Paul von Janko

Biography

Paul von Janko of Austria patented in 1882 what Dolge calls "the most ingenious and really meritorious invention, revolutionary in its character" among keyboard innovations: a keyboard built of six tiers, one above the other, arranged similarly to an organ keyboard. Janko's motivation, according to Dolge, was to enable the amateur pianist to execute the brilliant but technically demanding passages found in modern compositions. The multi-tiered layout was designed so that intervals such as tenths and twelfths could be reached far more easily than on a conventional keyboard, since the same pitch was duplicated across the tiers, reducing the hand-span required for wide chords. Dolge presents the Janko keyboard as the culmination of a long line of keyboard-redesign experiments described earlier in the same chapter, including those of Dr. Krause, Neuhaus, and Cludsam, but distinguishes it as uniquely serious and well-conceived. Paul von Janko, styled noble of Enyed, was born June 2, 1856, at Totis, Hungary. He entered both the Polytechnicum and the Conservatory of Music in Vienna, graduating from each with top prizes, reflecting what the text calls his dual nature as a 'virtuoso-inventor.' He went on to pursue musico-mathematical research at the Berlin University under Helmholtz, work that led directly to the multi-tiered keyboard bearing his name. He experimented on an ordinary parlor organ from 1882 to 1884, and in 1885 the first Janko grand piano was built. On March 25, 1886, he gave his first public concert on the instrument in Vienna. The text describes the keyboard as allowing arpeggios across the full compass of the piano with a simple wrist motion, and an octave stretch equal only to a sixth on an ordinary keyboard, though it faced resistance from established virtuosos, teachers, and music publishers invested in the old keyboard layout.

Highlights

• Patented in 1882 a six-tier keyboard, similar in arrangement to an organ keyboard
• Designed to let amateurs more easily execute technically difficult modern piano music
• Called by Dolge "the most ingenious and really meritorious invention, revolutionary in its character"
• Invented the Janko keyboard, a multi-tiered keyboard layout that reduces hand-stretch requirements
• Studied musico-mathematical subjects under Helmholtz at the Berlin University
• Gave the first concert on a Janko grand piano in Vienna on March 25, 1886

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 78, 79, 80, 81, 83.

Public domain.