This was taken for granted by the players of Harpsichord was that of its inflexibility of tone: regardless of the forceĪpplied to the key by the player, the volume remained constant. With longer strings, heavier frames - to withstand the increased tension - and Harpsichords grew in size as time went on, Proved to be far more audible to an assembled audience. Key, and then settles back into its slot on the way back down, passing the Top of the jack, plucks the string on the way up as the player depresses the Of the key, and a quill plectrum, set into a tongue inserted into a slot in the Instrument were plucked rather than struck: a wooden jack stands on the far end Which was the performance keyboard instrument of choice from the late sixteenth Spinets and virginals were small versions of the harpsichord, Instruments in domestic use, dating from the fifteenth century. These instruments are the earliest keyboard Make the performance audible in a large room could never be obtained. Was unsuitable for giving performances in public, since the volume required to Small and the distance between the tangent at rest and the string was also tooĬlose to gather much momentum, even if the player struck the note with some Tangent struck the string was very limited, as the tangent itself was very Upon the key, similar to the vibrato effect obtained by violinists or String and the player could therefore bend the string by varying the pressure Since there was no escapement the tangent remained in contact with the Performances only the action of the clavichord - if indeed one could call itĪn action, as it was so very basic - comprised a brass tangent embedded intoĪcted as a fulcrum, and as the player depressed the key, the far end of the key Instruments which prevailed in the domestic environment.Ĭlavichords were suitable for small private People any more than in other tradespeople of the era.įirst to examine the development of the piano in the period I have elected toīefore the piano came to be such a dominant instrument in theĪverage British home, the clavichord and harpsichord were the keyboard Preface, there is hardly any literature available which details the lives andĬould be justifiable to ask why a musicologist should be interested in these To contact me click here and seek out Gill the Piano Of people suddenly had some organisation and cohesion, and their years of being Tuners Association in 1913 meant that a hitherto disparate and isolated group 'boom' in piano ownership and development, while the First World War'sĬonsequent loss of life meant the closure of many hitherto successful piano I have concentrated on the period 1837-1913 as it covers the Trades Benevolent Fund, Ms E Parsons Mr G Carter and, of course, Mr E Green. Mrs Senior Mr Bill Kibby Mrs Wells Mr Paul Tucker the Surrey Local HistoryĬentre Mr Gifford, Ms Lucy Coad Mr Martin Ness Mr Mel Smith of the Music Pleeth Mrs Valerie Addis and the Piano Tuners Association Mr Blaise Compton The Blind Mr John Morley of Morley's of Lewisham, Mrs Esm Haily Mr Ian Ms Elizabeth Dawson, consultant archivist to the Royal National Institute for Mr Steve and Mr Chris Cook of Fletcher and Newman Ltd. Opportunity to thank all those who helped me in my research: Professor CyrilĮhrlich Dr Alastair Laurence Mr John Collard Mr Martin Heckscher of Obscure the agency of working people, the degree to which they contributed byĬonscious efforts, to the making of history. Migrants, or as the data for statistical series: tend to Thompson, the social historian, has written of the:Įconomic historians in which working people are seen as a labour force, as More painstaking research revealed information on pianoĭesigners, builders, salesmen and pianists, but there was still little to beįound on the tuners, and this made me determined to find out what I could aboutĮ.P. There was little on the people behind the instrument. Information on the design, construction, tuning, sale and playing of pianos, Transferred my search to local libraries and the Internet, still to no Who had he been? Where had helived? How had he obtained that job? How had he travelled around? Why had he become a tuner? Had he even been a 'he'?Ĭuriosity piqued, I went home to look up information on piano tuners' lives in What had engaged my attention was the factthat I was tuning this piano one hundred years to the very day in 1892 that'R.W.F.' had carried out that same task. There was nothing unusual in finding such a date - they are commonly found when tuning and over the courseof fifteen years as a professional tuner I had seen plenty of them. It was while tuning an elderly upright piano that the possibility of electingpiano tuners as a theme for academic study suggested itself to me: I noticed,scrawled on the hammer rest rail of the piano action, the initials and tuning dates of about twenty piano tuners who had worked on this piano over its long life.
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