At a recent “welcome home to Montana” reception held for an antique Hazelton Brothers piano - perhaps Missoula’s first! - that originally graced the 1880 home of Missoula co-founder Francis Lyman Worden, the luscious interweaving layered lines of the soundboard caught my attention. Fortuitously, the piano’s technician/tuner was on hand, noodling through some artsy chords. A gap in group conversation allowed me to ease in the query, “Where do the hammers strike the bass strings?” My key takeaway: The design is truly an opposite-world marvel of musical engineering during the instrument’s era morphing from harpsichord to current upright and grand pianos. You can read more on the history of this piano in the (delightful present-day) Worden family in Cory Walsh’s story here.
ooooh - such a delightful find. Perfectly described: luscious interweaving layered lines
ReplyDeleteNice bit of history! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWe can go see it when you are next in town! (But not play it…)
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