstücke, Op. 139, No. 13 Allegro

Couperin: Le petit rien

From Bastien's Easy Piano Classics

Czerny: Hundert Übungsstücke, Op. 139, No. 12 Allegro

Five Man Electrical Band's "Werewolf"

Like I mentioned here, I haven't found a source that verifies that the electric piano in Five Man Electrical Band's "Werewolf" is actually Hohner Pianet, but it certainly sounds like one to me.  The tremolo (labelled "vibrato" on the instrument itself) seems especially characteristic.

Last week, I figured out the Pianet part.  It plays just root notes in the bass register during the verses.  In the second and third verses ("But mama said, 'No, somethin' real strange 'bout my Billy...'" and "So papa said, 'I guess there's only one thing to do 'bout Billy...'"), the part is:

Note that the part is played an octave lower than my notation.

The other three verses are a bit different.  The fourth verse ("But he went down to the blacksmith, got him outta bed, and said, 'Get your fire hot...'") lacks Pianet entirely.  In the first verse ("Mama said, 'There's somethin' weird 'bout Billy...'") only measures three through eight are played, and in the fifth verse ("Then we heard a shot, and I said, 'Papa got 'im'..."), the first A note (and possibly also the third line) isn't played.

Haydn: German Dance, Hob. IX:22, No. 2

Originally, I found this on IMSLP, which gives the catalogue number as Hob. IX:22, No. 2, but then I discovered it's also in Easy Piano Classics, which has better fingerings, more interesting articulation (the staccato notes), and a few more notes compared to what I found on IMSLP, so I used that version for my recording.

Five Man Electrical Band's Hohner Pianet

Back in April, I remembered some videos of Five Man Electrical Band I'd seen years ago, and I thought that they'd had Hohner Pianet in them.  I was able to track them down again and confirm this.

The video quality is pretty bad, but both videos show a Pianet N.

Live performance of "Absolutely Right"

Miming to "Money Back Guarantee"

As far as I can tell, there haven't been many re-issues or compilations of the band's work.  All I have is Absolutely Right: The Best of Five Man Electrical Band.  Here's the track listing (excluding the single edits of "Signs" and "I'm a Stranger Here"):

1. "Signs"
2. "Dance of the Swamp Woman"
3. "Hello Melinda, Goodbye"
4. "Moonshine (Friend of Mine)"
5. "The Man with the Horse and Wagon"
6. "Absolutely Right"
7. "Coming of Age"
8. "Country Girl Suite"
9. "Julianna"
10. "I'm a Stranger Here"
11. "We Play Rock'n Roll"
12. "Money Back Guarantee"
13. "Werewolf"

I can't find any information to confirm this, but to me, the electric piano in "Dance of the Swamp Woman," "Coming of Age," "Julianna," and "Werewolf" sounds like Pianet, and the electric piano in "Signs," "Hello Melinda, Goodbye," and "The Man with the Horse and Wagon" (in which it appears only briefly, at ~1:52) sounds like Wurlitzer.  I'm not sure about the electric piano in "Absolutely Right," "We Play Rock N' Roll," and "Money Back Guarantee."  It sounds like the electric piano in "Money Back Guarantee" has an effect applied to it (it's especially easy to hear at ~1:50), which makes it even more difficult to identify.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the keyboard player's name is Ted Gerow.

Telemann: Fantasia in E flat major, TWV 33:12: II. Largo

I saw this while looking through the notation of the 36 Fantasias for Harpsichord and thought it lookt fairly easy to learn.  I used the Pianet T sample because I thought its mellower tone (compared to the N model) suited the piece better.

Hohner Clavinet Demonstration Record

I don't expect to write many posts on the Clavinet (I'm sure there are others who are more knowledgeable about it and more interested in it than I am), but I felt that I should at least transcribe and translate the demonstration record, in order to complement what I did with the Pianet demonstration record.  (I would do the same for the Cembalet demonstration record, but I can't find it on the internet and don't think the physical copies I've seen for sale are worth the exorbitant price.)

Originally, I found the Clavinet demonstration record on YouTube (side one, side two), but more recently, I found the same audio files here.  (Unfortunately, there's a skip in the first side, so it's incomplete.)  Each of those sources has a translation, but I didn't even look at them.  I wanted to do my own.

As with my translation of the Pianet demonstration record, I've added some details in brackets.

