Prelude When I picture a pianist performing, I think of a performer leaning into the keyboard with quiet concentration, hands moving carefully across the keys. Beneath the stage lights, the strings shimmer inside the piano. Each time the pedal is pressed, rows of neatly aligned hammers rise and fall like small waves. Yet the piano contains far more than the keyboard beneath the pianist’s hands. A piano weighs more than a sumo wrestler, yet it is delicate enough to respond to
