Of the 30 million pianos in America, about 90% are never played.

Music has always kept pace with printing technology. The first printed music was the Mainz Psalter in 1457. This was the second book ever made with movable type. Music symbols were cut individually into woodblocks and assembled by hand.

Until the 1790's, all of the music that was played by Americans was printed and published in England, even when it had originally been composed elsewhere.

Ignace Jan Paderewski gave the White House’s first full solo piano recital in 1902.

Tin Pan Alley was the birthplace of much of the 20th century's popular music. It actually had two locations within New York City. One was on 14th Street and the other was in the Times Square area.

Most opera singers have a career of about 25 years. Age thickens the vocal cords and dries the tissues.

Two Austrians took out a patent in 1824 for a concavely-curved keyboard. The idea was that a longer reach was possible on a curve.

By 1600, engraving was the method most often used for printing music. Symbols were sketched freehand with a sharp tool onto zinc, copper, or pewter plates. The plate was inked and the print was made.

The French horn was invented and developed in Germany.

As the Queen Elizabeth II was making its way to the Falkland Islands in the spring of 1982 during Britain’s conflict with Argentina, the crew dumped a Bosendorfer piano (one of the most expensive pianos) overboard to make room for a helicopter to land on the ship.

The first documented reference to a harpsichord was in 1397.

In about 1720, John Walsh made punches for stamping note heads, clefs, and other musical symbols directly onto engraving plates.

The first gold record was "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller. It was presented on his radio program on February 10, 1942. The first gold album was the original 1949 Broadway cast recording of "Oklahoma!"

The song that has sold the most sheet music ever is “Yes, We Have No Bananas.” Isn’t that inspiring????

Ray Conniff was the first recording artist to use singers as instrumental sections on his recordings. He released his first album with these wordless vocals in 1956 ("‘S Wonderful").

The earliest German upright pianos were called pyramid pianos because of their symmetrical shape.

An "English flute" is more commonly called a "recorder." It is said to be the easiest of all instruments to learn to play.

Cristofori’s pianos had an una corde stop that was a knob on the cheek of the keyboard that moved the entire keyboard sideways so that the hammers would strike only one of the two strings for each note.

In some music for stringed instruments, there is the instruction to play "collegno." What does that mean? Scrape the strings with the back of the bow.

Late eighteenth century England was the country where the largest number of pianos were built and where the commerce in piano music was the strongest. It had the most highly-developed economy in the Western world and the economy with the largest number of families able and willing to furnish their daughters with piano lessons.

The first recorded message was "Mary had a little lamb" by Thomas Edison in 1877. His assistant, Mrs. Harriet Atwood, played the piano, making her the first recording artist.

The best-selling pianos in the world are made by The Pearl River Piano Group in China. They also claim to have the largest piano factory in the world. The company was established in 1956 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Pearl River is capable of producing over 125,000 pianos a year, and exports them to more than 100 countries. Most Pearl River pianos are considered entry level instruments. However, they make some (Ritmuller, Kayserburg, and Hallet Davis) to higher specifications with better materials. Pearl River pianos are mostly sold under the Ritmüller brand name for the US and European markets.


Trivia Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, the music trivia and "factoids" within Pianotes are true, but I can’t guarantee it.