Engineering:Moór-Duplex piano

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Short description: Double-keyboard piano invented by Emánuel Moór
Moór-Duplex piano
A Moór-Duplex piano showing the double keyboard layout
Keyboard instrument
Classification Keyboard / Chordophone
Inventor(s)Emánuel Moór
Developedc. 1920
Related instruments
Piano

The Moór-Duplex piano (also known as the Moór double-keyboard piano or Duplex-Coupler grand piano) is a specialised piano featuring a double-keyboard which was invented in the early 1920s[1] by the Hungarian composer and pianist Emánuel Moór. Moór was also known as an instrument maker and he made the prototype on his own, with only the help of a carpenter.

Moór aimed to simplify the playing of piano pieces that utilise large intervals such as the works of Rachmaninov [2] who had particularly large hands: he wrote music with this in mind[3]. The Moór piano made playing these pieces possible for pianists with small hands: two of its early proponents were women.

Moór applied for the patent for his invention in 1920 and it was granted in 1927[4][2]

Precursors and Origins

In 1741 J.S. Bach composed the Goldberg Variations originally for a harpsichord with two keyboards.[5]

In 1838 Liszt said "The organ keyboard, with its varied range, will lead naturally to the creation of pianos with two or three keyboards"[6]

In 1905 Busoni foresaw the scope of a two-keyboard instrument, writing

“I discussed with a well-known piano maker a project for a new piano. The idea is to install two manuals (keyboards), and the coupling (doubling of octaves) If that could be accomplished it would mean the advent of a new epoch in piano playing.”[7]

Design and Mechanics

The Moór-Duplex utilizes a single set of strings and hammers. It features two keyboards set closely together, visually similar to a pipe organ. The lower keyboard is essentially a regular 88-note piano, and above it is an upper 76-note keyboard, which can be configured in different ways, by using the Coupling Pedal[2]. This system gives several advantages over a regular 88 key piano:

Configuration Options

The Coupling Pedal (an additional fourth pedal) allowed the instrument to switch between different modes of operation:

  1. The two keyboards are uncoupled, this is still an advantage over a traditional piano when hands need to cross, as in the original Goldberg Variations, which J.S.Bach wrote for a double harpsichord[5]
  2. The upper keyboard plays notes an octave higher than the lower keyboard.[8] This allows the execution of wide spans with a single hand. For example, a pianist with small hands can cover the large intervals needed in Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (Op. 18)[9] by playing C on the lower keyboard with the thumb and E on the upper keyboard with the third finger. So an interval of a tenth becomes the same span as a third.[10] [2]
  3. The upper keyboard plays exactly the same as the lower keyboard, which allows the pianist to play at double the volume # There was an ingenious system which made it possible to imitate a harpsichord, called a 'cembalo attachment'.[4]

Other Design Considerations

The lower white keys were shaped with a raised rear profile so they met the black keys at the same height, permitting pianists to play chromatic scales and glissandi smoothly by playing at the back of the keyboard[2]. This was similar to an existing modification by Hewitt of London who had experimented with this design on their regular pianos.[8]

History and Production

Moór patented the invention in 1927[10]. Traditional manufacturers displayed scepticism, but some of the major piano houses such as Bösendorfer (who produced the most), Bechstein, Pleyel, Steinway, Chickering, and Weber all built limited demonstration models[2]. They were complex to manufacture, much heavier and pianists had to learn new fingerings for familiar pieces to take advantage of its capabilities so only about 60 to 65 of these instruments were ever produced. Today, there are only a few playable examples left.[11]

Emánuel Moór Pianoforte from around 1927 by Pleyel et Cie

Existing Pianos

Examples of Emánuel Moór pianos can be found at various museums around the world including:

Location Piano name Approximation Date built Notes Reference
Museum of Musical Instruments, Berlin, Germany Pleyel 1929 [4]
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Bösendorfer 1920 On loan from the Royal Academy of Music Museum, London. [12]
Chris Maene Piano Museum, Ruiselede, Belgium Bechstein 1931 [13]
Edinburgh University Musical Instrument Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland Weber 1925 [4]
University of Wisconsin, Madison Steinway 1929 Commissioned by Germany's Siemens family for a concert hall in Berlin until 1945. Damaged in WWII, repaired in New York, rediscovered by Gunnar Johansen, and played by Christopher Taylor. [14][15]
The Lady Organist collection Unknown / Unspecified Unspecified Described as possibly the only surviving upright Moór-Duplex instrument. [16]
Gunnar and Lorraine Johansen Charitable Trust Bosendorfer 1931 Was owned by Gunnar Johansen who produced recordings of Bach on it (1950) [17]
First Presbyterian Church Napa Bechstein E 139053?

Reaction

When the piano arrived on the scene, the Moór-Duplex piano drew fascination and high praise from several prominent European musicians and conductors who championed its innovative capabilities:

"It is the greatest achievement in piano making since the invention of the fortepiano." Wilhelm Backhaus[4]

"I do not hesitate for a moment to say what a strong impression the Moór grand piano has made on me. It is not only the richness of sound, never thought possible, which is created by the coupling and the octavations, but it is above all the stimulus for the creation of new piano literature in combination with the technical innovations that has made the greatest impression on me." Bruno Walter[4]

Cortot, and Sandor also praised the piano; Ravel was delighted with what it could do with his music. [17]

Despite this early high-profile enthusiasm, the instrument didn't see wide scale adoption: pianists faced a steep learning curve to relearn familiar pieces with new fingerings, and the instruments themselves were heavier, complex and more costly to manufacture.[4]

Notable Proponents

The two most famous proponents were women, even though men dominated the field at the time, lending credence to the fact that it particularly benefitted players with smaller hands.

