Here's a video of a mechanical piano performing Circus Galop (sic), a composition created to test the performance of automatic pianos and other instruments. It apparently can't be played by ~~humans.~~ a single, two-handed human.

Circus Galop is a piece for player piano written by Marc-André Hamelin. It was composed between 1991 and 1994 and it is dedicated to Beatrix and Jürgen Hocker, piano roll makers. Its duration is approximately 4–5 minutes.[1] Scores of this piece are available through the Sorabji Archive.[1] Piano rolls of this piece are available from Wolfgang Heisig and Jürgen Hocker, who have recorded all three of Hamelin's player piano pieces on the MDG label and were released in April 2008.[2][3]
It is not possible to be played by humans, as at some points all the piano staves are played at the same time, and up to 21 notes simultaneously. It is used to test MIDI software to drive it to its maximum potential, such as Synthesia, or PianoMIDI.[4]

The actual composition is pretty wild and amazing.

Circus Galop (Wikipedia) (via Reddit)

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LinkMan

It can’t be played by a single human with two hands. But get enough people and enough hands in front of the piano and I’d think it could be played by humans.

“Impossible” player piano pieces also aren’t something new. I believe George Gershwin himself used to create piano rolls of some of his compositions that had more notes than a single human with two hands could play.

Still pretty cool, though!
- LinkMan
  
  I see the wikipedia entry has already been corrected from “It is not possible to be played by humans” (quoted above) to “It impossible for a single human to play” (from the wikipedia page as of a moment ago). Quick work, people!
  - Donald Petersen
    
    “Now you tickle pretty good ivories, boy, but give the devil his due. I bet a piano of gold against your soul, ’cause I think I’m better than you.”
    - noah django
      
      …chicken in the bread-pan pickin’ out dough…
      
      always loved that line
- http://profiles.google.com/churba Churba S
  
  I don’t think it could be played by multiple humans on a single piano, or at the least, it would be incredibly, ludicrously difficult. I mean, look at some of those progressions, people would get all tangled up with each other trying to play it on a single piano.
  
  Multiple humans on Multiple pianos, maybe, if they were very skilled and very well practiced at playing with each other.
  - http://beautifulsynthesis.com Andrea
    
    Not necessarily. You’d just have to have the players playing the keys in much the same way as bell ringers in a carillon, each in charge of certain notes regardless of when they’re played. If you divvied out the notes well enough, and coordinated the players well enough, you could pull it off.
    
    It’s like J.S. Bach said: press the right keys at the right time, and the instrument practically plays itself.
    - LinkMan
      
      It would certainly be fun to watch!
afinepress

Great angle for seeing the action.
marilyn.lynch

Not sure what the “(sic)” is for; there is an actual thing called a Galop.
- bbctol
  
  [sic] just indicates that it’s a faithful reproduction of the text, and is often used to indicate that words that some might think are spelled incorrectly are, in fact, accurate.
  - styrofoam
    
    That’s not exactly my understanding of the usage of [sic]. It’s not supposed to be used to indicate that words people think are misspelled are being used properly- it’s supposed to be used when you’re faithfully reproducing a quote, and the quote contains something that IS being used inaccurately, from a copy-editing standpoint.
    
    So in this case, for there to be a valid use of [sic], it’d be quoting the title of a YouTube link that was entitled as: “Circus Gallop” [sic].
    - Ross Bearman
      
      Whilst that’s perhaps the most common usage of a sic, it simply means that the word or phrase is as it appeared in the source material. Many people would believe that “galop” is an error and so a sic is used to indicate that song is called Circus Galop, and it’s not a mistake introduced by the writer.
    - http://blair.mitchelmore.ca/ Blair Mitchelmore
      
      sic comes from the Latin, meaning literally “thus.” What that means is you are clarifying that what is there is not a mistake. In some contexts, “not a mistake” means “I’m quoting this mistake accurately” and sometimes it can mean “this thing may look incorrect but it is not.”
TWX

As the piece progressed, I pictured Daffy and Donald playing it in competition, like in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”

If I get over to Organ Stop Pizza later, I’ll have to see if they’ve got a midi version of this to put through the instrument.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=665597209 Darshan Gencarelle
  
  I worked at
  Organ Stop Pizza back in the early 90ies. Worst job ever.
- digi_owl
  
  you called? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H9f8qUrF6w
  
  Love the movie btw, even tho the ending freaked me as a kid.
Sean McKibbon

Wow that is really stressful to listen to. I lasted about 30 seconds.
dr.hypercube

I just created a Fleisher Studios cartoon in my head to accompany this. Thank you Cory.
awjt

Nothing is impossible for Rachmaninoff. He’s the Chuck Norris of piano.
- joeposts
  
  Clone two Rachmaninoffs, give them amphetamines, and we’d definitely hear this song…
  - awjt
    
    Rachmaninoff doesn’t “play” the piano. He punishes it for being silent when he’s not around.
Aaron Oppenheim

