H. W. Stephenson's Duo-Art
By Brian Chesters
I read with interest Philip Dayson's comments about Stephenson's Duo-Art theories, so I thought I would tell you about my experience in this regard.
The Isle of Man is only a small place (about 30 miles by 15 miles, in the middle of the Irish sea between Ireland and England), so when I was told about Mr. Stephenson and his Duo-art, I rang him up and got an invitation to go for an evening. It was memorable, to say the least: it was in January, and my wife and I were frozen in his large living room; Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson seemed to be oblivious to the cold; there was no fire, and there appeared to be no central heating on.
He explained his theories about the Duo-Art playing system and said, "I have never heard a Duo-art play properly yet." He said that the reason was that the system is fundamentally flawed. My own view is diametrically opposed to this.
We then turned our attention to his Steck Grand player. He showed me the mechanism underneath and above the keyboard, and there was not one component that I recognised. Every 'box' had been taken out, redesigned and put back somewhere. I may have recognised the pump, but it was located in another room.
They do say the 'proof of the pudding is in the eating', but to say the player missed a few notes was to understate the problem -- in fact, the situation got worse as the evening went on. One particular passage in Elgars Enigma variations (Duo-Art D889) that I took along went so quiet that it was embarrassing. He gave me a copy of his monumental work on the subject but after reading some of it, I threw it in the bin.
On the plus side, he did say that it was many years since he 'restored' his player and it was in need of regulation again.
I spent three years restoring player pianos and reproducers, and my own thoughts are that using Edwardian technology, you will never get a 'perfect' reproduction, but there are many restorers who can finish a reproducing player to a standard that can go a long way to that end. I should add that the above are my own views and are not intended to influence anyone else in any way.
Brian Chesters- Isle of Man
brian@litter-boss.co.uk
http://www.litter-boss.co.uk/antique |
(Message sent Sun 23 Feb 1997, 14:48:11 GMT, from time zone GMT.) |
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