GG: playing the Chickering

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@UMICH.EDU>]

Deborah Dana wrote:

>I played the chickering from 10 am until about 11:30
>am. Mr. Shipton left me to play as long as I wished,
>basically. I was alone in the GG studio w/ the
>chickering. Occasionally someone would wonder through
>and "applaud" my efforts....an employee, I assume. The
>chickering was very unusual to play on, I enjoyed it
>very much.  The touch was challenging, some notes
>seemed less responsive than others, but on the whole,
>I enjoyed the quality of the sound I was able to get
>from the instrument. It did have an almost
>harpischordish quality to it.  very very interesting,
>i can see how gg would have loved it so.


Sounds like a great experience, Deborah.

Can you say more about what seems "harpsichordish" about it?  Action,
tone, or both?  And how so?  (Like a clearly and crisply "speaking"
Italian harpsichord, or like a richly resonant French/German/Flemish
harpsichord, or like some tinny poor-quality harpsichord, or what?...
Does it have a clearly differentiated tone from octave to octave, as
opposed to the usual uniformity of pianos?)

Here's my site about the different tone of various types of
harpsichords:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/hpsi.html

How does GG's Chickering compare with those as "harpsichordish"?  I'm
really curious, and thanks for any clarification....


Bradley Lehman, Dayton VA
(harpsichordist)

p.s. This was the same piano that is shown/heard in the "Off the Record"
film, right?