Winford Christie

Moór's second wife, the Scottish concert pianist Winifred Christie, became the biggest proponent of her husband's invention, touring Europe and the United States to demonstrate its capabilities in the 1920s and 1930s. In November 1927 she played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic under Bruno Walter in Berlin. She also played in Paris, and on 8 January 1928 she played the two-manual piano in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic, again conducted by Bruno Walter.[4]

She played a Bechstein double piano in Carnegie Hall in 1930. The New Yorker critic wrote

The terrors of repeated notes may be minimized by the use of two keyboards, and throughout the evening there were glittering octave manoeuvres that would hardly have been possible for one performer at one keyboard.[18]

Marie de Jarowslawska-Tutundjian

Early public trials of the double-keyboard were assisted by pianist Marie de Jarowslawska-Tutundjian (1887–1963), a talented pianist who had been playing in public since the age of eight in Brazil. She lived in Lausanne, where she taught at the Ribeaupierre Institute. She demonstrated the instrument on 3 and 16 November 1921 at the Palace of Montreux. [19]

Christopher Taylor

In 2005, Christopher Taylor[20] began working with the Steinway mentioned above, learning the possibilities that it offered. Taylor says that a Moor piano lets you play “the world’s easiest octaves.”[17]

In 2007 after learning to play the Goldberg Variations on the Double Keyboard Steinway said, "I like to think it has a promising future" and that he hopes to get composers and arrangers re-introduced to it.[14]

He is experimenting with making his own version of the Moór piano, with an electronic version of the coupling pedal which would allow a pianist to set up any particular offset between the two keyboards. [20]Tentatively called the Hyperpiano it had its first demonstration in October 2016.[21]

Other notable pianists who performed or recorded on the Moór-Duplex included Wilhelm Backhaus, Alfred Cortot, Gunnar Johansen, Max Pirani[4],

References

  1. ↑ "Have you ever heard of a grand piano with a double keyboard?". https://www.klaviano.com/piano-blog/double-keyboard.html. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Crombie, David (May 13, 2025). "The Moór Double Keyboard Piano". https://www.worldpianonews.com/historical/the-moor-double-keyboard-piano/. 
  3. ↑ "The diagnosis of art: Rachmaninov's hand span". Oct 2006. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Shead, Herbert A. (1978). The History of the Emanuel Moór Double Keyboard Piano. [Publisher/Self-published]. ISBN 978-0950602301. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Uehling, Peter. "Brightening up sleepless nights The mystery of the “Goldberg Variations”". https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/stories/the-mysteries-of-the-goldberg-variations. 
  6. ↑ Revue et Gazette Musicale of 1838
  7. ↑ Remick, Laura (April 1931). "Should The Piano Have Two Keyboards?". https://etudemagazine.com/etude/1931/04/should-the-piano-have-two-keyboards.html. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Harding, Rosamund. The Piano Forte. Cambridge University Press. pp. Pt 2, Sec 1, Chap III "Octave couplers and Duoclave Pianofortes". 
  9. ↑ "Second Piano Concerto, Op 18". https://imslp.eu/files/imglnks/euimg/8/82/IMSLP953715-PMLP1953-49512673-Rachmaninoff-Piano-Concerto-No-2-Op-18-Piano-Solo.pdf. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 , Emánuel"Keyboard for Key Instruments" US patent 1618546, issued 1927-02-22
  11. ↑ "Duplex-Piano". https://duplexpiano.de/en/erfinder/. 
  12. ↑ "Grand Piano with Double Keyboard". https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/503040. 
  13. ↑ "Bechstein Moor-Duplex-Coupler Grand Piano". https://www.chrismaenecollection.be/en/catalog/bechstein-moor-duplex-coupler-grand-piano/103/. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Barron, James (July 15, 2007). "Steinway's Double-Keyboard Piano". https://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/1194817109001/steinway-s-double-keyboard-piano.html. 
  15. ↑ "Christopher Taylor performs the Bach Goldberg Variations". https://www.jwentworth.com/dual_manual_steinway. 
  16. ↑ "My secret weapon – the Moor double keyboard piano". October 27, 2012. https://www.theladyorganist.com/my-secret-weapon-the-moor-double-keyboard-piano/. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Nordlinger, Jay (July 18, 2017). "Double your pleasure". https://newcriterion.com/dispatch/double-your-pleasure/. 
  18. ↑ Simon, Robert (October 25, 1930). "The Two-Keyboard Piano—a Two-Fisted Pianist—“Wozzeck” in Brief". https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1930/11/01/the-two-keyboard-piano-a-two-fisted-pianist-wozzeck-in-brief. 
  19. ↑ Burdet, Jacques. La Musique dans le Canton de Vaud 1904-1939, pp. 146, 222 [biographic note], 251-252. Bibliothèque Historique Vaudoise No. 72. Lausanne, Payot (1983)
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Allen, John (2014). "The Frankenpianist". https://onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/the-frankenpianist. 
  21. ↑ Allen, John (2016). "The Hyperpiano". https://onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/the-hyperpiano/. 



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