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Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Paul McNulty, an American, whose copies of historical fortepianos are played by musicians all over the world, has been living for the past thirteen years in the beautiful countryside around Cesky Sternberk in central Bohemia. "I found a source of high-quality timber here, which is essential for instrument making. The spruce that grows in the Schwarzenberg Forest was chosen by most Viennese instrument makers from 1790 until 1850," Paul says, explaining what brought him to the Czech Republic in 1995. Upon leaving the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore he took to the study of piano technology in Boston. He avoided working in a modern piano factory, but before long, several pioneering artists in the fortepiano field took notice of his plan to build fortepianos, and set him on his way.
His wife, the pianofortist Viviana Sofronitzki, leads us across the yard to the workshop, whose facade still bears the sign Strojirna (engineering works) from before World War I. The warm scent of timber is reminiscent of a joiner's workshop. As we enter the second room the characteristic shape of a fortepiano lid leaves us in no doubt about what is manufactured here. The raw timber is seasoned until it becomes the material...
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