String piano

Among those employed by Cowell, the first major proponent of the approach, are: Strings may also be pressed at specific points along their length with the fingers of one hand while being played by the other to produce different harmonic pitches.

Cowell also wrote passages for techniques involving simultaneous manipulation of the strings—sliding along one or more with the fingers or a metal object—and keyboard sounding in order to produce glissando effects.

[2] Per the Lichtenwanger listings, Cowell's earliest piece calling for string piano techniques is The Sword of Oblivion (ca.

In Langgaard's Insektarium for solo piano from 1917, the pianist is also instructed to play directly on the strings in two of the movements.

Many composers have used such "inside-the-piano" techniques sporadically, as special effects; a few have made more substantial use of them, such as Crumb (e.g., Makrokosmos, vols.

1 and 2 [1972; 1973]), Halim El-Dabh, Sofia Gubaidulina (e.g., Dancer on a Tightrope [1993]), Mauricio Kagel (e.g., Trio in drei Sätzen [1984–85]), Carl Orff (e.g., Antigonæ [1949]), Karlheinz Stockhausen (e.g., Klavierstücke XII–XIV [1979–84]), Toru Takemitsu (e.g., Corona for Pianists [1962]), and David Tudor.