It won't be a Steinway anymore!

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Richard,
At 10:03 06/03/2001 +0200, you wrote:

>Yes.. and wheter Andre wants to  admit it or not, his is also a declaration of
>faith..escpecially in the direct reasoning he cites... "elasticity of new 
>wood".
>There simply is nothing to firmly substantiate this claim. Certainly nothing
>within the realms of science. It remains speculation not much better founded
>then any other of the "theories" out there.

FWIW:
The following may only be anecdotal, but I think it does relate to what 
Andre said.

Back in late 1969, when I was home on leave just before joining the Tonkin 
Gulf Yacht Club, my father asked me to go to New York and pick up some 
instruments from a luthier.   The quartet was brand spanking new, and when 
I got them home he immediately tuned up the cello and proceeded to warm up 
on it with scales, etc.

As he went through the entire range of the instrument, we noted that there 
were several notes which just didn't want to play easily.  It was kinda 
like the "killer octave".  Pinched or constricted might be a way to 
describe the sound.

He practiced at least two/three hours a day for the three weeks I was home 
(he did have a day job, or would have played more), and before I left those 
notes were noticably easier to play.  Two years later, when I was again 
home for an extended time, the cello was playing evenly throughout the range.

My father's non-scientific explanation was that the wood had to "learn" how 
to resonate to those frequencies.

Later, when I got into piano work, I heard from some "olde guard" 
technicians that similar things happen to pianos and it may take a few 
years for the "voice" of a piano to emerge.

Andre said:
>So...this knowledge, based on listening experience and combined with the 
>results of newly built copies of old violins and pianofortes gives me the 
>certainty that, at least, one of the reasons for decay in souplesse  lies 
>in the changed conditions of the wood.

It would seem that, in this case at least, over the life of an instrument 
there is an initial increase in "souplesse", followed by some period of 
prime tonal response and eventually a decline.


Conrad Hoffsommer - Decorah, Ia.  mailto:hoffsoco@luther.edu

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, 
then used against you.