The keyboard has evolved over the last six hundred years. Instrument designers and makers have explored ways to improve the manufacture and tone of higher quality, more reliable and accessible instruments.
Over the past seventy years the humble piano and organ have been complemented by using new materials and technologies generating sounds that reflect the music of our times.
The range of keyboards on display commences with an instrument manufactured in 1629 to one manufactured in 1996.
The exhibition is further subdivided into the electro-mechanical keyboards, the mechanical to electronic, and finally the synthesisers.
A further charming quirk of the exhibition is that as you walk past the instruments in a defined order you will hear examples of these instruments being played in various, very popular and familiar pop songs.
The exhibition ELECTRIC KEYS is free and is currently on at the Powerhouse Museum.
Article and photos by Ben Apfelbaum
