Guess what! A piano is a keyboard (instrument).

[Larry Sheldon]

On 3/17/2012 8:46 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Guess what!  A piano is a keyboard (instrument).
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OK, it's /my/ turn to say that I don't see anything unusual. Seems to be
> a bad translation of "Klavier". Just consider what Wiki posits in
> disambiguation of "Clavier":
>
>> Klavier, the German word used specifically to refer to any sort of
>> piano except grand pianos, but not other keyboard instruments.
>
> Perhaps it was posted by a French speaker who saw the line just above it.
>
>> Clavier, the French word for keyboard (either musical or typographical)
>
> Of course, Bach wrote for neither "keyboard" nor piano. He did, however,
> write for Clavier (in this case, harpsichord==clavicimbalum, or,
> potentially, clavichord, as well as ). Some of the titles are fairly
> routinely presented as "Keyboard concertos" or "concerti". Another
> possible association is "basso continuo", which is even more ambiguous
> in modern terms.
>
>       VS-)
>
> PS: Any musicians, please jump in any time...

Among the things I am not is spammer nor musician, but all I remember
from the late lamented vinyl is "Piano Concerto No. ...."

I never heard a piano referred-to as a "keyboard" until they started
call guitars "axes".

And high schools dropped "typing classes" in favor of "keyboarding
skills classes.

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