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Home Contact:
Geoffrey Dancer
Piano Restoration
Unit 4
Clapham Junction
SW11 2NU
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What makes a Piano? Simply expressed,
the piano is instrument whose characteristic tone is a result of the amplification
of vibrating strings The evolution of the piano from its origins in the 18th century has been a constant search for an ever improved sustaining quality. This sustaining quality is paramount and is the factor most sought after by the pianist as the key to expressive range. All Geoff's piano restoration work is toward this optimum goal. This sustaining quality is basically dependent on the three elements mentioned earlier: the strings, hammers, and soundboard and their subtle interaction. The hammers contribute the volume of sound as well as quality of impact on the strings, the strings give the pitch and sustain this impact whilst the soundboard adds body and consequently ‘colour’. Although crudely speaking
a percussion instrument, the alchemy of the piano lies in the way that
it can, given the right instrument and performer, be as expressive and
suggestive as a bowed stringed instrument
or even a voice. Strings and hammers may be regarded as 'service' items; not improved by age, and replaceable without affecting the essential character of an instrument. It is the nature of the soundboard, and its contribution to the production of sound, that makes old pianos worth the trouble and costs of restoration. The quality of old violins from the great makers has for a long time been accepted as the summit towards which modern makers must aspire to climb; for pianos, some of the same arguments apply - the quality and seasoning of the wood in the soundboard, for example. And yet many people - encouraged perhaps by the new piano industry and its commercial interests - still regard pianos as machines, and suitable for replacement every few years. Read on for more on this debate and about piano restoration.... |
