Terry said: <So Jim, more info please. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand your point... <...I seriously do apologize - I probably just don't get Terry, I thought about this throughout the day, trying to figure out how to verbalize how offensive I find these superfluous, and, as in the case of the phony rivets, down right bogus visual elements. I'm afraid I'm at a loss to explain why I find these so offensive...I wonder if it bugs anybody else or if its just me. Well, wait a minute, maybe not totally at a loss, as I write this the words are coming... In many ways I find the design of the grand piano to be utterly lacking in sensitivity in terms of visual gracefulness and proportions. Though I love to play a nice grand, and love the sounds of a well designed prepared grand, visually, I find most of them to be butt ugly hunks, dresssed up with lots of finishes and shiny bits to disguise their lack of grace. I often find that the visual "design" elements that are there, are either trying to take the eye away from the instrument's essential ungainly-ness, or as in Victorian sensibilities in general, classical geometrical proportion is simply eliminated from the experience and is replaced with superflous applied stuff. (obviously my subjective take on things Victorian) This, ie the nature of the Victorian aesthetic, is probably what irks me about these details, as Victorian sensibilities are my absolute least favorite details. They always seem to me to be full of over the top surface treatment and shy on the simple substance of pleasing proportion. To be fair, the modern piano did arise during this Victorian period, so what can one expect. But really, the phony rivets...geez they make it look more like the steel riveted elevated rail lines in the Bronx than, like say, a musical instrument. The fact that some designer considered these rivets an attractive visual detail completely escapes me...or in any case inspires me to leave as much of this visual aesthetic in the Bronx, holding up the trains, as possible. In piano land, the only visual exception that I see to this Victorian excess, is turn of the century Chickerings, which have a grace which is singular in this industry, at least to my eye. As I look back at the plate I victimized and de-Victorian-ized, I smile and can now look at it without flinching...now its just the legs that have to go...and go they will. By the way, this piano is, of course, a spec instrument, a Hume, which was an S&S ripoff at the turn of the century. I of course wouldn't try this on a customer's personal piano, unless they were a willing accomplice. But its built real solid, so it has some good tonal potential...which is why I'm messing with it. How's that? Jim Ialeggio ps Hume, by the way was a bit of a embezzler, screwing Steinert, who himself was not adverse to liberating S&S designs for his own use...till properly sued. -- Jim Ialeggio jim at grandpianosolutions.com 978 425-9026 Shirley Center, MA
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