Klarinet Archive - Posting 000616.txt from 1999/10

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] CRACK 2
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 07:42:31 -0400

On Wed, 20 Oct 1999 06:54:52 EDT, LeliaLoban@-----.com said:

[snip]

> In the days of Stradivarius, Italian violin makers sometimes used wood
> aged naturally for over a century, but today, almost all lumber
> companies and musical instrument manufacturers kiln dry wood to speed
> up the process. Sometimes even naturally aged wood acts weird, but
> that kiln-dried stuff is very unpredictable.

Mozart, to his father, October 17 1777, on pianofortes made by Johann
Andreas Stein:

"Before I saw any of Stein's work, I liked the Spath claviers the best;
but now I have to give Stein's the preference, for they are much better
than the Regensburg instruments......His claviers are really durable.
He guarantees that the sounding board will not break or crack. When he
has a sounding board ready for a clavier, he sets it out in the air,
rain, snow, heat of the sun, and all hell, so that it cracks open; then
he inserts wedges and glues them in, so that it becomes really strong
and firm. He is quite glad when it cracks; you can be sure then that
nothing more is going to happen to it. Quite often he even cuts into
it himself and glues it together again and fixes it right. He has three
such pianofortes ready. I played on them again today."

Quoted in 'Men, Women and Pianos -- A Social History', Arthur Loesser,
Dover Publications, Inc.

(Everybody should have this book, by the way. Incredibly cheap,
incredibly interesting.)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Neither Borrower Or Lender Be; routinely ignored by Congress.

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