key doublets

[Ted Sambell]

Hello Newton,

Thanks for your observations on the Nomenclature Book. It must have been
some job, like trying to lift  an elephant with a lever made of feathers.
I would be the last to try and impose one definition of any term on
everybody, as there are perfectly valid ones which are both national and
regional. Historicallly, many traditional names come from furniture and
architecture, for instance, the sides or ends of an upright are called
'gables'
by some Canadian techs, which seems quite recognizable. In the UK, the
bottom panel (a good name) is called the 'bottom door', distinguishing it
from the top panel which they call the 'top door.' Both perfectly logical,
as we define a door as a structure for opening or closing an entrance, among
other descriptions. Other UK terms are a bit more of a stretch, for instance
the 'plinth', which turns out to be the upright pedal rail. A plinth is the
square block at the base of a column, the base which a statue stands on, or
a row of bricks or stone at the bottom of a wall, so the connection is
pretty tenuous. Nevertheless the architectural influence is obvious. I might
have wished the bottom board to be called the pedal board, but for my part I
am more than willing to use and accept nomenclature  which has been arrived
at by consensous. My objection is to those people who enter our field
without knowledge, and do not have the discipline or humility to immerse
themselves in learning the fundamentals or paying the costs. Their
dilettantisms just leads to confusion. I am willing to go out on a limb and
become part of any effort to update this aspect of our craft. Further than
this, I plead guilty to sneakily trying for a laugh in my former post on
this subject; it is just a defect of my character.

Regards to all, Ted Sambell


----- Original Message -----
From: "Newton Hunt" <nhunt@optonline.net>
To: <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: key doublets


> Hi Ted,
>
> Thank you for your post.
>
> WHile working on the Nomenclature Book we, the committee requested
> nomenclature lists from all the manufacturers.  A few were forth coming,
> most were not.  We endeavored to get as many part names as we could then
> sat down and worked out compromises for everything we could think of.
>
> We made several unilateral decisions necessitated because of too many
> names for the same thing.
>
> It was a fun project but a real pain sometimes getting teeth out of
> chickens.
>
> I thought "kick panel" would have been an apt descriptive name but we
> settled on "bottom panel" because it is a finished part as opposed to
> "bottom board" which is more descriptive of the bottom board to which
> the pedals are attached on an upright.  There was a sea of confusion out
> there in the beginning.  The final file was about two inches thick with
> scrawled notes all over them.
>
> A revision may well be in order, the book is about 30 years old now.
>
> Any volunteers?
>
> Newton
>
> Ted Sambell wrote:
> >
> > Newton,
> > I could not agree more; that piano parts should be named, and right
> > down to
> > the smallest part. I do not see why it couldn't be simply called the
> > backcheck block. I think 'tenon' would be confusing as in 'mortise and
> > tenon'. The book on Nomenclature was excellent, but is perhaps due for
> > a
> > 2nd. edition.
> > A few years back I was gently taken to task for criticizing the term
> > 'kickboard' as being amatuerish, it being pointed out that there were
> > prominent names in the piano industry who used it. For me it conjures
> > up the
> > notion that this is something to be kicked.
> > There are many pianos for which this is an attractive idea of course;
> > perhaps the manufacturors who use the term know their own products
> > best.
> >
> > Ted Sambell
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Newton Hunt" <nhunt@optonline.net>
> > To: <caut@ptg.org>
> > Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 8:03 PM
> > Subject: Re: key doublets
> >
> > > > In most parts-naming diagrams it is just treated as part of the
> > key.
> > >
> > > THis is not good enough.  Every part in a piano has a name.  You
> > cannot
> > > teach good piano technology without names for things.
> > >
> > > Since I was a pup, long and long ago, the hard wood piece the
> > backcheck
> > > is mounted into a grand piano key has been called a Tenon.
> > >
> > > Newton
> > >
>