CAUT

  • 1.  Vegan pianos?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-25-2023 11:14

    Thanksgiving dinner with some vegetarians brought to mind a client with an unusual request.

    This gentleman has an old baby grand piano, and he has been vegetarian for many years. He is now inclined towards going vegan. That is why he contacted me about replacing his ivory keytops (many of which are chipped) with plastic. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, I mentioned that swapping out the elephant DNA for petrol-products will not bring back the animal that was killed for its tusks over a century ago. 

    Moreover, ivory is hardly the only animal product found in pianos, particularly older ones. There is the leather on knuckles, backchecks, repetition levers and elsewhere (which these days is increasingly being substituted with ecsaine). If money were no object, it would be possible (at least in theory, if not particularly practical) to separate all the glue joints, remove the animal hide glue that holds EVERYthing together in pianos as old as his and reaffix with an adhesive that would meet with vegan approval (assuming that there IS such a glue). 

    But what about the wool contained in hammer, damper, key-end and other felts, and in action cloth? Wool does not pass vegan muster (just ask the costume designer of Ridley-Scott's just-released "Napoleon" about vegan actor Joaquin Phoenix's refusal to wear a wool hat in the title role), and we would be hard-pressed to come up with a substitute for it. 

    Ivory may have fallen out of favor as a piano building material, ecsaine may be replacing leather, and other adhesives may have supplanted animal hide glue in many applications in today's pianos. But pianos without wool? Could it be that wool is the most unreplaceable material in the piano as we have known it for well over a century?

    After considering possible options further with my client, it occurred to us that even plastic is, technically, also an animal product (from ancient reptilian critters that eventually became the petroleum from which plastic is made). 

    So, if for no other reason than just for the sake of mental exercise, I pondered (as I munched on my turkey sandwich) whether or not it is even hypothetically possible to make a vegan piano…

    Happy Thanksgiving (or whatever you may prefer to call it), y'all!

    Alan



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    Alan Eder, RPT
    Herb Alpert School of Music
    California Institute of the Arts
    Valencia, CA
    661.904.6483
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  • 2.  RE: Vegan pianos?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-25-2023 12:58
    It's all just atoms, made of subatomic particles, which are a quantum manifestation of energy and waves. IOW, it's all one! Tell him to study physics :-) 

    There is no way to live a guilt-free life. Jainists wear masks and are careful to watch where they step to avoid breathing in or squashing little critters. But what about those dust mites, and the trillions of bacteria in our intestinal systems? 

    But yes, wool is what makes pianos possible. Particularly sheep wool. And a vanishingly small number of firms possess the skills and methods to process it in piano-friendly ways. It's a fragile eco-system the piano lives in. I guess it must be possible to design a synthetic material to substitute, but there isn't enough of a market to make development of one pay.

    Of course, we could go back to the keyed pantalon with wooden hammers. Not quite so expressive, but it makes it possible for fingers to create sounds.

    Cheers for the season!

    Regards,
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    "We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda






  • 3.  RE: Vegan pianos?

    Posted 11-30-2023 23:08

    I am more concerned about the wood in pianos. In particular, the old growth Spruce that goes into making soundboards.
    As much as I like this beautiful wood and the tonal and aesthetic results we get from it, it is a quickly dwindling resource and we are in the process of cutting the last of the spruce forests.

    I live on Vancouver Island, one of the  traditional locations of Sitka Spruce giants. We are now down to cutting the final 3% of our productive old growth forests. When these giants are felled, the whole eco-system they support breaks down as heavy winter rains erode the bare soil.  Over the past few years, there has been a big movement of activists and protests to Save Old Growth.  Over 1000 people have been arrested in the largest in crackdown on civil disobedience in Canada's history.



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    Jurgen Goering
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Vegan pianos?

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-30-2023 23:26
    Jurgen

    I thought that a vast majority of the Spruce trees were being cut down by Japanese lumber companies to make paper for the Japanese market. Not to make soundboards for pianos. 



    Original Message