88vs85vs64 notes and hoofbeats

[JIMRPT@aol.com]

Hey Fellow Techies;
 May the force be with you. Now for some less serious thoughts.

 When we hear hoof beats we *all* think of horses, but perhaps we should, in
this case, also consider the possibility of Zebras. Naturally we deal in
tone, voices, and projection on an everyday basis. So when we react to a
question about why a certain number of keys on a particular piano we think in
terms of tone, voicing, and projection.  While I was tuning a fine Wurlitzer
concert spinet today (what else is there to think about) I started thinking
about this question of why a certain number of notes on any given instrument.
  Before I go any further let me throw out an engenerring morsel for the
serious engineers among us." Due to the nonserialized vibrational
dimensionality of the celluar structure forming the reacting body." (There
that does it.)  For the rest of us it means the sounding board works more
efficiently, with greater ease when a large portion is excited then when a
small portion is excited. So the closer to the middle of the vibrating area
of the sounding board, a given string is, the better the , tone ,voice,
projection, etc.
  This covers a good portion of the replies so far (and they are all
correct).  It is true that early pianos had fewer keys as did harpsichords,
and clavichords.  The reason is that the techniques of construction and the
materials avalailable were what had to be used. Each instrument in turn
stretched the limits of technology then available.  As more stable materials
and methods of constuction became available the limits of practical size
increased, as to size, number of keys, and overall scale tensions. Remember
now it was not too awfully long ago that pianos were made to be tuned at 435,
because 440 was not adopted as a standard yet but also because the
instruments of the day could not take the increased scale tensions of a
higher pitch (bear in mind that tension in this case is geometrically
progressive to a certain extent).
  So with all this in mind I submit that perhaps one reason pianos today have
88 keys, and in some cases more, is that we CAN build them that way and they
will not pull themselves apart as quickly as some earlier instruments would
do. After all if you want to put notes closer to the middle of the sounding
area of the board you can't just leave blank space on the sides can you. Ergo
extra keys to fill up the blank spaces. And as a side benefit the stronger
construction methods allow these extra keys/notes to give a musical (?) tone,
because of the higher tensions involved in todays scales.
  Thoughts not written in stone, just presenting another view.  After all if
we need to watch out for zebras, we need to remember to do it.  Case in point
the series of Q&A about low volume, all that answered, save one, was thinking
action problem(including me)and it was a broken key problem. Was it a black
or white key?
No matter, zebras are black and white.
Jim Bryant