TypewriterKing wrote:

Touch-typing would definitely be different. One hand would have to be above the other to reach the upper keyboard--I would suspect the right hand. There have been times when, while I'm on the phone, or eating or drinking something, I could type with one hand--usually my right.

Laughing Out Loud, that's quite a talent!  Clearly people who used them all day long developed their own keyboard skills, whether part of a formal system or not.  I came upon a Smith Premier manual with fingerings for all the keys - it was an extension of the touch typing fingering we know today for the most part, each finger assigned upper keys in continuation of the lower keys. Whether this was practice or pipe dream I cannot know.

Darn it all - this thread has thrown a hankering on me for a Smith Premier just so I can learn to touch type on it! This is a very important skill in the contemporary marketplace.  
 

It wouldn't be impossible.
If someone can create wonderful music (subjective of course) on a multi rank pipe organ or produce copy on a Line-O-Type machine (also full key board) then you can certainly teach yourself to touch type on the afore mentioned machine.
It is likely that you will have to study the task and the machine to determine how touch typing will be done on it.

KatLondon wrote:

He looks!

And that made me look - at the video.

Liszt was a piano virtuoso, so it's not a surprise that his compositions would showcase a pianist's technique. Liszt was also - from what I've read - prone to "theatrics", and I find your observation to be interesting because as voyeurs of masterful piano recitals we sometimes are placed in a position where we have to determine whether or not the exaggerated movements of a pianist are disingenuous.

Admittedly, I am biased in my admiration of Glenn Gould because he was a fellow Canuck, but his technique seemed to be greatly affected by theatrics. The man seemed to enter a trance-like state when he played and he often hummed loudly along with the music, which of course added an extra element of drama to his performances. Was this an air, or was he truly overcome by the music? Someone more familiar with Gould would undoubtedly have a definitive answer, but I've always thought he was rather genuine and his performance eccentricities the side-effect of genius. It's difficult - for me - to watch, for example, the performance below without getting caught up in the emotional maelstrom that Gould appears to be experiencing.




 

Not being an afficianado, aren't his Bach pieces, which I agree are above sublime (and yes, this is a time that the word awesome can actually be used), what he is best known for? I'm more of a Beethoven junkie, so I've always liked his renditions of Liszt's transcriptions of LVB's symphonies. In particular the Allegretto from the 7th is a piece that always turns me into an emotional wreck. I think that I'll watch Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould tonight. It's been many years since I've seen the film and I remember it being a fantastic exploration of the man and his wee chair.

Uwe wrote:

Not being an afficianado, aren't his Bach pieces, which I agree are above sublime (and yes, this is a time that the word awesome can actually be used), what he is best known for? I'm more of a Beethoven junkie, so I've always liked his renditions of Liszt's transcriptions of LVB's symphonies. In particular the Allegretto from the 7th is a piece that always turns me into an emotional wreck. I think that I'll watch Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould tonight. It's been many years since I've seen the film and I remember it being a fantastic exploration of the man and his wee chair.

One of my too many degrees is in music, and I share your absolute adoration of the Beethoven-Liszt transcriptions. And Gould's performances of them are the gold standard. My favorite has always been the 5th, which really comes alive for me in its piano form. The 2nd movement takes my breath away when heard on the pianoforte, in a way that the orchestration does not.

Gould's recordings of the Bach inventions are also worthy of our attention.