fortepianos

[Mark Story]

Hi Richard,

>Someone mentioned overstriking hammers and it reminded me of our Belt
>fortepiano which was evidently built to have overstriking hammers.
>Since the piano is a copy of a Walter instrument of Mozart's, maybe
>they didn't worry about whether the hammer hit at a 90 degree angle to
>the string.

This may have been me in reference to a Bluthner I rehammered. I suspected this
to be the case myself, but I couldn't determine it for sure. I certainly wish
we had this forum back then. I ended up compromising and lengthening the bore
somewhat, but it still overstrikes some. I have my doubts as to whether this
overstriking was intentional, or merely that they didn't consider it to be a
critical factor. I would like to hear more about it.

Mark Story, RPT

mstory@ewu.edu
Eastern Washington University Music Department
Cheney, Washington, USA