Il vero colore del legno antico -- True Colors of antique Wood

Here Is a photo of the restored case of my Pleyel, beside a piece of the lid, which has it's original finish but did not suffer much sun-damage

Ecco una foto del mio Pleyel accanto ad un pezzo del suo coperchio che non ha preso molto sole, in condizione originale.

Here is the other side of the lid with extensive sun-damage, causing the familiar light brown haze.

Ecco l'altro lato del coperchio con i danni causati dal sole. Il colore e schiarito e non si vede la venatura.

Rosewood, or Palissandre from the early 1800's was quite dark with a violet hue, especially the more expensive varieties. As the wood gets older and exposed to the sun, it becomes closer to red, yellow and brown..

what you see is the lid which has been extensively sanded down, paying attention not to make the veneer too thin!

il Palissandro dell'800 era molto scuro, specialmente le varietà più costose che si sono poi estinte come tante altre essenze nella prima metà del secolo.

qui si vede il coperchio che è stato lentamente sabbiato, facendo attenzione a non bucare od assottigliare troppo l'impiallaciatura!

A description of the hammer-making process from 1844!

Solo il capo dello stabilimento era solitamente affidato a ricoprire i martelli con la pelle, perche ogni pezzo di pelle aveva diverse qualità meccaniche, porosità ETC.
Graf e Petzold devono molto del loro successo alla loro abilità di garnire i martelli

Only the head of the department was usually allowed to recover hammers made in leather because of the inherent inequality of each piece of leather, mechanically speaking.

Graf and Petzold owe much of their success as a result of their ability to garnish hammers.

Nel 1826 Pape introduce il feltro grigio di pelo di lepre, dipinto di veleno verde per allontanare le farfalle. I fabbricanti francesi rubano la sua idea ed iniziano ad applicare lo stesso feltro ma senza il veleno..dicendo che visto che il colore era diverso, il brevetto non valeva.

in 1826 Pape invents felt for hammers made from rabbit-fur made green with a poison to keep moths away. Soon afterwards French manufacturers steal his idea by making the same kind of felt but without the green poison.. to avoid having to pay royalties to Pape for his patent.

OGGI (1844) il feltro (grigio di coniglio in Francia, bianco in lana in Inghilterra) ha rimpiazzato la pelle su tutti i pianoforti, per i numerosi vantaggi....etc.4

TODAY (in 1844) felt (gray in france, and white -- made of wool -- in England according to the writing above) has replaced leather in all european pianos.

Fauré and Erard

Marguerite Long and Erard

Ravel and his Erard

Ravel played and composed on Erard Pianos.

Kalkbrenner's Guide-Mains

Who was Kalkbrenner?

Kalkbrenner was probably the foremost virtuoso in Europe and a prolific composer in the early part of the 1800's.

He also was a successful teacher and part-owner of Pleyel Pianos. He almost convinced Chopin (at least superficially) to take lessons from him, and Chopin dedicated his first concerto to him.

Kalkbrenner devised a method which used a wooden bar to support the forearm so that NO muscular intervention from the arms could intervene in playing.

In fact, the accepted technique at the time of Chopin, Liszt et al concentrated all of the effort and movement on the fingers and hands. Kalkbrenner's Guide-Mains was a simple tool to aid students to focus entirely on the fingers and hands without reverting to the 'crude' arm mechanism.

the effect on the playing is a clearer, more articulated and intelligent interpretation in my opinion. Nevertheless there is a difference in phrasing and overall 'sound' which was preferred at the time.

Unfortunately today's heavy actions make this kind of playing impossible without risk of tendinitis, but at the time, the actions were as light as they could get them because the technique was indeed built on finger-movement.


What you see in the picture is the guide-mains as illustrated in Kalkbrenner's book on technique. He mentions in the print that he sold 31,000 Guide mains in Paris alone as of 1845, which probably means an average of 3,000 a year for a decade!

Roller-Agraffe -- Agraffe a bassa frizione.

Above is a shot of the lowest bass-strings on an 1843 Erard. To avoid catching on the windings, Erard invented an Agraffe with rollers. A similar device was used for electric guitars a few years ago.. as usual Erard was ahead of their time.

Sopra una foto delle Agraffe delle corde più basse di questo Erard del 1843. Per non impigliarsi su gli avvolgimenti della corda dei bassi Erard ha incorporato un rullino. Un'invenzione simile è stata applicata alle chitarre elettriche anni fà. Come al solito Erard era avanti!