Kirkman

Biography

Kirkman of London is cited by Dolge in a footnote as having gone "to the extreme" in 1851 by building a grand piano with a keyboard spanning 6¾ octaves within a width of only 2 feet 2½ inches, meaning each key was allotted just half an inch. Dolge offers this as an illustration of how far keyboard compression could be taken as makers sought to fit an ever-wider range of keys into a manageable keyboard width, following the general narrowing of keys that had occurred as the number of strings increased since the fifteenth century. No further biographical information about Kirkman is provided in this section.

Highlights

• Built a grand piano in 1851 with a keyboard of 6¾ octaves, 2 feet 2½ inches wide, allowing only ½ inch per key

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 77.

Public domain.