Fortepiano

[Avery Todd]

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Stephen,

Thanks for the reply and I'll answer as best I can. :-)

At 04:25 PM 6/23/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>>Would anyone happen to know for sure if Fortepiano reproductions,
>>specifically a Maene, are designed to be tuned to A-440. Since
>>our new one is app. 1/2 step low, I'm assuming it should be
>>A-415.
>
>Depends on the string lengths, gauges, and wire type used by the builder. 
>There was no fixed rule even for historical builders. Modern builders do 
>all sorts of things too.  And modern builders have the wire problem to 
>worry about too, leading to compromises. Avery: do you have the data on 
>lengths and diameters, or even for just the C string to give us the ballpark?

The speaking length of middle C is app. 55 cm. It's difficult to be accurate
because I had nothing small enough to get in between the dampers and I had to
do it from above, not touching the strings.

The diameter of C is .045 (sorry, I don't have a metric micrometer).

The instrument itself is a little over 7' long.

>And what kinds of wire is on it?

Going up from the low bass, it has 4 unisons of what looks like bronz,
4 yellow brass and 5 of a darker yellow (gold) type of color. From there
on up, beginning at F#2, is a plain wire color. Beginning at A#4, there
are 3 strings per unison to the top.

The writing of wire sizes on the envelopes of extra wire he sent is
almost illegible to me but I'll try and maybe you'll be able to
figure it out.

The top packet has what looks like AWO,85 Brass (8 cm)
next is mer 0,85 Brass
mer 0,80 AW 7-6     (8.5 cm)
mer 0,75 AW 8       (9 cm)
Mer. 0,70  - 13-9   (9.5 cm)
AW 0,70 C  - ?      (9.5 cm)
AW 0,65 C  - 23/?   (9.5 cm)
AW st 0,60 - ?   (unreadable cm)
AW st 0,56 - 32/28  (11.5 cm)
AW st 0,52 - ?/32   (12.5 cm)
AW 0,98 st - ?/?    (13.5 cm)
AW 0,99 st - 53/?   (15 cm)
AW 0,?  st - ?/?    (17 cm)
AW 0,36 st - 65-80  (19 cm)

That's the best I can do without an actual stringing scale like we have
for our harpsichords and also without any kind of manual with it. Hope
you'll be able to figure out some of this. Thanks for your help.

Avery

>Stephen
>--
>Dr Stephen Birkett
>Associate Professor
>Department of Systems Design Engineering
>University of Waterloo
>Waterloo, Ontario
>Canada N2L 3G1
>
>E3 Room 3158
>tel: 519-888-4567 Ext. 3792
>fax: 519-746-4791
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>mailto: sbirkett[at]real.uwaterloo.ca
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