Piano History Centre

[Bill Kibby]

Work is progressing on our Piano History Centre in East Anglia, and I would be grateful for any further information anyone can supply on the makers of our pianos, which include querpianos by Masterman & Co., and by Watlen & Challen, uprights by Robert Wornum, Wornum & Sons, Henri Pape, Joseph Shaw, Thomas D'Almaine, John Grogan, John Bridges, Broadwood & Sons, Bluthner, Collard & Collard, Bord, J. & J. Hopkinson, Holdernesse & Holdernesse, Hoffmann, Kirkman, Witton & Witton, Eavestaff, and organs by Hammond, Thomas Carr and John Malcolm. We function as an archive, and every day, we help people around the world with information they cannot find anywhere else, but the museum display aspect is my retirement project, and I have only just retired. We have only scratched the surface in the long task of selecting from over 12,000 images, and preparing 180 feet of display boards to cover the upper halves of the walls as a private collection, while the lower halves are almost filled by antique pianos, and a section for music projects. Then we have to see what the local council will allow us to do here with the public. After all that comes the task of trying to bring the pianos up to playing order. Some will never work completely, and the art will be choosing a piece that uses the notes that work! We depend on donations, and although some people do not pay, and have no concept of the amount of work involved, others who appreciate the uniqueness of our collection pay a little more than they need to. Sadly, we are stuck in a situation where, because the Piano History Centre needs to employ me, this is regarded as personal gain, and disqualifies me from every kind of funding I have been able to find. Many major charities rely on rich people at the top, who work for nothing, although they are at liberty to pay employees and professional consultants etc..

[alexalin]

HI It's glad to know that Work is progressing on Piano History Center.I'm also searching for the makers of pianos and great history about piano.I would inform you if i found come to notice about piano information.According to me piano is the best instrument to play soft music and it is a great art to play the piano.

[Bill Kibby]

An interesting side issue about our efforts is that after months of expensive preparations we found it impossible to rehearse or record with electronics because of massive amounts of electrical interference from a nearby radio mast or, to be more accurate, the machinery at the base of it. If you want to laze about and listen to radio or watch television, OFCOM is the official body which protects your right to do that without your transmissions being spoiled by interference. However, if you are a musician making music in your own home, or trying to earn a living, apparently you have no rights. We returned from a week's holiday to find an unprecedented two days without any interference, so I don't know if someone has finally listened and done something about it, we would be eternally grateful if they have. We keep our fingers crossed that it has gone for good.

[alexalin]

I like your style.Yes, why should we sell the old pianos.I think those are going to help to know the history of piano.

[alexalin]

Hi,My one of close relative is learning the piano in a local music collage.Now he has to submit the project report on piano history that he got the clear instruction it should be unique topic from all.So, i hope i will get some unique information about piano history from you.

[Bill Kibby]

That's a bit like going into a library and saying "have you got any books?"! You would need to give me more idea what sort of aspect of piano history interests him.

[Bill Kibby]

I have just sent this to the Daily Express: It's not piano history, but should be a matter of concern to many people.

Hi! With all the talk recently about cutting out mercury from various products, I was fascinated to read on your front page that it is used in the manufacture of our wonderful newly-conceived low-energy bulbs, but here's something you might not know. In the course of testing our music studio for electro-magnetic interference, we learned that whereas the ambient levels are safe at 2 volts per metre, the low-energy bulbs which we had so conscientiously installed produce electro-magnetic fields around 150 volts per metre close to the bulb. In case that means as little to you as it did to us, it is FIFTY TIMES the recommended safe limit. Ordinary bulbs yield no significant effect. It may well be that this has a bearing on the skin conditions etc. reported in your article.

Bill Kibby-Johnson
Piano History Centre
Great Yarmouth

As a postscript, a friend of a friend says that her epilepsy is triggered by low-energy bulbs, and another friend smells something from them which she says affects her breathing. Then there is the suggestion that if a light is only on for short periods, switched on and off frequently, it will cost more than a normal bulb. Unfortunately, we soon won't have the choice, as the old bulbs are being discontinued. Let's hope LED or something will save us from all that mercury. If a low-energy bulb breaks, we are told to ventilate the room, and vacate it for 15 minutes, then don't use a vacuum cleaner, but collect the particles in a plastic bag, and dispose of them at a designated hazardous waste site... if you can find one. How many people are going to do that every time a bulb goes?

[pianobrereton]

I've just replaced my low light (sorry low energy ) bulb in my living room as I could hardly read with it . I've replaced it with a 150 watt normal bulb and what a difference it's like coming out of victorian times into the 21st century . I think I read the same report that you refer to. Apparentely you can get burnt if you sit too close to these bulbs. Another Law forced on us by the unelected government of the EU. Im voting in the European elections for the 1st time in my life this year. They wouldn't give us the promised referendum on Lisbon Treaty so Im using the European elections to voice my anger...... I'm voting UKIP .
The sooner we get out of this expensive undemocratic club the better..... I've seen the light !!!!!!

[Bill Kibby]

Perhaps that's what's wrong with Gordon Brown, he has been sitting too long under a low-energy reading lamp. Pretty soon, we'll all have our brains fried.

Meanwhile, we still have ticking on our electronics, and nobody is interested in helping us get rid of it. According to Arqiva, it is "an integral part of the Digital Audio Broadcast signal". Funny that we can have an ocaasional week or two without it!

[Gill the Piano]

What's going to happen to my lovely old Murphy 1929 valve-driven thingy when they do away with analogue? And I'd rather get a fuzzy FM broadcast of a station 'outside' my area than nothing at all, which is what I'll get when all this digital stuff comes in.

[Devon]

Would you have any information on a H. Hicks & Son, London upright piano? Registration number is 36499. It has a beautiful polished black finish. The piano was apparently shipped/exported to Jamaica, W. I. many years ago.

[Bill Kibby]

That number suggests that it was made around 1927, but no archive information is available for Hicks to trace individual pianos. You would do better to post this separately, under its own name, rather than "Piano History Centre".