The P-S O in "The Piano"

Tom Tuner · Post by **Tom Tuner** » 01 Mar 2007, 20:34

I reluctantly post this lest it be considered too trivial or frivolous for consideration, but it bothers me and is no worse than questions I see in other forums. Can anyone identify the piano-shaped object in the film "The Piano"? My references on English square pianos do not run much beyond about 1800 and this is clearly from at least 1860 or later. By looking at frames picked off a DVD of the film I have determined a number of possibly identifying characteristics. But I still can't read the name badge!
I expect to be told that it's a fake built by the props department, or else that "everyone knows what that is."

Tom Tuner

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 01 Mar 2007, 23:24

I've been wondering about it, but have yet to see a really clear still of the instrument. I have to admit at this point that I have no idea what you're on about with the "P-S-O" thing. Anyway, who says it was English? I had assumed that it looked American, but never really developed enough enthusiasm to see the film, so what do I know?

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 02 Mar 2007, 15:47

Sorry about that, I must be more awake today, I spend a lot of my life around PSOs so I should have worked it out. Certainly, some struggle to be defined as pianos, so I shall remember the term, and will use it frequently! Do you have a clear picture of the offending object that you could email to me?

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 02 Mar 2007, 19:24

I seem to remember it as being a Broadwood square, but couldn't bear to watch much of the film as the music GOT ON MY NERVES. I just remember seeing it being stood in sea-water up to its ankles and thinking
'I'm glad that ent on MY round...' before I turned over to the Magic Roundabout...

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 02 Mar 2007, 20:26

If pushed, I would guess at a Wornum Albion, I've certainly never seen a Broadwood square with a keyboard all the way across, and a fall cheeks like a later grand. More likely, it's MDF with B&Q legs and braaan paint.

PianoGuy · Post by **PianoGuy** » 02 Mar 2007, 23:13

Too wide, not deep enough and too rectangular for an Albion.

I reckon it's a bitsa, but at some point in the film, an old blind tuner sniffs a key and pronounces it to be a Broadwood belonging to a woman. I never liked the implication therein that piano tuners are a bit pervy!

I agree with Gill though. The music is repetitive tosh. A bit like that idiot Einaudi who's making bigger idiots of the people who pay him loads of money for old rope that a GCSE student could come up with.

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 02 Mar 2007, 23:59

I don't mean the Albion grand, I mean the rectangular one, they do tend to be more rectangular than the ones that aren't rectangular. No doubt the Broadwood bit was written in the original text, and they hadn't got a Broadwood handy. Well, there aren't many about are there? Or perhaps they couldn't find anyone fool enough to allow it on the beach?

Yes, I'd go along with that last bit, I find it extremely frustrating that someone can make so much money on a piano which seems devoid of black notes, not to mention playing well-known tunes wrongly. But then I complained about Bert Weedon making money twanging on one string when I first played guitar... And he moaned about Cliff Richard only playing three chords! The thought of Bert's idea of "I got rhythm" played on one string makes me cringe. But I digress!

Whose music was it anyway?

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 03 Mar 2007, 17:02

I know what you mean about Bert Weedon...can't wait for "Play in a Day the Einaudi Way" to be published. Thought to be honest half an hour would just about do it...

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 04 Mar 2007, 14:46

Frivalous I know, but can one really define that thing as a P-S O when it doesn't actually appear to be shaped like any piano we know of? Certainly, if I were making a film prominently featuring a piano made by an existing company, I would have consulted them about how it should look!

Tom Tuner · Post by **Tom Tuner** » 07 Mar 2007, 19:57

The oddness of the thing is what caught my eye. At first glance it appeared that the keyboard was protruding from the case, whereas the sides of the cabinet are cut down, possibly to mimic a grand. Looks as though it has a severe case of overbite. The angular lettering on the name badge does not appear to read "John Broadwood & Son," but I can't really tell. I'll send some frame clips later.

A p-s o is a box that externally resembles a piano, and may well have been intended by its maker to be sold as a piano, but which fails of functioning as an actual piano either through defects in design or construction, or by having lost all virtue as a musical insrument through age or neglect. It looks like one but isn't really.

Tom Tuner

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 07 Mar 2007, 22:01

What, like a Lindner, you mean...?

