Neuhaus

Biography

Neuhaus, a piano maker of Vienna, constructed a concave-formed keyboard for his pianos about 1780, aiming to follow the natural inclination of the human arm to move in a semicircle rather than a straight line. Dolge presents this as an early and largely forgotten experiment in reshaping the piano keyboard's physical layout, distinct from the chromatic (flush-key) experiments of makers like Dr. Krause. He notes that Neuhaus's same basic idea was resurrected many years later by Cludsam of Germany, who obtained patents on a concave keyboard and was, as of the time of Dolge's writing, seriously attempting to introduce it commercially. No further biographical detail about Neuhaus is given in this passage.

Highlights

• Piano maker of Vienna who constructed a concave-formed keyboard about 1780
• Aimed to follow the natural semicircular motion of the human arm

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 78.

Public domain.