[CAUT] Birkett videos online

[Fred Sturm]

While we are on the subject of the Birkett videos, I am going to raise  
an issue - a possibility - one more time. These videos were taken at  
the Rochester convention in 2005, along with lots of others, which  
included action models (in action) of the Overs action, Cristofori,  
etc, a wide variety of things. One was a video done with Askenfelt,  
live in a class, showing visually what he had demonstrated with  
electronic sensors: a key bottoming out before the hammer began to  
move upwards (two video cameras, synchronized, one focused on the key,  
the other on the hammer).
	 At the time, a sign up sheet was circulated for people interested in  
obtaining a DVD of a sampling of these materials to sign up on, and  
lots of people did. I asked Stephen the next year whether a DVD would  
be forthcoming, and the upshot seemed to be that nobody from PTG had  
pursued the matter.
	As far as I can see, this kind of video is simply priceless, worth a  
lot more than pages upon pages of articles and discussion. So I, for  
one, would certainly love to see the project pursued, and I'm sure a  
lot of you share that opinion. I wonder if anyone is connected in such  
a way as to make this happen. Seems like a great Foundation project,  
for instance.
Regards,
Fred
On Feb 11, 2010, at 2:20 PM, McNeilTom at aol.com wrote:

> Seems to me like there is some phase shifting going on in both of  
> these videos (at the damper, and at the bridge).  I would expect  
> that the unison is quite well in tune, but that the three strings  
> are energized slightly differently (hammer mating?) and/or that  
> complex acoustic coupling at the bridge is causing the motions of  
> the strings to change over time.
>
> As I figure it, these  videos cover something like a half second in  
> real time, stretched out to 3.5 or 4 minutes of video.  More or less  
> 500:1 slow motion effect.  Pretty neat!  Thank you, Stephen!!
>
> ~  Tom McNeil  ~
> Vermont Piano Restorations
>






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