Non-overstrung pianos (was Re: Rippen opinions, please!

Richard Brekne Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
Sun, 08 Jun 2003 22:22:18 +0200


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Keith McGavern wrote:

>  Del, Richard, If it were a matter of establishing terminology to
> supposedly eliminate confusion in the piano industry, non-overstrung
> would simply be the best description, no ifs and or buts. It embraces
> all of the following: Straight strungFlat strungFanned strung And
> other than comprising more syllables and a hyphen, it seems hardly
> less inconvenient to use. Keith McGavern (Straight strung works for me
> until Council decides otherwise  :-)

I understand your viewpoint here Keith, really. But perhaps it might be
a good idea to point out that much of the confusion stems from the use
of the term overstrung to begin with. It really started because some
people decided at one point that the term cross-strung was misleading
and prompted many to think along the lines of a weapon, while still
others envisioned something along the lines of what comes out of a
weaving machine. Really when it comes down to it, overstrung is no
better as one can easily imagine the piano as either having too much
tension, too many strings,  or having its strings strung somehow over
the piano. It was hotly debated according to the anals of history
whether or not the term should be overstrung or understrung. The problem
with the later was that it was thought this would lead people to believe
such an instrument didnt have enough strings of course so the former was
reluctantly choosen. Besides, it had already been decided in a
completely different forum to associate the term understrung with
G-strung which of course had nothing at all to do with music.... at
least not in the normal sense of the word.

Of course prior to this occasion there was no alternative to reference
hence no term used to describe what now goes under the different guises
listed above. All would have been much simpler had they never started
crossing bass strings over the tenors in the first place you see.

Hope this helps

Cheers
RicB

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html


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