The Banshee (1925) is a string piano composition by American composer and music theorist Henry Cowell (1897–1965). It was the first piano piece composed to be performed entirely free of the keyboard, using only manual manipulation of the strings within the instrument to produce sound. Notated an octave higher, the score specifies 12 different methods for playing the strings, including the scraping of fingernails, using the flat of the hand, and the flesh of the fingers.