This question is prompted by a discussion which has started in "Another place," but I don't yet see there an answer.
How, when and why did the width of piano / organ keys get standardised, in the main, to the present sizes? I say in the main because there are of course keyboard instruments with different size keys; accordions for example.
Logically, it would seem that slightly narrower keys would make it easier to span more notes, although I suppose it would reduce the "Target area," especially for some of the more vigorous pianio pieces. Or was it possibly something to do with the piano mechanisms attached to the keys, or the layout of the strings?
Moving away from the normal keyboard altogether to something like the chromatic button key accordion, it becomes possible to span an even greater range, and in a five row arrangement they even offer choices of fingering, although they (the keyboards not the instruments)* are perhaps not well suited to the organ repertoire.
Thinking about it, I suppose concentrating a tracker mechanism into the length occupied by the keys of a button keyboard may be a difficult task. Of course nowadays there would be the option of an electric action; wires don't take up much room!
Were some apparently difficult pieces from the past actually written for different size keyboards?
Do the inhabitants of this eminent forum have any answers?
(* Post modified to avoid ambiguity.) (Or perhaps it should read "And the instruments.") :))
How, when and why did the width of piano / organ keys get standardised, in the main, to the present sizes? I say in the main because there are of course keyboard instruments with different size keys; accordions for example.
Logically, it would seem that slightly narrower keys would make it easier to span more notes, although I suppose it would reduce the "Target area," especially for some of the more vigorous pianio pieces. Or was it possibly something to do with the piano mechanisms attached to the keys, or the layout of the strings?
Moving away from the normal keyboard altogether to something like the chromatic button key accordion, it becomes possible to span an even greater range, and in a five row arrangement they even offer choices of fingering, although they (the keyboards not the instruments)* are perhaps not well suited to the organ repertoire.
Thinking about it, I suppose concentrating a tracker mechanism into the length occupied by the keys of a button keyboard may be a difficult task. Of course nowadays there would be the option of an electric action; wires don't take up much room!
Were some apparently difficult pieces from the past actually written for different size keyboards?
Do the inhabitants of this eminent forum have any answers?
(* Post modified to avoid ambiguity.) (Or perhaps it should read "And the instruments.") :))