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Out Of Place Pianos and Other Large Musical Instruments

M

Mythago

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Jan 23, 2004
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122
I think this one's gonna take some beating for strangenes...

Piano found on Britain's highest mountain

Scottish Press Association
Wednesday May 17, 2006



A musical mystery today surrounded Britain's highest mountain after a piano was discovered near its summit.

Volunteers clearing stones from the 4,418ft peak were astonished when they discovered the musical instrument on Ben Nevis. An appeal has now been launched to find out how and why the piano came to be within 200 metres of the top of the mountain.

The piano was recovered at the weekend by 15 volunteers from the John Muir Trust, the conservation charity which owns part of Ben Nevis.


The squad was removing litter and stones called cairns from the summit plateau when they spotted the top of the piano.

"Our guys couldn't believe their eyes," said trust director Nigel Hawkins.

"At first they thought it was just the wooden casing but then they saw the whole cast iron frame complete with strings.

"The only thing that that was missing was the keyboard - and that's another mystery.

"Maybe it's hidden somewhere else on the mountain."

He added that a biscuit wrapper with a best before date of December 1986 was found under the piano, giving a clue as to when it was taken there, but not why.

Volunteer group organiser Sandy Maxwell, of Glasgow, said this was the largest, heaviest and most unusual object they had found on the mountain.

"We have a constant battle against litter being left on Britain's highest mountain - but this elevates being a litter lout sky high into a completely different category. We are now trying to track down who took it there.

"We may even give them an outstanding invoice for 20 years storage of a piano under a cairn on Ben Nevis."

After finding the piano, the volunteers broke it up and asked around 30 members of the public to help carry bits off the mountain. Mr Maxwell said they believed the piano was taken to the top of Ben Nevis for a wacky stunt.

"We assume it would be a student stunt or charity run but we certainly have no record of it," he added.

"We would be very keen to hear from anyone with information about the piano."
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Original Story
 
Nah, it'll be a bored RAF helicopter crew.
 
heard on the radio earlier today that the piano was in fact an organ...

it was carried up the mountain by a local "wood cutter" in aid of a cancer charity.

Couldnt find a news story but found this

In September 1980 the kilted Kenneth Campbell of Ardgay, Ross-shire carried a barrel to beer to the top to raise funds for cancer research. The barel had legs down either side so it could be put down on the ground whenever he needed a breather.

The same Kenny also carried a piano to the summit and back.
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http://www.mountainwalk.co.uk/bennevisfacts.html

seems like someone was lying about carrying it back down...
 
I heard that the whole stunt originally had to be delayed until soembody was willing to give him a suitable instrument to carry up...

..yes that's right - he had to wait for a suitable organ donor!

Now which coat was mine...
 
MYSTERY OF PIANO IS SOLVED
THE Ben Nevis piano mystery was finally solved yesterday, thanks to a biscuit wrapper.

It had been claimed the instrument was an organ carried up the mountain by Scottish woodcutter Kenny Campbell in 1971.

But the John Muir Conservation trust, which found the piano, said it was lugged there by removal man Mike Clark in a 1986 charity stunt.

Mike and his friends celebrated with whisky and McVities biscuits.

The wrapper, with a "best before December 86" date was found near the battered instrument.

Trust director Nigel Hawkins said: "It was not an organ. The biscuit wrapper is further proof this was the piano Mike and his friends took up."


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Mike, 51, added: "I hope we won't be fined for leaving litter."
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http://tinyurl.com/f4alk
 
Surprised this didn't come up yet

Piano buried on UK's highest peak

A piano has been found buried inside a stone cairn on the summit of Britain's highest mountain.
Conservation volunteers from the John Muir Trust made the discovery during a clean-up operation on the 4,418ft Ben Nevis peak in the Highlands.

The piano has been broken up to make it easier to carry off.

The trust said how it came to be on Ben Nevis was a mystery but the mountain has been the scene of various stunts including cars being pushed to the top.

The piano was dug up from under a cairn during an operation by trust volunteers to reduce 100 cairns on the summit to 25.

Nigel Hawkins, trust director, said: "Our guys couldn't believe their eyes.

"At first they thought it was just the wooden casing - but then they saw the whole cast iron frame complete with strings."

Mr Hawkins said the origins of the piano and how it got to the top of Ben Nevis remains a mystery.

But a McVities wholemeal biscuit wrapper also found with the instrument and dated best before December 1986 could be a clue.

He said: "The only thing that was missing was the keyboard - and that's another mystery. Maybe it's hidden somewhere else on the mountain."

Volunteer group organiser Sandy Maxwell, of Glasgow, said: "We are now trying to track down who took it there.

"We may even give them an outstanding invoice for 20 years storage of a piano under a cairn on Ben Nevis.

"We have a constant battle against litter being left on Britain's biggest highest mountain - but this elevates being a litter lout sky high into a completely different category."

