Jasmine Fellows
Jasmine is an accomplished musician, and the former Editor of Cosmos Magazine and Double Helix.
At the end of a dark hallway in the Australian National University’s (ANU’s) School of Music in Canberra, is a room with more than 40 historical keyboards and replicas. These instruments play with unique historical qualities ready for interdisciplinary analysis, including from the sciences.
Unlike hands-off museum collections, each of the instruments in the ANU’s Keyboard Institute are there to be played and learned from.
The Keyboard Institute is a portal for the scientific imagination, an invitation to learn more about the construction and engineering of harpsichords and pianos, clavichords and organs.
Walking down the rows, it’s easy to spot the use of curious materials. Some are unsurprising: woods like spruce and oak, and keys from ivory. Others are perhaps unexpected, such as hidden felts, boar bristle and leather from a goat-sheep hybrid.
For the curious, sheep and goats are similar enough to be mated, however, the resulting “geep” or “shoats” are generally stillborn. These hybrids are rare, and rarer still to be part of a musical instrument.
The use of organic materials means there are natural differences between each piece of wood or felt, affecting the sound of the instrument. Even when the artistry and expertise of the historical maker is taken into account, as well as the touch of the player, there are a multitude of variables contributing to each instrument’s unique tone or timbre.
While science can shine a light on the possible outcomes of restoration on sound quality, replacing worn felt or aging wood may make an instrument more playable but detract from authenticity. Decisions around the restoration of these instruments are weighed up with artistry at the fore.
Playing historical pieces from composers like Bach, Mozart or Beethoven can sound ‘muddy’ on modern instruments, and patterns of notes may not make sense. These historical instruments don’t require as much strength and can be more delicate.
Scott Davie, Senior Lecturer in Music and Convenor of Performance at ANU, says “It’s funny, instruments tend to teach the players in ways beyond textbooks.” Players may find themselves modifying or adapting their technique to get the best use of the instrument. “The instrument teaches the player how they need to be played in order to work optimally.”
Gems within the collection
While keyboards are thought to originate from the Hydraulis in Alexandria (3rd century BCE), before proliferating through Europe to the rest of the world, ANU’s collection is in many ways uniquely Australian. Here is a selection with scientific significance.
McNulty’s trio
feature image above
“The school’s fortunate to have 3 instruments made by Paul McNulty, who’s regarded as the best maker of copies of certain instruments,” says Davie. “The detail of the work of creating authentic copies is incredibly refined.” McNulty reveals the detailed engineering required of historical replicas.
On a keyboard instrument, each key is attached to a hammer that hits a string or strings. There are pieces of wood within the mechanism called shanks. “Paul discovered that a certain maker had actually tuned each of the shanks,” says Davie.
“If you are able to get a resonance of one of the shanks, they were always an F. So Paul spent a whole day shaving the shanks of all of the keys on the instrument to get them all to resonate to the correct pitch. And we’re talking about micro- and nanometres. It’s that level of detail, I think, is extraordinary.”
While the tuning of a keyboard instrument primarily comes from the strings, finding the resonance of parts such as shanks can make all the difference to playability. Davie says that once the work was done: “there was a fluidity to how the keys went down. We’re talking something that your average person wouldn’t know, but for somebody who plays these instruments continually, it’s nice.”
The Ruckers Double Harpsichord
The Ruckers Double Harpsichord is an eye-catching model built in 2020 by Carey Beebe, a prominent Australian harpsichord maker. The first thing you’ll notice is not the sound but a celebration of Australian wildflowers.
Lifting the lid on the powder blue harpsichord reveals the delicately painted Australian natives, by artist Diana Ford. Banksia, Sturt’s desert pea, wattle and the ACT floral emblem, Wahlenbergia gloriosa are just some of the flowers seen peeking from below the strings. Its gilding shines with 23K gold.
An additional curiosity of this harpsichord is in its tuning. It doesn’t just carry the current modern tuning standard where the note A sounds at 440Hz (A440). It also has transposable tuning for A392 in the French baroque style that sounds a tone lower than modern pitch, and an ‘in between’ A415 harpsichord tuning.
Henri Henrion Square Pianoforte
The Henri Henrion Square Pianoforte is significantly dated “c1770.” It’s the oldest in the collection, and is a well-worn relic of another time. Even so, Davie has seen this piano make significant music.
“[This] old instrument in the collection was made in what we think is 1770, which of course is a pivotal date in Australia’s history, when Cook was charting the east coast of Australia,” says Davie.
“We asked 4 Indigenous composers to write new pieces of music for this instrument realising that it was provocative. All 4 Indigenous composers created music that was completely different.” Recordings of these works called ‘Ngarra-burria Piyanna’ have been released for streaming and download.
“Quite often with historical instruments, you think ‘oh, well, they’re just for old music’. There was even one person who’s a rapper by the name of DOBBY. He did a rap on this instrument.”
Listening to the track, you can hear DOBBY rapping a 250-year history of Australia. The story is woven with the timing of the piano’s making and history. The historical sounds emanating from the instrument are pivotal to the story and its delivery.
“The program gave Indigenous people a chance to recolonise what essentially was a colonial relic,” says Professor Christopher Sainsbury, a Dharug man and expert in composition at the ANU, working on ‘Ngarra-burria Piyanna’.
In addition to recordings like ‘Ngarra-burria Piyanna’, keep an eye out for historical instrument performances and tours of the collection by the ANU School of Music. It’s a chance to listen to sounds from the past as they are woven into Australia’s musical future.
Another use for keyboards
