The Celestial Grand Piano

About this work

Amber glass is the surprise. The grand piano, lid raised and stool beside it, has a translucent body that glows a honeyed orange against black, so you seem to look into the case rather than at it. Fine gold grid lines run behind the instrument, and small glowing gold dots are scattered across the field like points on a star map. The long curve of the case carries the eye from the tail round to the keyboard and down to the stool. Standing close, you notice thin highlights along the edges of the glass and the grid continuing faintly behind the body. From the doorway the piano becomes a single warm silhouette, solid and composed, set in a dark and orderly space.

A grand piano takes its shape from its strings. Low notes need long strings and high notes short ones, which is why the case sweeps in that familiar curve. Pythagoras is credited with noticing that pleasing intervals come from simple ratios of length: halve a string for the octave, take two thirds for the fifth. Instruments of Infinity builds each instrument on the 1.618 golden ratio, with the Fibonacci grid as its frame. With the piano, proportion is not added. It is already there.

As the most architectural of the instruments it needs room, ideally a broad wall in a lobby, a music room or a sitting room where a real piano stands. Charcoal, deep green and clean white walls all let the amber body glow. A thin black frame suits the grid, while dark walnut warms the amber and echoes the wood of a real instrument. A warm lamp in the evening brings out the glass best. Print it big, since the stool and the scattered dots get lost at small sizes. For a pair, The Golden Saxophone adds swing and curve beside the piano's long lines. The file prints sharply to roughly 76 cm on the long edge at 300 dpi.