He added: "We know cairns are often used to harbour rubbish but we never expected to find something like this."

One theory has been put forward as to how the piano got onto the mountain.

Former Radio 2 producer Paul Newman said he was walking up the mountain with his family in the summer of 1971 when they came upon a man carrying a piano up the mountain on behalf of a cancer charity.

Mr Newman said he remembered the piano as a half-sized instrument, strapped to the man's back using seat belts.

"He had a broad Scots accent and was wearing a kilt," he told BBC Scotland.

"We were coming down the mountain when we saw this surreal sight coming up through the clouds."

He said the man was leaving the piano on the mountain at night then returning the next day to carry it a bit further. They saw him on the third day as he neared the summit.

"He told us that when he got to the top he would spend the day playing it before pushing it over the edge."

It is thought that man could have been Highland Games athlete Kenny Campbell who said he carried a piano up the mountain on his back in 1971 although he claimed it never got to the top.

However, he did later carry an organ to the summit and played Scotland Brave while Norwegian climbers danced.

In 1911, a Model T Ford was brought to the summit in a stunt to promote the car.
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from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/4990662.stm

imagine gettng sponsership for that! 'you want me to sponser to carry what up where?
 
Mystery piano in woods perplexes police
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Woman finds piano in woods near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, while walking a trail
Police don't know where piano came from, who put it there
Piano in good working condition, apparently in key
By Josh Levs
CNN

(CNN) -- Was it a theft? A prank? A roundabout effort to bring some holiday cheer to the police? Authorities in Harwich, Massachusetts, are probing the mysterious appearance of a piano, in good working condition, in the middle of the woods.


A police officer examines an oddly placed piano in the woods of Harwich, Massachusetts.

Discovered by a woman who was walking a trail, the Baldwin Acrosonic piano, model number 987, is intact -- and, apparently, in tune.

Sgt. Adam Hutton of the Harwich Police Department said information has been broadcast to all the other police departments in the Cape Cod area in hopes of drumming up a clue, however minor it may be.

But so far, the investigation is flat.

Also of note: Near the mystery piano -- serial number 733746 -- was a bench, positioned as though someone was about to play.

The piano was at the end of a dirt road, near a walking path to a footbridge in the middle of conservation land near the Cape.

It took a handful of police to move the piano into a vehicle to transport it to storage, so it would appear that putting it into the woods took more than one person.

Asked whether Harwich police will be holding a holiday party in the storage bay -- tickling the ivories, pouring eggnog -- while they await word of the piano's origin and fate, Hutton laughed. No such plans.

Harwich police have had some fun, though. Among the photos they sent to the news media is one of Officer Derek Dutra examining the piano in the woods. The police entitled the photo "Liberace."
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Source

Probably an ‘art’ installation, but what if this is merely a precursor to other Out Of Place Instruments?


In fact, wasn't there one found up a mountain here in the UK a couple of years ago?
 
It looks like good art to me, but it's silly to install something like that without permission. Think of the expense! But think also how nice to play (or listen to, for those of us with no skill) the piano in such a setting.

It'd be a pain to keep it in tune in such a location, alas.

Alternatively, I can imagine an elaborate romantic plot of which hauling in the piano was an integral part of sweeping someone off his/her/its feet. How do you say no to someone who goes to all that trouble to greet you on your favorite nature walk playing "My Funny Valentine?"
 
ProfessorF said:
In fact, wasn't there one found up a mountain here in the UK a couple of years ago?
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To answer my own question - yes!

Source

Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 20:28 GMT 21:28 UK


Piano buried on UK's highest peak

Volunteers Paul Nelson and Andrew Hunter with piano on Ben Nevis
A piano has been found buried inside a stone cairn on the summit of Britain's highest mountain.
Conservation volunteers from the John Muir Trust made the discovery during a clean-up operation on the 4,418ft Ben Nevis peak in the Highlands.

The piano has been broken up to make it easier to carry off.

The trust said how it came to be on Ben Nevis was a mystery but the mountain has been the scene of various stunts including cars being pushed to the top.

The piano was dug up from under a cairn during an operation by trust volunteers to reduce 100 cairns on the summit to 25.

Nigel Hawkins, trust director, said: "Our guys couldn't believe their eyes.

"At first they thought it was just the wooden casing - but then they saw the whole cast iron frame complete with strings."
Click to expand...
 
PeniG said:
But think also how nice to play (or listen to, for those of us with no skill) the piano in such a setting.

It'd be a pain to keep it in tune in such a location, alas.
Click to expand...
I went to a music festival in the summer, where the organisers had left an extremely clarted old piano out in open, for the refreshed festival-goers to pound on in the dead of night. Good fun, but it didn't like the rain.
 
Is that actually a piano? It's a rather odd shape. And the keyboard looks much shorter than the standard 7 and a bit octaves. Are they sure it's not a clavinova or some such device?
 
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