У рояля сидел пианист и медленно играл новую мелодию.

to sit

Breakdown of У рояля сидел пианист и медленно играл новую мелодию.

• новый: new
• и: and
• у: at

Questions & Answers about У рояля сидел пианист и медленно играл новую мелодию.

Why is it у рояля, and what exactly does that mean?

У + genitive often means by, near, or at something/someone.

So у рояля means by the piano / at the piano.

Here, it describes the pianist’s location. He is sitting near the grand piano, in the position of playing it.

A useful comparison:

• у рояля = by the piano, at the piano
• за роялем = seated at the piano, literally behind the piano from the player’s perspective

In many contexts, both can work, but у рояля is very natural for describing where someone is.

Why is рояля in this form? What is the dictionary form?

The dictionary form is рояль = grand piano.

After the preposition у, Russian normally uses the genitive case, so:

• рояль → рояля

This is a masculine noun, and the ending changes because of the case.

So:

• nominative: рояль
• genitive: рояля

That is why the sentence has у рояля.

Why does the sentence say сидел пианист instead of пианист сидел?