evolution

[Horace Greeley]

Stephen,

As noted previously, I must demurr.

I respectfully suggest that the comments to which you refer
reference preference for one contemporary instrument over another,
and not, as you seem to imply, that such a preference indcated
reservationless approval.

Sorry.

Horace



At 01:59 PM 3/23/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Horace wrote:
>> ...pre-1890-or-so) design and construction of the piano.  The public and
>> private literature of the times continually speaks of the myraid of
>> inadequacies of contemporaneous instruments. ... the facts that the
>> composers and performers of the period (1810, whatever)were so constantly
>> displeased with the instruments on and with which they had to work.
>> ...
>Another oft-repeated chestnut that simply is not true. On the contrary,
>the literature, composers letters etc, are filled with references of
>pleasure with the pianos of the time. Mozart had nothing but good to say
>of Stein and other contemporary builders. Haydn similar. Would Bach have
>acted as a sales agent for Silberman? Haydn for Shantz? if they disliked
>the instruments they were flogging? Would Clementi have continued to
>manufacture instruments that he, as a performer, was displeased with?
>Beethoven remarked in a derogatory way only twice (that I know of) about
>the piano, once when he was making a subtle dig at Erard...his own early
>Erard had a number of fundamental design flaws, and Erard was originally a
>harp maker, hence Beethoven's remark. At the end of his life, as a crabby
>old man, when he had moved on to a higher celestial plane with the
>quartets, B remarked about the piano being an "unsatisfactory instrument".
>So what...he also said at that time that he didn't give a damn whether
>anyone could actually play his music on string instruments. i.e. it was meant
>to be a higher order than earthly. That doesn't mean he wanted a Steinway.
>Contrast that with his *many* letters that have nothing but good to say of
>the contemporary pianos... e.g. to Nanette Streicher, he begged her to let
>him have the "little piano behind the door of the shop" and that he
>"promised to take more care of it this time". These are not the words of
>someone who is displeased with contemporary pianos.  Chopin adored his
>Pleyels, that is well-documented. Liszt loved all the pianos he played and
>endorsed every piano he was asked to endorse...he was just a nice guy. But
>no bad remarks, except in his early career, and once again it was an early
>Erard that proved inadequate for his concert. Schumann and Clara went into
>ecstasies about the sounds produced from the Schumann's Graf by Brahms
>when he played it...that is documented. Never any criticism. Where is all
>the evidence to document that old chestnut? Brahms has access to 
>essentially a modern piano, but still chose the most conservative 
>Streicher, straight-strung, Viennese action for his own personal piano in 
>1878. Does that sound like a composer displeased with the contemporary 
>instruments? More like a reactionary to me.
> 
>> ...a certain point of view, just as important - flexibility, purity of
>> tone, and ease of manipulation.  As in all else in life, it is a question
>> of what sets of compromises is one willing and able to make.
>>
>To use a lovely mixed metaphor, we can now have our cake and eat it as
>long as we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We can have an
>1814 Streicher *and* a 1998 Steinway and we can tune either in any
>temperament we choose. The choices are ours to make. Let's keep this variety
>and freedom and skip all the dogmatic rhetoric. We need both the Bills and
>the Less for that. There is no "right" in this.
>
>> I disagree with the position that the piano is no longer evolving.
>> Pianos are made faster and cheaper, with less attention to detail and
>> usability.  Tone production simply does not have the range and domain of
>> former years.  The same is true of actions. 
>> ...
>OK but this is not evolution. As I said it is stagnation. Retrogressive.
>It is not a response to the consumer's requirements...i.e. not an
>adaptation to the environment. Nobody wants a bad piano of any kind. 
>
>All piano makers have faced the same acoustical and mechanical problems.
>It is simply modern arrogance to suppose that our 20th Century solution
>is better than a 19th or an 18th Century solution. It is just different. 
>
>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: birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca
>
>
>