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 ha rimpiazzato la pelle su tutti i pianoforti, per i numerosi vantaggi....etc.4

TODAY (in 1844) felt 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!

Concert Pitch in Chopin's time -Diapason nei tempi di Chopin

Come vedete dal testo di Montal (1836) il diapason nel 1829 andava da 434 a 438 Hz, mentre nel 1836 andava da 437 a 441 Hz

As noted above in a period book on tuning by Montal, concert pitch was between 434 and 438 Hz in 1829 and by 1836 it was between 437 and 441..

Lots of Antique Pianos -- Pianoforti antichi

I went to visit Olivier Fadini in his workshop in Paris and this is what I found!

1822 Broadwood with true una (due, tre) corda pedal, 1843 Pleyel, 1838 Pianino, 1839 Pleyel Grand, 1832 Pleyel Grand, 1835 Pleyel Grand.. and more were in the room.

French Soundboards - Tavole Armoniche Francesi

1844 Pleyel Soundboard. This is the kind of piano Chopin would have played on and composed.
The soundboard is Parallel-strung which gives a clear, articulate voice with not so much bass. There is a Tone-Bar glued-on underneath which makes the soundboard even clearer-sounding and finally a large Cutoff-Bar glued-on underneath (SORRY I LABELED IT INCORRECTLY ON THE PICTURE as stop-bar) which basically limits the vibrating space of the soundboard so that the active part of the soundboard is not too big.

Tavola armonica di un Pleyel del 1844, lo stesso tipo che Chopin avrebbe usato per suonare e comporre... c'è una catena incollata sotto che rende il suono piu chiaro e nitido. In piu, un'altra catena molto piu spessa blocca del tutto le vibrazioni, limitando la zona della tavola armonica vibrante per ottenere un suono ancora piu chiaro


A Pleyel Pianino soundboard veneered in rosewood for added strength. Note that the SIZE of the soundboard is reduced to avoid excessive bass and maintain a clear, singing tone.
Chopin often played these Pianinos and composed on them as well. This kind of piano also has a tone-bar
Questa e la tavola armonica di un Pianino Pleyel, usato spesso da Chopin. Come vedete la larghezza della tavola è ridotta per mantenere un suono chiaro e non avere troppi bassi. Il Pleyel ha anche una catena in più che rende il suono ancora più chiaro (non squillante ma nitido).


Questa è la tavola di un Boisselot del 1846 (usato da Liszt per comporre molti pezzi). SI nota anche qui una catena per rendere il suono piu chiaro.
This is the soundboard of a Boisselot from 1846, as used by Liszt to compose and play on occasionally. You can see the tone-bar which aids in obtaining a clearer sound.

Ecco una foto del lato inferiore di un Erard a Gran Coda. Come si può vedere la tavola armonica ha una 'catena' (listello incollato alla tavola) spessa e lunga che costeggia il ponticelli a circa 60 cm di distanza.
Il motivo è semplice: applicando una catena spessa, cambia il modo di risuonare la tavola. Il suono diventa dunque più chiaro e definito, limitando l'escursione dei bassi.
Se si considera che il pianoforte Francese, usato da tutti i compositori dell'800, era esclusivamente a corde PARALLELE, ci si rende conto che l'obiettivo era di avere una tavola che suonasse sopratutto in modo chiaro.

Here's a photo of the bottom of an Erard Grand from the 19° Century. As you can see a 'tone-bar' is glued to the bottom which serves the purpose of voicing the soundboard to obtain a clear sound free of excessive bass-frequencies. If one considers that French Pianos, which were used almost exclusively by the vast majority of 'classical' composers and pianists in the 1800's, were also typically parallel-strung (Erard retained Parallel stringing until the early 1900's) it is evident that the sound-ideal of the times was that of a clear and vocal-sounding piano.

Pleyel refinish -- Laccatura Pleyel

Prima / Before:

After / Dopo:

Ecco delle foto della ribaltina e parte frontale del Pleyel dopo essere stati sverniciati e rilucidati.

