SONE& PHON

Concert grandSpruce soundboard, felt hammers, lid fully open; six microphones: a pair inside the lid, ORTF at 1.5 m, a room pair.

Living-room uprightA body six-tenths the size of a grand, lid closed, a carpeted living room.

Saloon pianoStrings 25 years old, unisons out of tune, hammers packed hard, dampers loose.

Prepared pianoScrews between the strings, like a 1940s prepared piano.

Late at nightA 6 mm felt strip in front of the hammers, soft hammers, a room the size of a wardrobe.

UnderwaterThe whole piano sunk in water, retuned under water by a technician, recorded with a hydrophone.

ShipwreckUnder water as well, but nobody retuned it: the whole piano sank a semitone and a half.

On MarsA carbon-dioxide atmosphere at 0.6% of Earth's pressure, minus 60 degrees.

Buried in cottonThe case stuffed with cotton, pressing on the strings and the soundboard.

Filled with heliumPiano and microphones in a large room filled with helium.

Glass soundboardThe soundboard replaced with 6 mm glass, steel hammers, in a church.

Guitar strings, wooden hammersGuitar steel strings with light wooden hammers: not far from a harpsichord.

Toy pianoA third of the size, a cardboard soundboard, plastic hammers.

Stone cathedralSolid stone walls, eight seconds of reverb, seated in the tenth row.