The classic body of work for Player Piano is Conlon Nancarrow’s extensive studies, which are being recorded by Jurgen Hocker for Youtube. Tons of amazing, impossible music.

http://youtu.be/8vAH7Ogl5Qk
- jmdaly
  
  Was just going to bring up Conlon Nancarrow, although those youtube versions are interesting it is well worth hunting down high fidelity versions. Totally a genius, he actively subverts the use of the piano, deconstructing and expounding upon classic piano tunes while also creating really strange experimental works. He is also just a very interesting character.
- Archer Sully
  
  Ligeti also has written “unplayable” music for MIDI driven piano, although I haven’t heard any of it.
  
  nb: for those who don’t know the name Ligeti wrote “Lux Aeterna,” the music used for the Black Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  - http://twitter.com/mathew mathew
    
    The Ligeti pieces are on the “Mechanical Music” CD from the Sony Ligeti Editions series, along with his excellent piece for 100 metronomes. Recommended.
SamSam

No “sic” necessary, Cory. A Galop is a dance.
- Ian Anthony
  
  “A sic, added just after a quoted word or phrase (or a longer piece of text), indicates that the quoted words appear exactly as in the original source. The usual purpose is to inform readers that any errors or apparent errors in the copied material do not arise from transcription.”
  “Apparent errors” being the key phrase there. It was actually an alright use of sic.
  - marilyn.lynch
    
    Alright (sic).
http://www.facebook.com/spfitzinger Scott Pfitzinger

I really hesitate to say ANYthing is unplayable by humans. I’ve seen some pianists do some amazing things! I bet two great pianists could play as “piano four hands.” Oh, and “Galop” didn’t need a (sic) after it, because a “Galop” is a legitimate name for a style of musical composition. With one L. :-)

All that said, that was incredible and thanks for sharing!
ROSSINDETROIT

I made it to the end, to the detriment of my ears. It’s an impressive novelty piece but I wouldn’t listen to that for entertainment.
- Ipo
  
  You’d really have to be there to fully appreciate it. =]
JonSchweitzer

That bit from 0:54 to 1:01 is stolen straight from the sound of my Xbox 360 crashing mid-game.
irksome

Now if you were to line up 88 really skinny one-armed midgets standing sideways…

I’m still waiting for it to explode.
yri

The Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz would give it more of a work out, I’d think.

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=769.0
- Baldhead
  
  assuming it were playable, and not a joke piece. This bit is in fact playable by a mechanism, since it has no impossible notes. or bicycles.
http://twitter.com/ivanjohnson Howard A. Rodman

I second (or third) the recommendation of Conlon Nancarrow. His pieces for player piano, prepared player piano, and computer-driven prepared player piano are otherworldly.
Nadreck

Automatic pianos! Why if this sort of thing becomes common it will mean the End of live music since anyone will be able to hear any piano composition without hiring a player! We must legislate against this and save the piano player industry from player pianos!!
- irksome
  
  Mr. Baldwin is donating to members of Congress even as we speak.
- Mark Dow
  
  Vonnegut’s “Player Piano”, 1952, is worth reading and a mention with respect to this sarcasm:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano
  
  “I was working for General Electric at the time, right after World War II, and I saw a milling machine for cutting the rotors on jet engines, gas turbines. This was a very expensive thing for a machinist to do, to cut what is essentially one of those Brancusi forms. So they had a computer-operated milling machine built to cut the blades, and I was fascinated by that. This was in 1949 and the guys who were working on it were foreseeing all sorts of machines being run by little boxes and punched cards. Player Piano was my response to the implications of having everything run by little boxes. The idea of doing that, you know, made sense, perfect sense. To have a little clicking box make all the decisions wasn’t a vicious thing to do. But it was too bad for the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs.”
  - Nadreck
    
    It’s like they say: A steam shovel puts a hundred men with shovels out of work; and a thousand with teaspoons!
PhosPhorious

I want this music played at my funeral.
- http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb
  
  He asked for this music to be played at his funeral, just before he died trying to play it.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’m sticking with Yakety Sax.
  - Ipo
    
    Oh fun! Can I come?
Marktech

Fourth for Nancarrow; and Hamelin is a pretty astonishing pianist himself.
- zuben
  
  Of the two, I think it’s his right hand burdened with the harder task. Just how does he keep it from leaping up on the keyboard to join in the finger dance?
Lobster

Non-playable, huh? Sounds like a challenge!
http://constipanimated.tumblr.com/ Greg

Checking back in 48 hours for the obligatory ukelele response video.
- irksome
  
  Ukuleles are SO last week. The hipster-instrument-du-jour is the euphonium!
Awesomer

I love it. I love it even more than this, which is saying something.
theophrastvs

whut?-two hands only? every church organist gets two hands, two feet, and the odd lever to control tremolo with the elbow or head (i leave the Bach japes about his organ having no stops to others) use all the appendages the stingy cosmos has granted ye.

oh and here’s another excellent way to view the circus gallop (apologies: galop):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsdIkjjizfw
- http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb
  
  Turn that video so the lines are scrolling top to bottom and you’ll induce nightmares in all players of Guitar Hero.
  - styrofoam
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5F7GNQAO4T4
    
    This was in the youtube sidebar as “DEATH WALTZ”, which appears to be the “impossible to play on a physical piano” song. It’s just a MIDI program.
    
