Why is 'middle C' called middle C?

[pianoplayjl]

Why? I mean, it is the middle of all the C's in the keyboard, but it is not precisely in the middle of the keyboard. Shouldn't the 'middle' title belong to B, seeing that 'B' is the centre of the keyboard? And why is there a name for the middle C?

JL

[iansinclair]

Good heavens!  Making me think!  And this is just my opinion -- but I think one must keep in mind that pianos are a pretty late addition to the scene (I was originally trained as an organist, and didn't start trying to learn piano until much later in life, so I'm biased).  On an organ manual (not the pedal board) middle C is just exactly that: the middle of the keyboard.  This is also true of most harpsichords.  Further, the "middle" C is right in the middle of the range of the human voice -- there is a very small range which almost all untrained voices can sing, but even the lowest basses can hit middle C, and so can the highest sopranos.  So it is in the middle that way, too.

for what little that's worth...

[perfect_pitch]

Shouldn't the 'middle' title belong to B, seeing that 'B' is the centre of the keyboard? And why is there a name for the middle C?

Erm... No - E & F just above middle C is the exact centre of the piano keyboard.

And I suspect that Middle C originated earlier on because generally we'd build instruments that could play in the middle ranges of notes and that over time, we developed instruments that could play higher or lower registers, thus expanding the range outwards from the middle.

That's just my guess though.

[pianowolfi]

It's the c that is most close to the middle of the piano keyboard. The "most middle" of the c's. I think it's that simple.

[1piano4joe]

My favorite explanation (There are others) is that "Middle C" is called middle C because its the middle of the grand staff.

The standard piano has 88 keys and has no middle key. The exact position is between E, the 44th key and F, the 45th key as perfect_pitch pointed out. I have OCD and therefore know things like the piano has 36 black keys and 52 white keys. And then wonder why? 52 cards in a deck? 52 weeks in a year? What's the connection? Ha, Ha, Ha.

Lastly, divide 88 by 12 to yield 7 1/3. The piano has a range of seven and one-third octaves.
This results in other "counters" calling middle c, C four. There are at least seven different pitches with the same note name. Exactly 4 have eight since there is 1/3 of an additional eighth octave. These four notes are A, A#, B and C.

I prefer middle D. I have several reasons.

First, there are seven note names. An odd number which has a middle leading to abcDefg.  

Second, its the same in both directions. A half step in either direction leads to a black key. The pattern continues the same in both directions.

Third, its the middle of the two black keys. Very useful for new students.

[cjp_piano]

Yes, it's the C that's closest to the middle of the keyboard. And it's also in the middle of the grand staff. It has nothing to do with being the exact middle of the keyboard.

[timothy42b]

The old English term was mittel (from the Germanic mittel) but that is a corruption of the even older mettall or mittall.

On earlier (prior to piano) instruments that was the range where the timbre began to be more metallic.

Or so it was claimed back then.  Hard to know, because pitch wasn't standardized until much later.