Let's face it, we know less than we think about what 19th century pianos really sounded like

Slate currently has an article posted that compares the sound of the modern piano with that of its progenitors that inspired Beethoven and Chopin, among other great keyboard composers. Included are sound samples to help us hear the differences.

My favourite examples are of late Brahms (the Op. 119 Rhapsody) and Debussy (Feux d'artifice).

The article questions why we seem to want a "standardized" piano sound these days. But it fails to address the vast differences that one still hears in pianos. Despite the company's continual protestations to the contrary, a new Steinway concert grand from New York does not sound or feel anything like one made in Hamburg (not to mention all the variations from piano to piano). And there are marked differences in sound between a big, brash Baldwin grand and a burnished Bösendorfer.

Another question I have is why the people who work with historical instruments almost never mention the fact that the felts and strings that inevitably have to be replaced today to keep those pianos playable are of a different composition than materials of the 19th century.

When he needed to replace the bass strings on my piano, my dear, retired piano technician, Bill Goodfellow, spent a lot of time explaining to me how the metal used in strings today is superior to the original, providing a fuller sound. The old strings were tired, too, after a century of being stretched to within a hair of their breaking point.

We think we know what Brahms's piano sounded like, yet we really have no idea. But the guessing game can be fun.

Comments

[Paul Murphy]

The required replacement of worn strings and felt in an old piano reminds of the painstaking restoration of Jordan Hall in Boston where the decision was made to replace the stage floor with 100 year old fir that was reclaimed from an old mill in an effort to replicate the acoustic properties of the hall when it was new. Would it have been more authentic to replace the floor with new fir as I expect new fir was used in the original construction.

[John Terauds]

The qualities of softwood seem to be a subject for endless debate between those who say that wood is wood and those who insist that climate and geography and a tree's age make all the difference in the sound of a violin, piano soundboard -- or a stage floor.
We can decode our genetic code, but can't solve the mystery of growth rings and densities. Bizarre.