leftie vs. rightie

Delwin D Fandrich pianobuilders@olynet.com
Fri, 28 Nov 1997 11:51:27 -0800


Stephen,

Pass on his name and address or have him contact me. With a little ingenuity it shouldn't be that difficult (or expensive) to
make a one-off piano, with plate. It would be an interesting project.

-- ddf
--------------------------------

Stephen Birkett wrote:

> Owen:
>
> Been waiting for an opportunity to slip in this...here is the piano for
> you...and all the other lefties!
>
> A British pianist has commissioned a mirror-image piano from Poletti and
> Tuinman in Utrecht (actually will be an 1815 Graf copy, but that is
> irrelevant). The pianist is a leftie who believes his brain is reversed
> in some way, and will play all the standard repertoire on the instrument,
> reversing the left and right hand parts. Thus the RH is the bass, LH the
> treble and everything will work in reverse. Now that is believed to be
> the first.
>
> The whole thing sounds like a publicity stunt, but I've met this pianist
> and it is absolutely genuine. He chose the early piano because obviously
> he couldn't get a modern manufacturer to make a single mirro-image
> instrument for him. This appeared in the Times and various other European
> newspapers at the time he was looking for funding to support the
> commission.
>
> Everything on the piano will be reversed, except for the direction the
> tuning pins are turned to increase pitch (don't know why that was
> decided). Of course the true leftie tuners of this thread could also want
> that parameter mirrored. For complete political correctness now we will
> have to say "down in the treble".
>
> Last I heard preliminary work had just begun.
>
> Stephen
>
> Stephen Birkett Fortepianos
> Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos
> 464 Winchester Drive
> Waterloo, Ontario
> Canada N2T 1K5
> tel: 519-885-2228
> email: birketts@wright.aps.uoguelph.ca






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