the word "harp"

[Ryan sowers]

I actually like the term "Harp". Clients often comment that their piano 
"looks like a harp" when It is dissassembled. It does look much more like a 
harp than a plate. The word plate brings to mind something flat, which the 
piano plate is not. "Plate" is quite generic, also. It could refer to any 
flat object in a piano. Clients have a bit of trouble understanding what you 
mean when you refer to the "cast-iron plate". Perhaps words like "Plate" and 
tuning "hammer" go way back to previous centuries and have their roots in 
some translation error from Italian to German to English. It is fun to keep 
harping on this issue.

Ryan Sowers, RPT
Puget Sound Chapter, #985
Olympia, WA



>From: JIMRPT@AOL.COM
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: Re: the word "harp"
>Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 21:55:44 EDT
>
>
>In a message dated 31/07/01 9:49:31 PM, jstuart1@pdq.net writes:
>
><< Alas I am sorry if I offended. I am making
>a concentrated effort to now call it the plate.
>
>Judy >>
>
>Judy;
>  You offended no one and the term "harp" is an acceptable one, though
>infrequently used. The only way to learn is by having the capacity to make
>mistakes..we all have and we all will.......in the begining yours just 
>might
>come more frequently
>than ours. :-)...rest assured though at one time we were absolute genuises 
>at
>mistake making........
>Jim Bryant (FL)


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