[CAUT] Birkett videos online

[Ed Sutton]

This could be a good project for the Journal, and would work well with a project Paul and I were discussing a few months ago.
If folks don't mind, Paul and I will work on it. (Assuming Paul wants to go ahead.)

Ed S.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:54 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Birkett videos online


  I remember signing up for it, and had forgotten it until you brought this up. I'd love to see this disseminated, and would, in fact, pay something for it if necessary. 

  Paul

  In a message dated 2/11/2010 9:48:07 P.M. Central Standard Time, fssturm at unm.edu writes:
    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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