Talk:Piano/Archive 1

message: Thanks, Karada; I had rather imagined that digital piano designers would be working on the sympathetic vibration problem, but I don't know this area.  
I'm curious about "sound field"--what is it?  Can you fill in the article for which you've made a link?
:Opus33 19:02, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)
thread_title: What is a 'sound field'?

message: *Voicing and regulation images now credited to the Schimmel company
*Correct the link to Yamaha Corporation (It's now two companies, motorcycles having been spun off.)
*Uprights and digitals are no longer described as being as just good as grands.  I don't think this view corresponds to expert opinion.
*Plastic parts in Kawai pianos said by Larry Fine (who gets input from many other technicians) to be quite acceptable 
*Prepared piano now has its own article and doesn't need to be discussed at length in piano.
*Remove a copyrighted image.
*Editorial bits
Opus33 17:55, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Tweaks

message: The damper pedal is often simply called "the pedal," since it is the most important.
Is it really the "most important" or is it just the most used? What about the other pedals? Aren't they important, too?
:"most often used" would be better than "most important", I agree.  That una corda is pretty darn important when you need it.  Antandrus 16:12, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Non-neutral bias of damper pedal 

message: A modern piano is supposed to have 88 keys - 7 1/3 octaves, but on this page it says the keys range from A0 to C7, while on the Piano key frequencies page it says they range from A1 to C9. Which one is correct?'
:Neither; the piano keys range from A0 to C8.  I'll fix it.
:Note that middle C is "C4".  There is another system in use, especially in the world of electronic keyboards and MIDI--the "Yamaha" system--in which Middle C is "C3".  Antandrus 22:32, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  The actual range 

message: The Boston link could do with updating to point to the appropriate Boston article, but I'm not sure which it is. --John 23:10, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed; the New Grove had the answer. Antandrus 23:29, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Boston link

message: Is it really true that the Cristofori proto-piano had a 'wider dynamic range' than the clavichord? Or was it just louder? I have heard (from professionals) that the clavichord is difficult to record because the range between its quietest and loudest sounds is actually quite large. Since the hammer is thrown at the string, it is difficult to play very softly on a piano, whereas the tangent on a clavichord is under continuous control of the player.
--Tdent 15:22, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clavichord/piano dynamic range 

message: *I tried to deal with the "volume, not range" bit concerning clavichords; thanks, Tdent.
*I put A440 in a hopefully more relevant spot; i.e. on tuning.
*Alpheus Babcock worked for Chickering only later on, not at the time he invented the iron frame.  Apparently he was a flop as a businessman, and was unable to make money from his 1825 invention, so he gave up and worked for Chickering instead.  This is from the Parakilas book cited at the end of the article.
*Intro was getting long, to the point that on some screens the reader wouldn't be able to see the table of contents.  So I moved the stuff on the role of the piano in music and society to a separate section; also reduced hammered dulcimer to a link later on.
*I removed what looks to me to be a batch of linkspam.  We should be vigilant here, because this is just the sort of article that people with a commercial interest are likely to want to add non-scholarly links to.
*Added link to piano wire
:Opus33 16:56, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Summarize various edits, 9/11/05

message: "Overstringing was invented by Jean-Henri Pape during the 1820s, and first applied to the grand by Henry Steinway Jr. in 1859."
Henry Steinway acknowledges precedent for overstringing in squares and uprights but claims, "though some attempts may have been made in that direction I have after much research failed to find that an overstrung grand piano has, prior to the date of my present invention, ever been constructed," (US. 26,532. H. Steinway. Grand Piano. 20.12.1859) and this is echoed in advertisement by musical celebrities ("now residing in this country"; Scientific American. Sept 8, 1860. p. 174). Hipkins and other historians credit him the invention, but mention overstrung grand pianos displayed by Herman Lichtenthal at the 1851 Great Exhibition ("not so much for tone as for symmetry of the case"; Hipkins, A. J. The History of the Pianoforte. Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883). American patents were more accessible than European patents and though Steinway  emigrated 1851 (Wikipedia:Steinway & Sons) a patent for overstringing was issued to Lichtenthal in Belgium ten years earlier (1838:  Belg. No. 1050. Order No. 144 - Harding, Rosamond. The Piano-Forte. Gresham Books. Old Woking, Surrey. 1978. p.362), and Steinways had worked for other New York makers first before starting in their own name (Henry, sr. - Laucht; Henry, jr., Charles, Albert - Bacon & Raven; William - Nunns & Clark. Crombie, David. Piano. GPI Books, San Francisco, 1995. p.102). Lichtenthal also held an 1832 patent for a 'tape check' action used in most current uprights that is usually credited to Robert Wornum (Bel. No. 538, Order No. 113 - Harding, p.319). He emigrated from Brussels to St. Petersburg by 1851 (Closson, Ernest. l'Histoire du Piano. Malik Sadoine), and it is probably his precedent for overstrung grands that Chickerings (who, as well as Nunns & Clark had exhibited at the Great Exhibition; Henry jr. is also said to have worked for Pirsson, another exhibitor; Lenehan, Michael. K 2571 -The Making of a Steinway Grand. 2003) asserted on behalf of the Russians (Parton, James. The Piano in the United States. The Atlantic monthly. July 1867 pp. 84). A small Lichtenthal 'dog-kennel' upright from 1840 is shown in Colt's book (Colt, C. F. The Early Piano. Stainer & Bell. London. 1981. p.120). Peter Lichtenthal  was his brother. (Vermeersch, Peter. Sounds to Cherish - Down Here and Up in Heaven. Andante, 2003) Mireut 15:34, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you.  It will take me a while, but I will try to read all your reference sources and fix this problem (if no one else does so first).  Opus33 23:41, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Overstringing