Allan, I do think you have a point here. There are a couple of places to look into this that I can think of off hand: One is an older book on acoustics by Miller (the title presently escapes me); the other is the book on piano design/construction by Edgar Brinsmead (perhaps now out of print). Part of the issue is also - at what point did these various methods of reductive measurement become convergent instead of divergent? e.g., which oF or oC _scale_ was in use. There was a period of time during which these things floated almost as much as wire gauges have... Thanks also for the vote on the sound issue - it seems to me that the paucity of reliable recordings of real period instruments (sorry, this may be a minority view, again) badly skews our contemporary perceptions of what these things sounded like "in the flesh". Best. Horace >In a message dated 97-04-17 19:13:28 EDT, you write: > ><< Remember that this piano was designed for a maximum of A=435. Going >higher > than that will, at the very least, change the balance of the tone, with a > possibility of some structural damage. >> > >Horace, > >Maybe I'm wrong on this and someone can correct me, but I seem to remember >reading somewhere in the journal that A 435 was at about 59 degrees F while A >440 os measured at 72 degrees F. This change in temp makes them about the >same. Perhaps someone with a much better memory than mine can remember which >issue this was brought up in. > >BTW, I personally enjoy that "old" Chickering sound and even the ones from >the late 1800's (since, as you mentioned, it is a different sound). That's >one of the things that I think is of great importance, and is often >overlooked, when people try to give an "authentic period" performance just by >retuning to a different temperament. > >Allan > >Allan L. Gilreath, RPT >Gilreath Piano & Organ Co. >Berry College >Gilreath@aol.com >Calhoun, GA USA Horace Greeley hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu "Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much. - Oscar Wilde LiNCS voice: 725-4627 Stanford University fax: 725-9942
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