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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=kswafford@earthlink.net =
href="mailto:kswafford@earthlink.net">Kent
Swafford</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> ; <A =
title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">College Technicians</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 21, 2003 =
2:43
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Fwd: info for a =
journalist</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The PTG receives occasional research requests from journalists. =
We want
<BR>to help, but have limited ability to do so.<BR><BR>Can anyone =
answer the
following questions, citing sources?<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR><BR>Kent
Swafford<BR><BR><BR>Begin forwarded message:<BR><BR>> Why 88 keys =
on a
piano?</DIV>
<DIV> Just evolved that =
way.
Originally there were fewer octaves (4 1/2 in one of Cristofori's
pianos). Gradually composers wanted a wider and wider range, =
until 85
keys became standard. Then sometime in the 19th century, =
Steinway added
the highest 3 keys for a total of 88, and other builders followed =
suit.
Then Boesendorfer added a few low notes on their Imperial. It =
could
change again in the future. </DIV>
<DIV> <BR>> How many pianos are there in the world?</DIV>
<DIV> Somebody at Yamaha probably knows. La =
Roy
Edwards, maybe?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>> How many pianos are there in the U S?</DIV>
<DIV> Can't find a recent figure, =
but
quoting from "Men, Women, & Pianos" (by Arthur Loesser, Simon =
&
Schuster, 1954): "In 1920, at the cumulative height of =
production --
before the instrument's social devaluation had too seriously lessened =
its
output -- the population of 105,000,000 owned about 7,000,000
pianofortes. (Again we are calculating that all the instruments =
made for
thirty years past were extant.) That means one piano for every =
fifteen
persons." </DIV>
<DIV> And from "Giraffes, Black Dragons, =
and Other
Pianos" ( by Edwin M. Good, Stanford University Press, =
2001): "By
1960, Japan had taken third place to the United States and the USSR, =
making
48,000 pianos that year as against 160,000 for the United States and =
88,000
for the USSR; by the end of the decade, Japan had leaped past both =
countries
to move into first place. United Nations data for 1970 show =
273,000
pianos for Japan, 220,000 for the United States, and 200,000 for the
USSR. Next to these figures, the 1970 totals for France (1,000), =
England
(17,000), and Germany (45,000, East and West together) are more than a =
little
anemic. In the next eight years Japanese output increased =
more
than 25 percent, to stand at 374,000 units in 1979. Through the =
1980s,
world production declined in general so that by 1990 American output =
was only
about 112,000 per year, and Japanese was well under 300,000. =
American
production hit rock bottom in 1996, with 84,000, but more =
recently the
figure has been rising, coming to almost 107,000 in 1998. "</DIV>
<DIV> But a world total, or =
even a
U.S. total, I can't seem to find and it's way past my bedtime.</DIV>
<DIV> -David Nereson, RPT, =
Denver</DIV>
<DIV>
<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>pianotech =
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