Dolge on soundboard wood

[Richard Moody]

----------
> From: Stephen Birkett <birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: Dolge on soundboard wood
> Date: Friday, August 22, 1997 11:57 AM
> 
> I'm sorry I don't have the experience to know whether Dolge's
soundbaords 
> were as good as he claims, never having examined one even. I'm sure
he 
> knew what he was doing, but I think most of what he *wrote*,
especially 
> about pre-1850 pianos and practices, was hype and nonsense. Stein
was no 
> less guilty with his "hanging the board outside to season", which
comes 
> from a letter to Mozart. The best part of it is that Mozart, and
200 
> years of "eminent" scholars, including many today, actually
believed what he 
> said was true!!

Well the first problem is finding out what was actually written, a
basic problem of historiograhpers.  Then whether it was "hype and
nonsense" is a matter of personal conjecture unless backed up by
other sources.  The Dolge sources have been quoted and noted.  The
letter to or from Mozart so far has not.  Yes there is a letter about
a certain instrument maker that exposed his sounboards (or sb
material) to the elements but I have lost the source and still hoping
to find it again. Now if he said he did this, this must be taken as
true.  Whether his method "worked" or not is another ball of wax. 
	We also have to ask why would someone write something deliberately
false?  Unless a politician or crook?  There is no reason to
dis-believe that soundboard material was delivered split rather than
sawed.  There was no machinery to do it. And it was probably easier
to split the logs than rip saw them by the old methods.  The split
boards could have been sawed in the shop to the rough deminsions, and
then planed and scraped to the exact.  Why would Stein lie about
hanging his soundboards out in the rain and snow?   Actually if I
remember the letter, it was Mozart observing this or someone
observing this and writing to Mozart.  But why would lies be written
to or from the Master? 

Earlier you proffered this observation, "The most perfect instruments
often had wild wood by our standards...pitch pockets and knots easily
concealed under the sb
 painting. " 

Again investigation of this is similar to the historiographer's task.
 Which instruments,  what examples?  From a limited exposure to
historical instruments, I can say some  exhibit shoddy workmenship.
Of course we don't want to consider that to be the norm. But if there
are/were knots to be found in sounboards of instruments considered
"most perfect", that would be interesting to hear about. Any specific
examples ?   Just because an old sound board has a knot in it doesn't
mean Dolge and others writing about making better instruments were
"hyping" or misleading (for what ever reason) the truth .  

Richard Moody