Les wrote: > ... short-lived and therefor more theoretical than actual. One has > to take into account the tuning stability of the instruments on which > those early temperaments were used. For well over a century, the search > was for a piano that would stand in tune for more than six minutes, forget > six months! > Beg to differ here Les. Not all historical pianos are unstable. It is not a good idea to judge this quality by observation of modern copies in modern conditions. Many modern "copies" are not copies at all, rather interpretations, and lose much in the translation. The original 1814 Streicher I am copying is very stable...keeps an acceptable tuning year in year out (granted in museum conditions). I know one accurate copy that is used almost daily and is still acceptable after tuning a year ago...in household conditions. Modern builders, in their zeal to improve on the "mistakes" made by the old guys, often "correct" the very design feature that leads to high stability...often observed in harpsichord building especially. The cases of these instruments (and frameless pianos) have to be structurally balanced to achieve stability...and often appear to have "errors" by our modern "enlightened" thinking. Stephen Stephen Birkett Fortepianos Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos 464 Winchester Drive Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2T 1K5 tel: 519-885-2228 email: sbirkett@uoguelph.ca
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