Una Corda, a piano with one string per note

Nils also made a wonderful contribution to the music community with his instrument plug-in:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys...

To my knowledge, harpsichords and pianos are never fretted and need at least one string per note.

For uprights, the una corda pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings so they don't accelerate for as long on their way in.

But on a grand, the una corda pedal indeed still shifts the entire mechanism to the right so that the hammers truly hit una corda each.

String resonance and the case. Removing the case from a piano is like a make a drum out of a hoop and a skin. The case modulates the sound. It softens the rough edges and projects sound in particular directions. Removing it doesn't make the sound better. The case also ensures that all the piano innards are in a homogeneous environment. Without a case, individual strings will be in different temperature regions. Wooden parts will be in different moistures. Felt and leather bits will age inconstantly. A piano living without a case is like storing a strat violin on a shelf: artistically interesting but not done by anyone who actually appreciates the instrument.

EDIT: found it! https://www.pianostreet.com/blog/piano-news/bluthner-and-the...

Unfortunately, most of the samples are of obscure compositions. I think some tracks of traditional piano standards, especially side by side with a regular piano, would really show off the sound more.

"You know what the fella said – in Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

where as the video on the OP link is soft and almost like a dulcimer with a boatload of felt. I suspect thats also down to another layer of felt and playing softly.

either way, it sounds fantastic.

This is a piece of functional art like a Rolex.

You answered your own question but you're still unsatisfied with something?

This is the first line of text on the website: "Commissioned by and in cooperation with Nils Frahm we have developed the Una Corda Piano."

Here's Nils Frahm's website http://www.nilsfrahm.com/ so maybe you can find out why he decided to commission it.

Really can't figure out why this irrelevant, negative comment is highest upvoted...

It's a different sound. For a certain type of music, it's superior to regular pianos.

There are how many kinds of electric guitars, acoustic guitars, woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion instruments, electronic gear...? Very very many. Even in piano-land, different makers have characteristic tones. A musician hears a sound in their head, and wants to replicate and shape it exactly.

"It really felt like a brilliant new instrument, it was so nice. First time in my life to have kind of like a new piano. It sits in between a clavichord, guitar and a harp, and that was exactly what I wanted."

I could never entertain spending €22k on a musical instrument, but I own the Native Instruments sample library for the Una Corda and use it often. It's a beautiful instrument and I'm glad that it exists in the world.

There are plenty of performance and studio artists would are far more likely to go "well my home setup/shared studio already has several pianos including at least one grand, $30k for this Una Corda? I can probably budget for that".

Especially recording studios. Getting a Una Corda and getting the kind of artists in that would play it is worth the up front cost.

For higher notes you need thinner and shorter strings, which are quieter. Traditional pianos have different numbers of strings per note (one for bass notes, two for the mid-range, and three for treble notes) so that the notes sound roughly the same volume across the keyboard. This also gives a very rich tone, as the strings are very very slightly different in frequency.

The Una Corda only has one string per note. It's probably a lot quieter in the high octaves, but it has a thin and very pure tone which doesn't sound a lot like a traditional piano, which is very appealing to people who are looking for new and interesting sounds. And the quietness doesn't matter so much with modern amplification technology.