It won't be a Steinway anymore!

[Richard Brekne]

Nice story Conrad... and my experience leads me to "believe" that your conclusion
is correct.

btw... what side of the Yacht club did you get parked in.?  I was over there by the
heliport in 71.

Conrad Hoffsommer wrote:

> 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.

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no