Here are some photos of the Pleyel after it has been stripped and repolished

Pleyel Felt with no tension

Unlike most hammer-coverings, be they in leather or felt, this particular 'transition' design of hammer has the external layer of felt which is glued-on all around the surface of the underlying layers. Normally a predetermined degree of tension would be applied to the felt and the felt would be fastened on the sides with no glue on the tip to make sure that the glue does not harden the striking surface.

Due to the lack of tension, a very thin layer of gelatin or gum is used even on the crown, to avoid lack of contact with the undelayers after heavy use.

The felt is very soft and more similar to damper-felt than modern hammer-felt.

Questi martelli sono insoliti perchè hanno lo strato esterno che è stato applicato senza applicare tensione sul feltro, come si fa solitamente. Normalmente i strati di pelle o feltro sono incollati solo su i fianchi e poi messi in tensione per avere un buon contatto con la punta e per regolare la brillantezza del suono.

Questo tipo di martello funziona su un'altro principio: lo strato esterno è applicato quasi senza tensione e funziona come una spugna, senza bisogno di tendere il feltro.

Visto che non c'è tensione, il feltro viene anche incollato sulla punta del martello per assicurare un buon contatto e quindi una buona interazione tra lo strato superiore e quelli interni.

Contrairement à la peau et le feutre moderne, La façon authentique à appliquer le feutre de lapin (a la Pape) est de colle sans tension sur toute la surface avec une colle douce. Sans colle la pointe, après une courte période, vous créer un petit espace d'air parce que le feutre (original) ne tient pas la tension. Le feutre a été conçu pour être capable d'appliquer la couche externe facilement et avec des résultats uniformes. la seule difficulté est de trouver la bonne épaisseur.

Pleyel gray felt vs. modern wool felt.

Ecco un esempio sonoro della differenza tra il feltro originale Pleyel, ed un feltro bianco di lana della stessa densità e con qualità meccaniche simili. Il feltro pleyel è molto difficile da copiare perche riesce ad agire in modo molleggiato nel pianissimo mentre si schiaccia completamente nel fortissimo, accoppiandosi al sottostrato. Il feltro tipicamente era fatto di fibre molto sottili ma riccie, tra cui la vigogna ed il cachemire, seguendo i brevetti di Pape.
Here is a video showing the difference in sound between the original Pleyel felt and a modern wool felt made with similar mechanical qualities and with the same density. The Pleyel felt is very difficult to recreate, as it had almost ideal mechanical qualities for this design, being made of very fine and crimped fibres such as rabbit fur, alpaca and cachemire (according to Pape's patents)

Dopo avere sverniciato, leggermente sabbiato e rilucidato a tampone, seguendo il metodo francese, ecco la venatura rossiccia del legno che e di nuovo visibile. La maniglia di ottone è stata lucidata e protetta con resine naturali

After having stripped, lightly sanded and french-polished the side of the piano, the grain and slightly reddish color of the Mahogany is visible once again. The brass handle was polished and protected with natural resins from oxidization.

Pleyel restoration

Here is one of the legs after being stripped, lightly sanded and french-polished

Ecco la gamba posteriore dopo essere stata sverniciata, leggermente sabbiata e lucidata


The entire leg was carved out of a single piece of cuban mahogany, including the screw. Unfortunately, this kind of wood is not suitable for making threaded screws, as it tends to chip. I replaced the screws with hand-made screws made of hardwood. Pleyel switched to a hardwood screw, glued-in just like this a couple of years later.

L'intera gamba era tornita da un pezzo di mogano cubano intero. Sfortunatamente, il mogano cubano si rompe troppo facilmente per fare una vite del genere. Ho fatto tre viti di legno a mano, incollando le viti nella gamba. Pleyel ha iniziato a fare le gambe nello stesso modo pochi anni dopo.

Più della metà delle astine erano rotte oppure di un legno troppo duro ed inelastico. Ho cambiato le astine con delle astine fatte da me con il legno originale.

More than half the hammer-shanks were either broken or replaced with inadequate hardwood dowel. I replaced them with dowel of the correct type, made here at home.