I read the “debate” (if one can call it that) between Stephen Birkett, Jeffery Dane, and Donald Grant De Man debate.htm with moderate amusement, but also with no small amount of distress and disillusionment.

Of course, this IS the Internet, where anything goes, and anyone can call themselves an “expert” - and the ability of the outside world to judge the claim is largely limited to the appearance of the website (and Mr. Dane’s site is very nice looking indeed).

Ed Note: Inditer.com is not Mr. Dane's Site. Mr. Dane and Mr. DeMan are both long time contributors to Inditer.com, but they must not be taken to task for the appearance of the website itself. That is my responsibility. Any fault with the website itself should be addressed to me, editor@inditer.com .

However, as someone who began by studying musicology at California State University Northridge under Georg Skapski, and since has spent the last 25 years studying, restoring, and copying pianos of the late 18th/early 19th century, it is hard to remember, and distressing to realize, that the level of sophistication of knowledge in this area, as exhibited in Stephen Birkett’s critique, is limited to a relatively small international cadre of musicians, builders, restorers, museum curators, musicologists, and organologists, and to a somewhat lesser extent (though still far beyond Mr. Dane’s level), audience members who have a preference for the sound of early pianos. I could easily cite a long list of such experts, all of whom have published and lectured extensively on pianos of this era, all of whom would find Mr. Dane’s article so lacking in awareness of the current state of the art as to be unworthy of comment. But I’m sure the names of even the most prominent figures in this field, such as Michael Latcham of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and Alphons Huber of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, whose articles can be found in Early Music, The Galpin Society Journal, The Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, and Das Musikinstrument (to name but a few), these and other names would be as unfamiliar to Mr. Dane as those of the major characters of the Viennese piano playing and building scene during Beethoven’s life. And I certainly wouldn't want to give Mr. Dane an excuse to accuse me of being a name-dropping “Know It All”.

The sad thing here is that there really is no debate. Believing that it is even possible to question our ability at determining “the truth” in this matter is only possible for those who have not exhaustively examined the evidence, not only that of the surviving instruments, but also the documentary evidence which exists in rather large quantities. These include contemporary newspaper articles, Beethoven’s conversation books, letters between Andreas Streicher and the music publisher Härtel, etc. The eminent Beethoven scholar William S. Newman provided an excellent summary in his book “Beethoven on Beethoven - Playing His Piano Music His Way”, published in 1988. No one who seriously busies himself with this topic has found any reason whatsoever to doubt the assertions of Dr. Newman.

The most telling thing of course is the tone and content of Mr. Dane’s rebuttal. It is long on snide remarks about teachers brow-beating students, authoritative figures talking down their noses to the “great unwashed”, stupid critics who relish is tearing apart performers, and chock full of sophisticated academic terminology like “Mr. Know It All”. Sadly, though, it is totally lacking in any musicological or organological substance. It hardly needs to be stated that such avoidance of the main issue and resorting to name-calling and finger pointing is the typical pathetic refuge taken by someone (no matter what the field of inquiry) who knows they haven’t got a leg to stand on. If Mr. Dane had any confidence in his own position, he wouldn’t become so defensive, and he would argue the points. If and when he ever finds it within himself to address Birkett’s (and Newman’s) factual assertions, maybe we could begin to take his whole exercise somewhat seriously. Until then it remains nothing more than a nicely-packaged but amateur regurgitation of the late 19th-century music “historian” mythology and piano makers propaganda.

Regarding my real-world (not virtual) credentials, I refer Mr. Dane to my website for a list of lectures given at major international organological conferences and articles published, plus a short description of my activities as builder/restorer:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/paulpoletti

By following the links to the various organizations dedicated to the study of the historical piano, such the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy, or Labo 19 in Antwerp, Belgium, Mr. Dane can begin his remedial education on the topic. He is of course always welcome to come by the workshop should he find himself in the Netherlands. I’d be happy to arrange a playing session for him on various originals and copies of instruments from the time.

Sincerely,

Paul Poletti

Above left a 5 octave piano (5 8ves) - Above right a 6.5 octave piano - 6.5 8ves
Both of these pianos are displayed and for sale at the shop of Mr. Poletti at
Oudwijkerdwarsstraat 106, 3581 LH Utrecht, The Netherlands - Telephone +31 30 223 1756

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