Tom Tuner · Post by **Tom Tuner** » 09 Mar 2007, 19:27

A Lindner/Renner would be a fair example. Are any parts available for these? I can repair the keys, but my attempts to make replacement flanges have not been altogether a success.

I was in error in my last previous statement. There is one brief shot in which the camera angle is such that the name can be made out. And it is John Broadwood & Sons - London. This is the most peculiar square piano I have ever encountered or seen depicted. The velvet-backed trim panels seem to have been borrowed from an American parlour organ. Is it possible this was made for export, perhaps to Persia or India?

Tom Tuner

Tom Tuner · Post by **Tom Tuner** » 09 Mar 2007, 19:34

Of course I meant Rippen not Renner!

TT

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 09 Mar 2007, 20:24

HAH! Broadwood!!! So I was right for once...I must go and write that down somewhere...

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 25 Apr 2007, 09:08

Have you tried googling for props piano?

Tom Tuner · Post by **Tom Tuner** » 30 Apr 2007, 19:12

I had thought of that 'cause it looks so odd and never has any pedals, even when the camera is on the pianist's feet. But with the actual English square piano action, dampers, iron frame, it seems too elaborate for the props department to have gone to the trouble to dummy up. What are squares selling for these days anyway?

Tom Tuner

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 30 Apr 2007, 20:19

Abourt nought to eight thousand pounds depending. (Roughly.) I missed one recently which was withdrawn because no-one wanted to bid a fiver!

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 17 Jan 2010, 16:44

Just got the free DVD of "The Piano", and watched a bit of it. The "instrument" in question sounds like a decent grand, has an authentic looking nameboard, but looks nothing like Broadwood square! We even see shots of the hammers rising to strike strings, the dampers look like nothing I remember seeing in a Broadwood. I don't see any shots which connect the inside to the outside. More thrilling instalments when I have the time to watch it properly. P.S. I think Einaudi must have written the music, there don't seem to be any black notes!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 17 Jan 2010, 18:23

Close, but no cigar. The music is Michael Nyman at his most turgid...teenagers love the music and if I have to move an Einaudi book to tune a piano, you can bet 'The Piano' won't be far behind....ZZZZzzzzzzz...

Pianomate · Post by **Pianomate** » 18 Jan 2010, 00:37

If you had to move an Einaudi book to tune a piano you might as well only tune about 10 strings as they won't be using the rest!

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 18 Jan 2010, 13:36

I know that anyone who studies a subject in depth is always going to be picky, and it's a pointless excercise examining it all, but it fascinates me that in an age when so much science and history goes into researching films, someone who was making a film which has a Broadwood square piano as its centrepiece couldn't be bothered to take the simple step of looking at a Broadwood square piano on the internet, to see what it should look like! What we seem to end up with is a grand with its tail end hidden, and an authentic-looking name label, but the fall ridiculously disguised to look as if it has a large, ugly fret in it, and the cheeks made enormously fat, so that they hide the notes a square piano shouldn't have. Then, the top notes are covered or removed, leaving something that is hideously deformed. In some shots, it is clear they are hiding the back end of the grand. There is a moment, however, when we see an aerial view of a square piano interior, which ain't no Broadwood! The layout is wrong, the dampers are wrong. Why go to so much trouble when all they needed was a real square piano, and a mock-up that could stand being left on the beach at high tide!

I love the idea that in the midst of all this poverty and squalour, a tuner turned up in the middle of nowhere just to tune one square!

And despite being on the beach at high tide, it still works, and holds in tune.

Did anyone think the film was worth the effort?

Pianomate · Post by **Pianomate** » 18 Jan 2010, 22:29

I'm sure what was on the beach was just a prop.

So Bert Weedon played on string on the guitar - There must be someone on here who is equally adept at playing the one string banjo?

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 18 Jan 2010, 23:58

Sorry, my banjos have 4, 5 or 8 strings. Of course, the definition of a gentleman is a person who could play the banjo, but chooses not to. There are almost as many banjoist jokes as drummer jokes.

Pianomate · Post by **Pianomate** » 19 Jan 2010, 23:44

Playing the 1 string banjo is actually played on an organ and not a banjo!

I'm sure Einaudi must be familiar with the technique

UK Piano Page Piano Forum

The P-S O in "The Piano"

The P-S O in "The Piano"

The piano

PSO

PSO

Straying slightly

P-S O

Props

Squares

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"

Re: The P-S O in "The Piano"