- Piano and Voice Instructor -
Fun Facts
The name "piano" is short for "pianoforte", which is Italian for "soft-loud." The piano was named this because, as opposed to the harpsichord, the pressure with which the keys were struck could control the loudness or softness of a piano note.
The Augmented 4th Interval, or "tri-tone", was thought to be evil in the Middle Ages and was banned from church music. Today, we hear a tri-tone interval every time we hear the theme song for "The Simpsons".
Scientific studies show that termites consume wood up to two times faster than normal when they listen to heavy metal.
On the first harpsichords, the colors were reversed from our modern keyboard, meaning that the white keys were black and the black keys were white.
The song with the longest title on record is 'I'm a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin' Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues' written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1943. Elisabeth is thankful that, so far, no one has tried to name a child after this song.
Chopin suffered from an undiagnosed pulmonary ailment that is still debated today. It weakened the pianist to the point where he could not play his own "polonaises" (Polish marches) with the energy that even he thought they required.
Audrey Hepburn did not do her own singing in "My Fair Lady". Singer Marnie Nixon provided her voice. Julie Andrews had also been up for the role of Eliza Doolittle, but was passed over because Audrey Hepburn was thought to be the bigger box-office draw. (However, Elisabeth likes to point out indignantly that Julie Andrews would have been able to do her own singing.)
Beethoven reportedly dipped his head in cold water before he composed. Elisabeth will withhold judgment as to why on earth this was necessary.