Soundboard Thoughts (Kind of long)

[Danny Moore]

Stephen Birkett wrote:

> Vehemently deny that design excellence is objective. Are the "mistakes" of
> an earlier era really mistakes, or did they do things that way because
> they chose to?

Stephen,

Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding you, this was my entire point and reason for
this post.  As you've said numerous times, it is the combination of the type of
wire, manufacturing process of the hammers, soundboard design, rim construction,
etc. that work together to create the sound of the vintage instrument.  Obviously
the rim, soundboard, bridges, etc. need not be designed to accept 200 # of tension
when the breaking point of the wire was 100 #.  Nor did I imply that the early
designers were making mistakes.  Certainly, the builders of the high quality
instruments of that era produced fine instruments that were as "modern" as the day
they were built.

What I consider to be subjective is your (and many others) personal preference to
hear classical, baroque, romantic, whatever music performed on quality instruments
from the period for which it was written.  This will include temperament/tuning
from the period.

Allow me to give you a personal example:  Throughout my formal training, including
college, I found classical music to be stale, boring and literally grating, much
like fingernails on the blackboard.  Basically, I hated it and refused to play
it.  As most students, I knew nothing about temperament.  Then, just 4 or 5 years
ago when I went to HCC to study under Jim Geiger, I was introduced to "the
temperament."  We tuned an instrument to an historic temperament and tried some of
this same music.  What had been dull, lifeless and irritating came alive with new
color and excitment.  How much better yet this must be when performed on an
instrument from the period!

I strongly suspect that, if you were to perform some Keith Emmerson or Chick Corea
on a vintage instrument with a historical tuning, it would lose it's energy and
musicality.

I salute you and others who fight to preserve this sound.  The artistry of
historical periods will be lost if we can't hear it as intended.

However, this is still, in my opinion, very subjective.  Do you like Bach or
Wakeman?  Do you prefer Mozart or Herbie Hancock?  Would you rather listen to
Pavorotti or George Jones?  Did you choose Barbi Benton or Marilyn Monroe?

The cool thing about the arts:  Thanks to people like you and Del, the public has
the opportunity to enjoy both without being forced to choose.

Danny Moore
Houston Chapter