a grand fantasy?

John writes:
>>The clavichord can only be bent upward in pitch, and controlling the

intonation by key pressure seems less than ideal. Also, the tone of

the clavichord is inferior to the piano, IMHO. And if we're going to

introduce amplification, why not go totally electronic? <<

Greetings,
No problem, just have the strings tuned flat, and a computer controlled
servo-stop under the front of the key linked to a pitch sensor somewhere on
the string (the bridge will be logical choice, ala the Yamaha CP-70 pianos),
so that upon depressing the key, the computer derived pitch necessary to
achieve the adaptive result will control the controller, allowing only enough
key depression to achieve the desired pitch.
Seems like a simple loop-feedback system in charge of keydip. ????
Regards,
Ed Foote
(and you would tune this thing by software!))

[I wrote:]
>>The clavichord can only be bent upward in pitch, and controlling the
>>intonation by key pressure seems less than ideal.

[Ed Foot writes:]
>No problem, just have the strings tuned flat, and a computer
>controlled servo-stop under the front of the key linked to a pitch
>sensor somewhere on the string (the bridge will be logical choice, ala
>the Yamaha CP-70 pianos), so that upon depressing the key, the computer
>derived pitch necessary to achieve the adaptive result will control the
>controller, allowing only enough key depression to achieve the desired
>pitch.

Well... this could be done, certainly, but

. When the string is first struck, it'd be at the minimum tension
and therefore frequency. Within a fraction of a second, the key
would continue down to its computer-controlled stop, bringing the
frequency to the desired place, but I have to believe that the
transition would be audible and undesirable.

. As the key is released, the string would first fall back to its
minimum frequency, then stop sounding, another "blip" in the sound.

. While the string is sounding at the desired frequency, wouldn't
the key pressure required be substantial, even for a lightly-strung
clavichord-like instrument? I can't believe that'd be fun.

. The keys would be unevenly depressed to satisfy tuning for each
note.

>Seems like a simple loop-feedback system in charge of keydip. (and you
>would tune this thing by software!))

Yes, a computer would be in the loop, whether the player was specifying
tuning (via pedals) or the computer was deciding it.

JdL