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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 href="mailto:edwithen@oregontrail.net" =
title=edwithen@oregontrail.net>Ed
Carwithen</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org"
title=pianotech@ptg.org>pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 06, 2002 =
10:38
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Beethoven's =
piano</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Having just watched "Immortal =
Beloved" again... I
wondered just what was the range of Beethoven's Broadwood piano? =
On a
modern 88 note piano what notes do we have that were unavailable to
Ludwig?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ed Carwithen</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>John Day, OR</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> If I'm not =
mistaken, just the
highest three: A#7, B7, & C8. I'm not sure when most
manufacturers went from 85 to 88 keys, or what the reason was. I =
can't
imagine there was that much demand from composers & pianists for 3 =
more
notes up there. But if you cover up the highest three keys, then =
there
are only two sharps in a group of what should be three, i.e., it can =
look like
another C, C#, D, D#, E instead of F, F#, G, G#, A, and maybe they =
added the
next higher three keys to fill out the octave. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Welp, now that I =
look in "Men,
Women, & Pianos", the six-octave grand was introduced in =
1794.
(Beethoven died in 1827). Ludwig received a grand from Broadwood =
around
1818 and the lowest key was at least C1, but whether it went down to =
A0, I
don't know, and how high it went, I don't know either. It =
probably says
somewhere in some book I have, but would take a while to =
find.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> But here's some =
other tidbits
from above-mentioned book: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> =
". .
. one could maintain that the modern piano had practically completed =
its
growth before 1830. The agraffe goes back to
1808, the practical double-escapement action to =
1821, the
metal plates and bracing bars to 1822 or 1823, the felt
hammer- covering to 1826, the use =
of
tempered steel wire to 1826, the low oblique-strung upright to 1827, =
the
round-the-pin method of =
continuous
stringing likewise to 1827. <STRONG>A seven-octave grand was =
played in a
concert as early as 1824</STRONG>." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Seven octaves is =
from A0 to
A7, and our 88-key pianos have just 3 more keys than
that. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> =
=
=
=
=
--David =
Nereson, RPT,
Denver </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>