In this design Moore has replaced the barbed wire (TEX 4) with the more whimsical piano keys as a device to run through the composition and break it into horizontal bands of motifs. The undulating rows are lyrical in mood as well as suggestive of the play of music. The forms depicted between the rows of keys harken back to Moore’s surrealist drawings in the 1930s such as Ideas for Metal Sculptures (HMF 1362). The mysteriously marked clock face appears as part of a 1942 composition Heads and Ideas (HMF 2020). At the same time, the gestures of the hands anticipate those of King and Queen 1952-53 (LH 350), for which he made several hand studies in the following years.

Piano is one of a number of patterns in which Moore particularly experimented with colour. The colours range from rich gold and lilac (TEX 5.8) to sombre khaki and mole brown (TEX 5.12) to startling pinks and purples (TEX 5.10) and lemon yellow and acid green (TEX 5.15). The variations in colour greatly affect the interplay of forms, with the piano keys or the clock and hand motifs alternating in prominence.