Transcription

Seite Eins

Liebe Musikfreund, mit diesem Preludium von Johann Sebastian Bach möchten wir Ihnen ein neues Musikinstrument aus dem Hause Hohner vorstellen.

Das Hohner Clavinet, so heißt unser neues Instrument, ist ein mechanisch-elektronisches Musikinstrument.  Metallsaiten werden durch eine einfache Mechanik angeschlagen.  Die Schwingungen der Saiten werden in elektrisches Schwingungen umgewandelt, verstärkt, und über einen Lautsprecher abgestrahlt.  Der Tonumfang beträgt fünf Octaven.

Das Hohner Clavinet ist unabhängig vom Stromnetz.  Den Strom liefert eine Batterie.  Verstärker und Lautsprecher sind im Instrument eingebaut.  Für das Spiel in hellhörigen Wohnungen oder zum Üben, können Sie auch einen Kopfhörer benutzen.

Die klanglichen Möglichkeiten machen das Hohner Clavinet zu einem idealen Musikinstrument für das häusliche und konzertante Musizieren aber auch für alle Bereiche der modernen Unterhaltungs- und Tanzmusik.

Achten Sie einmal darauf wie fein sich die Dynamik nur vom Anschlag her nuanzieren läßt.  Im volgenden Beispiel, dem Wiegenlied von Robert Schumann, hat die linke Hand verhaltene Triolen während die rechte Hand der Melodie Ausdruck verleiht.

Hören Sie nun den Anfang der Zwischen Actmuzik Nr. 2 aus Rosamunde von Franz Schubert.  Hier möchten wir Ihnen zeigen welch weiter Raum vom Piano bis zum Forte nur durch den Tastenanschlag hervorgebracht werden kann.

Möchten Sie in größeren Räumen musizieren und genügt Ihnen der eingebaute Lautsprecher nicht, dann können Sie jeder Zeit ein gutes Rundfunkgerät oder einen entsprechenden Verstärker anschließen.

Auf dem Hohner Clavinet können Sie fast alles spielen.  Angefangen von der frühesten Klaviermusik bis hin zur kna--  Der ganze musikalische Bereich steht Ihnen offen.

Ein Beispiel:  Zithermusik gespielt auf dem Hohner Clavinet.

Und so etwa klingt eine Spanische Gitarre.

Hören Sie zum Schluß einen Choral.  Wie gut sich unser neues Instrument auch für diese Art von Musik eignet möchten wir Ihnen damit zeigen.

Seite Zwei

Auf dieser Seite, möchten wir Ihnen, lieber Musikfreund, das Hohner Clavinet in Verbindung mit eine Rhythmus Gruppe vorstellen.

Für die Freunde beschwingter Unterhaltung, spielt jetzt das Dieter Reith Quartett.

Dieter Reith am Hohner Clavinet

Jürgen Franke, Gitarre

Werner Schulze, Baß

Und Hermann Mutschler, Schlagzeug.  Wir wünschen Ihnen gute Unterhaltung.

Translation

Side One

Dear music friend, with this prelude [in C minor, BWV 847] by Johann Sebastian Bach, we would like to introduce to you a new musical instrument from the Hohner company.

The Hohner Clavinet - that's what our new instrument is called - is a mechanical-electrical musical instrument.  Metal strings are struck via a simple mechanism.  The vibrations of the strings are converted into electrical vibrations, amplified, and emitted over a loudspeaker.  The range is five octaves.

The Hohner Clavinet is independent from the electrical network.  A battery supplies the power.  An amplifier and loudspeaker are built into the instrument.  For playing in thin-walled apartments or for practicing, you can also use headphones.

The tonal possibilities make the Hohner Clavinet an ideal musical instrument for playing domestically and in concert but also for all fields of modern entertaining and dance music.

Just observe how delicate the dynamics are, merely from nuances in touch.  In the following example, [Albumblätter, Op. 124, No. 6] the Wiegenlied[chen] by Robert Schumann, the left hand has subdued triplets while the right hand lends expression to the melody.*

Hear now the beginning of Entr'acte No. 2 from Rosamunde [D. 797] by Franz Schubert.**  Here we would like to show you what wide scope, from piano to forte, can be produced only through the key touch.

If you would like to play music in bigger rooms and the built-in loudspeaker is not enough for you, then you can at any time connect a good radio apparatus or a compatible amplifier.

