violins and age

[Susan Kline]

from Bob Davis:
>Susan says,
>> I recently (last year) replaced parts
>>  on a 1941 Steinway A that had sat unplayed for a long time. It was in a
>>  private home, and was seized with verdigris, then got donated to the Arts
>>  Center. I noticed a big change when, months after I got it playing, it was
>>  _finally_ given some good, loud (even _very_ loud) use by some composers
>>  during a symposium. I suspect it had never been played so much and so hard
>>  in its whole life as it was that week. The tone opened out a lot,
>especially
>>  in the "trouble" octave.
>
>Susan, 
>I don't know if not playing a piano could cause its tone to deteriorate, and I
>know even less about violins, et alia. I do know that there is another,
>simpler explanation for what you experienced on THIS piano. If one sits down
>at a piano with a fairly new set of hammers, even one that has been played,
>then one picks out a note and plays it HARD for about 100 strokes (with ear
>protection, of course), that note will then sound noticeably brighter than the
>ones around it.

That was the interesting thing, to me. The hammers were quite bright
already, but with the heavier playing the tone got more open, and not
brighter, just bigger. (Go figure ...) Of course, it could have been that
the hammers were getting "worked in" instead of the board and rim, etc.

>
>Enjoying your articles in the Journal -- you write well.

Thanks, Bob. I still find it a little hard to believe I'm writing them.

Yours,

Susan

Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"I'm glad that there are at least some things somewhere that I don't have to
do today."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant