The Piano Violin

Full patent here.

The player has to bow the strings and strike some keys simultaneously. Wonder why it never caught on?

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Posted By: Paul - Wed Sep 04, 2024
Category: Inventions | Music | 1900s

Comments

Here's an article that mentions an earlier similar instrument. I particularly like the inventor's other invention.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/sure-the-piano-violin-can-do-two-things-at-once-but-can-it-do-them-well-104969325/

Posted by ges on 09/04/24 at 10:12 AM

More on Blakeman's invention:
https://www.shakermuseum.us/the-music-was-very-fine-brother-elishas-piano-violin

Posted by ges on 09/04/24 at 10:21 AM

Those references were totally unknown to me, GES! Many thanks!

Posted by Paul on 09/04/24 at 01:59 PM

Mr. Lewis reinvented the hurdy-gurdy. THE RIDERS OF ROHAN (hurdy-gurdy instrumental) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKr_uMusp4 A few minutes of advertising her store at the end.

Posted by eddi on 09/05/24 at 04:11 AM

Quite a number of bizarre instruments were patented, and many built and sold, during the first half of the 20th century. Many were sold door-to-door, especially before WWII. The autoharp followed the (mostly) Austrian zither out of the late 19th, and it was followed by everything imaginable: the pianolin, Chickering harp, tremeloa, mandolin-harp, ukelin, and many creative variants. Bowing, picking, strumming, and sliding could (theoretically) be done with either hand depending on the instrument's characteristics. eBay is irregularly a good place to find them, some in working order.

Posted by R'Chard on 09/06/24 at 10:38 AM

It looks as easy to play well, and therefore probably sounds as well, as an accordion. (I've never heard an accordion played well, not even by The Who.)

Posted by Richard Bos on 09/07/24 at 02:54 PM