On the Hohner Clavinet, you can play almost everything.  Beginning from the earliest clavier music up to---  The entire musical sphere stands open to you.

An example:  zither music played on the Hohner Clavinet.

And a Spanish guitar sounds something like this.

In conclusion, you will hear a chorale.***  With it, we would like to show you how well our new instrument is suited even to this type of music.

Side Two

On this side, we would like to introduce to you, dear music friend, the Hohner Clavinet in combination with a rhythm group.

The Dieter Reith Quartet plays now for the friends of lively entertainment.

Dieter Reith on the Hohner Clavinet

Jürgen Franke, guitar

Werner Schultze, bass

And Hermann Mutschler, drums.  We hope you enjoy.

[Of the medley that follows, the only tune I recognize is "Brazil," written by Bob Russell and Ary Barroso.]

---

*This description is backwards; it's the right hand that plays triplets:

[source]

**What's played is actually Entr'acte No. 3.

***The tune for the chorale seems to be "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen," but I couldn't find the specific arrangement used.

---&---

As a bonus, here's a video from a few years ago of Ernst Zacharias (who invented the Cembalet, Pianet, Clavinet, and Electra-Piano) playing a Clavinet L (I've been unable to identify the piece):

Telemann: Fantasia in B minor, TWV 33:15: IV. Gayment

 

The Telemann gavotte I learned from Easy Piano Classics has a few bars that (adjusted for key) are nearly identical to some in this movement from the 36 Fantasias for Harpsichord, so I learned it too.

Easy Piano Classics

I recently started learning some pieces from Easy Piano Classics in The Bastien Older Beginner Piano Library.  (I posted a Telemann gavotte last week, and I've already recorded two more pieces.)  The book is divided into periods of music history, and at the beginning of each section, there's a selection of pictures of keyboard instruments from that particular period.  For "The Contemporary Period (1900-present)," one of the instruments is a Pianet N:

I think "electric" is a better adjective to use than "electronic" though.  I like this distinction between the two:  "Try playing the keyboard with the instrument UNPLUGGED from both the mains (if applicable) and any amplification.  If it makes a musical sound (however faint) it IS an electric piano."  Since, according to the user manual, "the Hohner Pianet N has mechanical vibrators (reeds) which are intonated by the keyboard action" and those vibrations are then "converted into electrical vibrations by electrodes," it does fit this definition of "electric piano."

Telemann: Gavotte in C major

This is from Easy Piano Classics in The Bastien Older Beginner Piano Library.  The book doesn't offer any information on the piece itself, which I'm a bit disappointed about.  In some ways, this is a combination of two movements from Telemann's 36 Fantasias for Harpsichord, TWV 33 (14:II and 15:IV), and I wish I could find out more about the similarity.

Cembalet Records

Partially because I recently discovered that Richard Manuel used Cembalet in the Band and partially because my blog stats tell me that searches for "Cembalet N" have led people here (apparently because I mentioned the Cembalet in my post about Manfred Mann's use of the Pianet), I've been doing more research into the Cembalet lately.

A couple weeks ago, I finally got to listen to some of the Cembalet EPs.  Of the four pictured on Ulrike Muehlbachler's website, three are credited to the Mag'net Quartet (the other is Hohner's demonstration record).  These are available on YouTube (along with two others) but apparently only in specific regions (I had to use a VPN to trick YouTube into thinking I was in France in order to listen to them; otherwise, all I see is "This channel doesn't have any content" or "This video is not available").

The EPs are also available on Amazon but - again - only in specific regions.  The dates there indicate that they were all released in 1962.  Based on the catalogue numbers (which are sequential) they were released in this order (I'm also including the track listings):

1. Cembalet Party, Vol. 1 [HF 1015]
1. "Saint Louis Blues"
2. "Dinah"
3. "Nuages"
4. "Stomping at the Savoy"
2. Cembalet Party, Vol. 2 [HF 1016]
1. "Singing in the Rain"
2. "Un américain à Paris"
3. "Undecided"
4. "The Man I Love"
3. Boom sur le Cembalet! [HF 1017]
1. "Viens danser le twist"
2. "Comme une balançoire"
3. "Cruauté mentale"
4. "Fernando"
4. Chansons immortelles de Marguerite Monnot [HF 1018]
1. "Mon légionnaire"
2. "Je n'en connais pas la fin"
3. "La goualante du pauvre Jean"
4. "C'est à Hambourg"
5. "Irma la douce"
6. "Milord"
5. Cembalet variétés [HF 1019]
1. "Le petit chat sur le clavier"
2. "Mariage de poupée"
3. "A tous les amoureux du monde (From 'Le troisième homme')"
4. "L'île heureuse"

