this instrument first sparked my interest because I've noticed a growing trend of piano driven ambient music. What is it about this classical instrument that contemporary experimental musicians find so interesting?

Then, over Thanksgiving weekend my great-aunt Charlotte gifted me a broken piano hammer. When I was 12 she hired me to remove a forlorn piano from her home. There was a good deal of smashing and pre-teen angst involved with its' removal. Not once in the past 18 years did I notice that Charlotte kept one piano hammer pinned up with her collection of presidential campaign buttons.