This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Ed Carwithen=20 To: pianotech@ptg.org=20 Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 10:38 AM Subject: Beethoven's piano Having just watched "Immortal Beloved" again... I wondered just what = was the range of Beethoven's Broadwood piano? On a modern 88 note piano = what notes do we have that were unavailable to Ludwig? Ed Carwithen John Day, OR If I'm not mistaken, just the highest three: A#7, B7, & C8. I'm = not sure when most manufacturers went from 85 to 88 keys, or what the = reason was. I can't imagine there was that much demand from composers & = pianists for 3 more notes up there. But if you cover up the highest = three keys, then there are only two sharps in a group of what should be = three, i.e., it can look like another C, C#, D, D#, E instead of F, F#, = G, G#, A, and maybe they added the next higher three keys to fill out = the octave. =20 Welp, now that I look in "Men, Women, & Pianos", the six-octave = grand was introduced in 1794. (Beethoven died in 1827). Ludwig = received a grand from Broadwood around 1818 and the lowest key was at = least C1, but whether it went down to A0, I don't know, and how high it = went, I don't know either. It probably says somewhere in some book I = have, but would take a while to find. But here's some other tidbits from above-mentioned book:=20 ". . . one could maintain that the modern piano had = practically completed its growth before 1830. The agraffe goes back to = 1808, the practical double-escapement action to 1821, the metal = plates and bracing bars to 1822 or 1823, the felt hammer- = covering to 1826, the use of tempered steel wire to 1826, the low = oblique-strung upright to 1827, the round-the-pin method of = continuous stringing likewise to 1827. A seven-octave grand was played = in a concert as early as 1824." =20 Seven octaves is from A0 to A7, and our 88-key pianos have just 3 = more keys than that.=20 = --David Nereson, RPT, Denver =20 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/c3/78/36/6a/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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