Excepting Chansons immortelles de Marguerite Monnot, these are also listed in at least some of the Cembalet user manuals.  "Einige Schallplatten aus dem Hohner-Repertoire zeigen deutlich, was man mit dem Cembalet machen kann" - "A few records from the Hohner repertoire demonstrate clearly what one can do with the Cembalet."

I found it interesting that Chansons immortelles de Marguerite Monnot often features Cembalet as the accompaniment for accordion, which isn't too dissimilar from the Pianet's rôle as accompaniment for melodica in one example on the Hohner Pianet demonstration record.  All of these instruments use reeds, so while they're intoned in different ways, there's something of a similarity in sound.

Czerny: Hundert Übungsstücke, Op. 139, No. 11 Allegro moderato

This is an-other one I had to re-record because I misread the notation the first time.  The first note in the second section is a G, but I'd played it as an F (which I think sounds better but which isn't accurate).

The Band's Hohner Pianet

Earlier this year, I saw this picture the Band posted where Richard Manuel is playing a Hohner Pianet:

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I found the same picture on Getty Images (with better resolution but also with a watermark).  The accompanying information says it was taken at Madison Square Garden on 29 January 1974.

[source]

Here's an-other picture of Manuel with the same Pianet (the chips in the finish match), taken at Wembley Stadium on 14 September 1974:

[source]

On tumblr, I found an-other picture from the same appearance:

[source]

I also found a few from June 1976:

[source]

The Pianet's keys are pretty much all that's visible of it in the picture above (a Mu-Tron Bi-phase and what I believe is an ARP Pro-Soloist are stacked on top of it).  Here's a wider shot:

[source]

I can't tell for sure if the Pianet here is the same as the one above (it seems to be), but all of these pictures show the N model.  The identifying features are the scissor-style legs and the connections' location on the back panel.

I think that, of the albums I have (Music from Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright, Cahoots, Rock of Ages, Moondog Matinee, Northern Lights-Southern Cross, and The Last Waltz), the Pianet appears in only four songs:  "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," "Caledonia Mission," "Get Up Jake," and "The Shape I'm In" on Rock of Ages.  (The Pianet has an effect applied to it for "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and "The Shape I'm In," ostensibly the Mu-Tron.)

I had thought that the Pianet appeared in the studio version of "The Shape I'm In" and the live versions of "The Shape I'm In" and "Ophelia" on The Last Waltz, but then I lookt more closely at this picture of Manuel's keyboards from The Last Waltz performance:

[source]

Unlike the instrument seen above, where the keys range from F to F (although, really, only the top end can be seen), the keys here range from C to C, indicating that this is a Cembalet.  While the picture is a bit dark, it's also possible to see that the right cheek block is narrower than it is on the Pianet N.  Here are the pictures from the user manuals for comparison:

Cembalet N

Pianet N

The N models of Pianet and Cembalet both had scissor-style legs, visible here on the Cembalet as it waits at the side of the stage:

[source]

The Cembalet pluckt the reeds in a more direct manner than the Pianet, and this explains the punchier sound heard in these live versions of "The Shape I'm In" and "Ophelia."  (It's worth noting that the studio version of "The Shape I'm In" features both Cembalet and Clavinet.)

At one point, I had thought that the Pianet appeared in "In a Station" and "Long Black Veil" on Music from Big Pink.  Apparently, the electric piano in "Long Black Veil" is a Wurlitzer, so it's likely that the electric piano in "In a Station" is the same instrument.  I'm pretty sure, though, that the "plinky toytown keyboard" in "In a Station" is also Cembalet.

Schumann: Album für die Jugend, Op. 68, No. 5 Stückchen

This is with the Pianet T sample (listed simply as "Pianet" in this collection).  Originally, I recorded this with the Pianet N sample, but I thought that the timbre of the Pianet T (which I discovered about a week after first recording this) suited the piece better, so I re-recorded it.  As a bonus, though, here's the first recording I did, with the Pianet N sample: