Re: Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)

2014-03-15T21:20:13Z

I've always liked the sound of the Walter in any case!

It says in the book I was reading what Field's fave piano manufacturer was, I'll need to dig out the name!

Re: Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)

2014-03-13T18:21:22Z

Do not know if it agrees with Field, but I can highly recommend the Walter (historically close enough)

Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)

2014-03-08T10:35:11Z

Yes but I've been too busy with work to make much music recently
but whilst commuting I've been getting into early 19th century Irish pianist John Field (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Field_%28composer%29 ) whose claim to fame is generally that he "invented the nocturne"

I was reading some books on him, and they make the point that pianos in Field's day sounded and behaved quite different to modern ones: they had wooden frames (not iron), and had a different tone and the sustain pedal didn't ring for long etc.
(Bold show-offs such as Liszt et al apparently pushed piano manufacturers into the kind of pianos we have today).

Apparently if you try playing a Field Nocturne from the sheet music as written today, you'll get quite a different sound to what you'd have heard in 1830 or whenever...
if you use the sustain pedal to the extent Field did, you'll generally end up with blurred mush, and generally the sound will be much brighter and more brittle than the mellower tone he'd have got.

Obviously Pianoteq is ideal for experimenting with getting these older timbres, so I wondered if anyone had tried making presets for this kind of thing? And/or which of the historical KiVir pianos would be a good starting place?

Modartt user forum - Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)

Re: Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)

Re: Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)

Getting a pre-1840s piano sound (!)