Celeste

[Horace Greeley]

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David, Bob, et al,


At 09:21 PM 11/5/00 -0500, you wrote:

>I understand the Yamaha action is considerably different from the 
>Shiedmayer.  You should check them both out, but don't ignore another of 
>the currently running threads... A-440 policy.  What range of pitch do 
>celestes come in anyway?

The Yamaha is probably whatever is left over from Deagan (remember tuning 
forks?), which was left over from Jenco, which was kludged from Mustel.  It 
is an oddly balanced system of dependent levers.  Changing something in one 
place seldom has the desired effect, as it is changing something else 
somewhere else.  (I know, pianos are like that.  Only, this is ridiculously 
more so).  Each of these actions has gone through several versions as 
different engineers have tried to "fix" things.  Try to find someone who 
has an older Mustel who will let you take pictures, measurements, etc.

My highly prejudiced observation is that, since Yamaha has not left 
anything alone that they have bought, chances are that the version of 
celeste they now build has also been Yamafied.  So, do you want a celeste 
that sounds like a celeste, or something that kinda-sorta-maybe is in the 
ball park.  Rather right up there with how you want pianos to sound, too.

Hands down - get the money, and go with the biggest Schiedmeyer you can get.

As to pitch, I have promised myself to finish up my now 
way-to-long-standing work on the Kissin review before sounding off on 
pitch...too much.  The short version is that, except for the guild, and a 
very few others, 440 as a standard is about as dead as the dodo - and has 
been for years.  (The important issue is obviously to not screw up 
instruments by making such violent changes...if you can convince others of 
things that we know from experience to be essentially self-evident.)  That 
being said, if you buy a real celeste, chances are that the bars are going 
to be cold-rolled steel (that's how they get that sound).  That being the 
case, they will be less susceptible to pitch changes than a piano (yes, 
it's a generalization), and one should shoot for a _reasonable_ average 
pitch, and then have the thing made 1 Hz higher.  So, if most of the groups 
who will be working with this instrument tune to 442, get it tuned to 
443.  These are complex things which some folks have already touched on a 
bit.  The most important thing is that there is simply no one-size-fits-all 
answer.  More on all of this if I ever get that damned Kissin thing 
finished.  My apologies.

More later.

Best to all.

Horace









>At 04:14 PM 11/03/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>>Dear List,
>>
>>Our Orchestra is looking for a Celeste. Would anyone out there have any 
>>information as makers etc?
>>
>>Thanks in advance,
>>
>>Bob
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Robert Moffatt
>>Moffatt & Sons Piano Service
>>Calgary, Alberta
>>Canada

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