ric, Koster frequently misidentifies wood species in "Keyboard Instruments"; the book remains valuable as a monument to the BMFA collection, though especially in light of Poletti's paper I'd sooner take the commuter rail into Boston than use it as a source. Stephen Birkett neatly has pointed out the trap in repeating and compounding the errors or assumptions in one or a few sources. The archaeology of pianos is littered with isolated experiments, untried patents and discontinued branches, additionally which can muddle an understanding of the instrument (mine, for instance). In his post yesterday ("English/Italian"), Stephen also points out the fundamental differences between the Cristofori and English action, and that a Bakkers letter describes its genesis not as a modification but an independently inspired invention. Harding's illustration of "Zumpe's First action, 1760" (p37) is singular in its "omissions", if so they were to be regarded per Harding, Dolge: back check, moving escapement and under hammer, where the arcs drawn by key end and hammer share orientation (on p39, she illustrates an action by Joh. Soecher, 1742, which shares similar parts, though with reversed hammer orientation). >From Koster's topical section, (Poletti, p83): "A remark in the Dovaston manuscript ... suggests that the earliest English grand pianos were strung entirely in brass. This, as well as certain other technical details of extant instruments and the lack of historical sources linking any British maker with Silbermann, can be taken as allowing the possibility that the English design stemmed from pianos made by the Italian or Iberian followers of Bartolomeo Cristofori. Thus, although the English makers’ subsequent adoption of iron treble stringing, which soon led to the division of the bridge, resembled Silbermann's earlier practice, it might well have been an independent development.” (quoted from Koster, John. "The Divided Bridge", JAMIS vXXII, 1997) Assuming the final sentence means 'independent of Silbermann', your posts suggest that you, too, would disagree with Koster. Regards, Clark
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