Having had to tussle with these beasts, Fred expresses my view of them exactly. Wittmayer was one of several German makers who tried to 'improve' the harpsichord. Thankfully, some changed their ways later, while others went out of business. Zuckerman rightly excoriated them in 'The Modern Harpsichord' and may have been a factor in getting a few, like Sassman to change their ways. He praises fine American makers, such as Dowd, but treads softly where John Challis, who was much more radical, is concerned. Probably the worst example was Sabbatil of Vancouver , Canada, but they did change eventually. I underwent some very unpleasant experiences with them. One time, the dean at the university where I worked had purchased a large Nuepert double, without checking with me. Nobody used it, and he fobbed off the job on me of trying to sell it to a high profile organist, who arrived from out of town with a friend, also an organist for a large cathedral. I knew him and also knew he owned a fine harpsichord. After seeing the instrument, it wasn't hard to tell their feelings. One asked me, " What is your opinion of the harpsichord"? with a look that plainly said they were sizing me up. I replied "It's a monstrosity, and I strongly recommend you do not purchase it". I would probably have been fired if the dean had found out. But I simply could not bring myself to have done otherwise. Ted Sambell ________________________________ From: Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu> To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Sat, December 18, 2010 12:11:04 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] FW: WiTTmayer Harpsichord On Dec 18, 2010, at 5:51 AM, Conrad Hoffsommer wrote: #1 shows the jacks in place - it's a spinet, so strings run off at a good angle to the right. >-wire hook below damper is to cradle the tongue return spring attached to the >register >-metal damper bracket and attaching screw clearly visible >-tongue rests on eccentric cam used for pluck adjustment >#2 shows some details of the jack itself. >-leather plectrum >-lead weight I never cease to be amazed at the "ingenuity" Wittmayer put into redesigning the jack, something that historically had worked very efficiently and reliably for hundreds of years. Each one I have looked at (thankfully few) has had a different "feature" or two. I am grateful that none of my harpsichord clients has ever possessed one, knock on wood. They should all be burned <G>. (Too much trouble to retrofit with a simple jack) Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu "I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played." Schnabel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20101218/2636aa90/attachment.htm>
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