    The Guitarist Hero in me curled up into a foetal position as soon as I clicked the video.
http://twitter.com/Elissa_Malcohn Elissa Malcohn

Then you’ve got multiple humans playing multiple pianos (e.g., Steve Reich’s “Six Pianos”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edKE10Yz_zs&feature=related
ricoflan

Note that this is actually a Midi-enabled Piano, not a true scroll player piano and, as YouTube description accompanying the video says: “The problem is that the song was programmed incorrectly and just past the middle of the song there are too many overlapping notes . The computer compensates but the piano cannot.” So, while I frickin’ dig it, it’s not actually what it’s supposed to sound like, evidently.
- styrofoam
  
  IANAPE, but the comment says “DEATH WALTZ” can’t be played on a piano. The comments are unclear, but it makes it sound like somebody asked for DEATH WALTZ, and he was unable to do so- so here’s Circus Galop instead.
  The YouTube Sidebar had a link to a Computer Version of DEATH WALTZ, which looks ridiculously insane. I’m not sure what makes it impossible for a physical piano to play.
  
  But I’m opting to interpret it as, “One can program Death Waltz in Midi, but not output it to a physical piano. Computers can play the sounds, but good luck getting it out in the real world.” (I’ve another response above with the link to Death Waltz, if you want to see.)
benenglish

Can anyone remember that name of that circus galop (that Sousa, iirc, composed) with the impossible baritone part, just so he could have an excuse to fire a baritone player he hated? My band director in high school used to tell that story and I thought it was hilarious.
alfanovember

If only it were possible to do a properly controlled experiment, where both “Galop” and “Gallop” were presented, so that we might finally determine which group – the music pedants or the spelling pedants – could offer more helpful correction.
nixiebunny

The old scroll piano would have no trouble with this piece, assuming you had a compressor with enough CFMs to keep the air pressure up. And assuming that the roll didn’t fall apart from too many holes punched in it.
http://www.megatoothpastemammals.com Carpeteria

I have the feeling Hiromi could probably take this one on and do pretty well by herself…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HcKrd3K8_A
EarthtoGeoff

Pieces able to be played by a single pianist are so mainstream.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EJUMVRTBBP5JEJ2JOTDNZCQQ5E Sum One

The Yngwie Malmsteen of piano pieces.
Editz

They should’ve been playing this at Gitmo.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=683041980 Eric Stoffel

Whatever, Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900 could play this then light a cigarette on the string.
Editz

http://youtu.be/NY64meMb7-s
Lord Xenu

MAH is French-Canadian. “Galop” is French for gallop. Problem solved.
taras

Did anyone see the X-Files episode where they decoded this tune and it contained a photo of the Face on Mars?
Antinous / Moderator

There’s a worldwide hunt on for the deepest bass singer ever because a “brilliant” composer has written a new work that nobody can sing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16858789
http://www.commodorecrush.com/ Commodore Crush

I love the fact that this gives a visual representation of notes + it sounds like a cross between a lost Super Mario Bros level and Crystal Castles (the game, not the band).
Marko Raos

I, for one, want to welcome our new mechanical piano overlords.
social_maladroit

Yuck. I think we already knew you could use MIDI to make a player piano play so fast it sounds like typewriter keys getting scrunched together, and at such a loud volume that the poor thing will need to be tuned afterwards.

That there’s piano abuse. I hope it falls on that guy.
http://profile.yahoo.com/QEYFISQO4DNKS3L6R3UQNECRMY Dan Fowler

Please, I WILL TELL YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW!!!!!!
zebbart

If the band Lightning Bolt were born the 1870′ s…
pjcamp

Why do player pianos always sound like crap?
Tom Fox

sounds like a piano’d dillinger escape plan song!
noah django

two thoughts:

A) if the author of this piece had had access to an effects processor, he would have invented dubstep. listen to it again. it’s fucking dubstep.
edit: just re-read the post. pretty sure there were fx in 1994–whoopsie. does pre-date dubstep by more than a decade, though.

B) this reminds me of the story of how Art Tatum learned to play piano because his childhood home had a player piano and he would lay his hands on it while it played, thinking, in his naivité, that the pieces _could_ be played by humans. he became, for his time, the worlds best. when he went to see Fats Waller, Fats told the audience “God is in the house.” this is the evidence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HkGAFDE3wI
jackie31337

After hearing this, I started to wonder what it would sound like if all the notes on a piano were played simultaneously.
http://twitter.com/librtee Sasha@librtee

I was not disappointed :)

Would love to get the sheet music and hang it on the wall.

Terrible music to listen to before going to bed!
dcorbett

That’s really annoying.
ZNS

Wow, a captcha for robots..

Circus Galop: the bonkers, non-human-playable anthem used to stress-test automatic pianos

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