Photography by Caitlin Durlak
The toy piano is a small keyboard instrument that originated in Europe. Originally known as the kinderklavier (“children’s keyboard), it had wooden keys and hammers and glass rods/bars. In 1872, Albert Schoenhut, a German immigrant living in Philadelphia, USA developed the present form of the toy piano: the fragile glass bars were substituted by durable steel bars. He founded A Schoenhut Company to manufacture the new instrument. By 1917, the company boasted a catalogue showing 10 pages of upright and grand pianos of all shapes and sizes including one page devoted to miniature piano
stools alone. Eventually, the wooden keys and hammers were replaced by plastic moulded ones.
By the 1950s, there were two main toy piano makers in North America: Jaymar and Schoenhut. In 1997 these two companies merged as Schoenhut Piano Company. In France, Victor Michel improved toy-piano conception from 1939 to 1970: Michelsonne toy-pianos are known from their beautiful sound. Unfortunately, a factory fire in 1970 ceased the manufacturing of these instruments and they are now considered rare collector’s items. Other major toy-piano brands/manufacturers include Melissa and Doug (USA), Kalikå (Sweden), Bontempi (Italy), Lutian (China) and Changshu Musical Instruments (China).
Toy pianos can range from one to three octaves typically and come in spinet/upright, tabletop, baby grand and concert grand styles. Its gamelan-like timbre has inspired many classical composers to write for it (John Cage, George Crumb) and rock bands to include it (Radiohead, Tori Amos).
junctQín acknowledges the generous support of Schoenhut for their instrument sponsorship of several projects. To learn more about Schoenhut, please visit www.toypiano.com
