One of the really interesting topics that came up in our discussions last nite was this buisness of aging in wood. Once again I was met with a man who had very strong opinions on this subject, and very different from the equally strong opinions of some of our regulars here. Yet he made a pretty good case for himself. For the first this fellow has rebuilt many many instruments, so he has a fairly deep well of experience to draw on when making his conclusions. He will not use any wood that is younger then 100 years old. He buys older instruments ofte times for their wood. The thought of removing a soundboard, and taking off the ribs and reassembling the whole thing for a different instrument is the most naturual of courses for this man. And the thought that new wood could possibly sound the same under otherwise equal conditions he finds absurd. He even showed me the bridge of a harpsichord he'd fashioned from the wood beams of a turn of the century Grotian. The soundboard of this instrument was also taken and fashioned from the soundboard of same. He subscribes amoung other things to this idea that resin in the wood looses its moisture content and becomes brittle over the years, and that compression set is not necessarilly an undesirable at all. He of course could offer no more proof of the validity of his views then anyone else I have heard on either side of this "aging wood" question has to my knowledge. But, as to the experiment about actually comparing new wood to old in otherwise equal situations he has quite a bit of direct hands on experience, and his conclusion on the matter is quite clear. We talked alot about historical instruments and how they relate to todays instruments, and here some of our regulars on this list would have found common ground with him. He too feels that the piano was never meant to be "Thunderous" or "Peircing" in quality nor meant to fill halls that seat 1000's. He would probably go further in his downsizing of these qualitiies then many here would. One thing that I found curious was his seeming lack of interest in the temperament disscusion relative to Forte pianos and period music, but he replies that he is most interested in harpsichord work, and then as mostly there as a builder. He always tunes one particular meantone on these unless the music from well past the turn of the 19th century, where he picks a milder temperament but he didnt go into any details. All in all a very interesting and delightful fellow to spend a friday evening with talking about pianos, piano music, and enjoying a dish of Sheep in Cabbage with some nice red wine on the side. -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
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