In its early days, the choir had the use of a good acoustic upright piano for rehearsal purposes, but this was too large and heavy to transport to concert venues - so whatever instrument was available had to be used. Whilst many venues were able to provide excellent pianos, some were unbelievably bad - sounding somewhat "honky-tonk", having notes which did not play, and even being anything up to three semi-tones flat!
In 1991, the choir purchased its own digital
piano.
After carefully assessing the digital instruments on the market at that
time, the Technics sx-PX66 was chosen because of its authentic sound
and
feel,
and its powerful built-in (twin 50 watt) amplifiers. This excellent
instrument was in constant use - both for rehearsal
and
for most performances until the choir was disbanded [And is now
used by the successor choir - see www.twocastlesmvc.org.uk].
Although primarily a piano, it has several other
"voices"
- enabling the sounds of a harpsichord, strings, pipe organ or vibes to
be
used to good effect for accompanying appropriate pieces. The built-in
amplifiers and speakers have proved to be adequate for all but the
largest concert
halls, while other choirs who have purchased slightly cheaper
"domestic"
models have had to resort to the use of expensive and inconvenient
external
amplifiers and speakers. The alternative, which we have sometimes seen,
of
connecting a low power instrument to a public address system designed
for
voice amplification, is too horrible to contemplate! [We would
recommend
any choir wishing to purchase a digital piano to select one with a
specification
of no less than 50 or 60 watts per channel.]
Like many digital instruments, this piano is
MIDI**-compatible -- enabling it to be connected to other instruments
or to computer-based MIDI sequencers. Over the years, the choir created
MIDI files -- covering both the choral parts and the accompaniment --
for most of the items in its repertoire. This means that, on the rare
occasions when a pianist was not available for a rehearsals, a
computer could "play" the piano.
At Easter 1998, the R.N.A. Club in Leamington
Spa
(where the piano was kept at the time) was flooded when the nearby
River Leam burst
its
banks, and the bottom part of the piano was submerged in muddy water
for
a period of several days. With the exception of replacing the
micro-switches
in the pedals as a precaution, and needing to re-polish the lower
woodwork,
this wonderful instrument was no worse for this unfortunate
experience,
and continued to perform as well as ever!
** MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital
Interface, and enables instruments to be played from computer files in
a way which is analogous to using punched paper rolls to play a pianola
or fairground organ