This came up in a thread in the digital piano forum. Does anyone know why the extra keys on a Bösendorfer Imperial are all black?

Ok, I answered (well, Wikipedia answered) my own question!

The extra keys, which are all at the bass end of the keyboard (that is, to the left), are colored black so that the pianist can tell them apart from the normal keys of an 88-key piano. They were originally covered with a removable panel to prevent a pianist from accidentally playing the extra notes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_B%C3%B6sendorfer#:~:text=The%20extra%20keys%2C%20which%20are,accidentally%20playing%20the%20extra%20notes.

Interesting! I guess the black color makes sense, but it doesn’t make sense to cover them! Like, are you going to flip that cover off in the middle of playing?

    I don't know if there is much of a literature that calls for those notes. It was my understanding that their chief value lies in their sympathetic vibration. I suppose the strings could just exist over the soundboard and be kept tuned without even having a key mechanism associated with them. But perhaps there are a very few pieces that include those notes.

      Hi

      Funny story in the video below which relates to the extra notes.
      [

      Cheers

      Simon
      All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
      Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.

      pseudonym58 But perhaps there are a very few pieces that include those notes.

      I think all of these are parts of the answer ShiroKuro is looking for.

      Yes, when first created, the extra notes on the Imperial were added due to a request from Ferruccio Busoni, for the purpose of transcribing some Bach organ works that needed the additional range (think of all the extra notes on the multiple manuals and foot pedals of a pipe organ!). So there are indeed a few works that use the notes specifically.

      But how many? There simply aren't a lot of Imperials out there (or any other >88 key pianos at that). So you really aren't going to find much in the standard repertoire that calls for them. Or for the extra high notes in a Stuart 108, etc.

      And if the notes are so rarely used, you have to balance the fact that many pianists who are used to 88 keys can be visually distracted by sitting at an extended keyboard. Nobody thinks about it, but they actually orient their hands based on the size and position of the full keyboard, and when exposed to more keys, some pianists find that they subconsciously assume that C0 is a normal A0, and overstretch. Hence the cover or the ebonized keys - it makes it easier to ignore them unless you are specifically playing a work that needs them.

      A lot of people say notes that low aren't particularly musical, so to @pseudonym58's point, just having them there for additional soundboard area and damper-up resonance can add a lot to the body/character of the sound. But there's also the case of improvisational playing - if you want, you can take an arpeggio that ends with C1 and just extend it down to the new lower range, and that can be a lot of fun, and a natural way to use the extra keys for normal pieces!

          Simonb, thank you for sharing that video! I loved both of those guys, very different piano players, but both great in their own way.

          So many of those guys aren't with us anymore and we miss them. Grateful for videos that let us remember and relive what once was.

          Oscar does talk about how it can mess with one's perspective when the lower end of the keyboard changes perspective. And it was cool that he actually demonstrated a bit of actual use down there.

          If people are looking for written music that uses those notes, yeah, good luck, you won't find much. But people like Oscar... they don't care what's on a page, they're gonna explore every inch of their instrument and use it to the fullest. 🙂

          I frequently look for lower notes than A0 when improvising, especially Ab0, G0, Gb0, and F0. The lowest Ab, G, Gb, and F on a standard keyboard just don’t seem low enough especially when playing octaves in the bass.

          Maybe I’ll get a Bosendorfer some day…

          FWIW I find this video below (starting from 15:20) interesting, where James person demonstrates some applications of using the black extra keys. I've tried this before on an Imperial, and it definitely added that additional oomph.

          One of my favorite applications of the extra keys is, appropriately, in the Bach-Busoni Chaconne to avoid having to jump up an octave on the last note in the descending bass line at the end:

          (Not a great performance, but shows the passage I'm talking about. On another note, it's crazy to see how much I've improved since this recording after I started attending meetups, getting motivated to practice, and starting lessons again)

          I like selectively adding extra octaves at the bottom as well to heighten the drama depending on the piece, so if the extra keys accommodate an extra octave, I may go for it.

          "You're a smart kid. But your playing is terribly dull."

          6 months later

          Gombessa Yes, when first created, the extra notes on the Imperial were added due to a request from Ferruccio Busoni, for the purpose of transcribing some Bach organ works that needed the additional range (think of all the extra notes on the multiple manuals and foot pedals of a pipe organ!). So there are indeed a few works that use the notes specifically.

          A standard pipe organ with 16' pedal stops only goes down to C1. A standard 88-key piano has a compass that extends a minor third lower to A0.

          Organs in cathedrals, and in large churches that are cathedralesque (such as l'Eglise St. Sulpice in Paris) may have one or more 32' pedal stops. These are included so that the bass better can fill the large space, not to use the notes below C1 (fundamental of 32 Hz). Use of these notes in a composition would make it unplayable on the vast majority of pipe organs.

          Busoni often doubled up bass notes to octaves in his Bach transcriptions to get more power out of the bass on a piano. By having the lower notes on the Imperial, he could double up using the note an octave below instead of an octave above.

          The design also leads to a wider soundboard, and running the strings for the standard bass notes further from the edge of the soundboard, where there will be better resonance.

          If you ever have a chance to play an Imperial, you will find that the tone of most of these extra notes makes them more or less useless played by themselves.

            ShiroKuro Interesting! I guess the black color makes sense, but it doesn’t make sense to cover them! Like, are you going to flip that cover off in the middle of playing?

            No, the pianist will take it off at the beginning of the incredibly rare piece(I guess less than one out of thousand) where the extra notes are used. For all the other pieces, the piano will look like it would if it only had 88 keys.