ABSTRACT
This may be a good time to remind ourselves of the rich variety of piano-sounds in the early period, up to, say 1800, Not only those of the British and 'Viennese', but also the differences between grand and square (and, slightly later, upright), between particular makers and, last but not least in this pre-industrial system, between individual instruments, not forgetting the fact that, in addition, all of these could be further affected by the use of various stops, pedals, and so on, whose effect was by no means uniform. And when one takes into account the 'natural' but significant modification of a piano's sound at different stages of its lifetime due to, for example, atmospheric conditions and the hammer-coverings having altered with wear and tear, it becomes clear that the kind of standardisation so manically sought after in later periods, in all aspects of life, had no part in this sound-world.
