Talk:Americus Backers

My edits
This article has a lot of good information in it - all I want to do is organise it per Wikipedia's norms. I have tried to make it more closely conform with Wikipedia's Manual of Style. I have removed sections which talk about the author's personal experiences - this should not be done on articles to avoid self-references. It is assumed that an article will have many authors over many years. I have also standardised the heading titles, added categories and added a link to the German version of this article. Graham 87 14:51, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Article author Guidewell begs a few questions
"I'm most grateful for the intervention of this Administrator. While I'm very happy to have my contribution conform to Wikipedia conventions, my main aim in broadcasting what I know about Americus Backers is to attract anyone who knows more (or different) information to come forward with it so that I can build a fuller picture of 'my old friend' Americus, whom I feel I know as well as many of my other contemporarties in the piano and music world.

"Since writing my piece, I have traced two futrher potential sources of information that I intend to pursue during the next few weeks. If they do materially add to the sum f knowledge about Americus Backers I will add to this Wikipedia article, but it may be that they only have some of the sketchy details I have accumulatged already.

Meanwhile, I'd like to open the following questions:

''"Are there any more Backers instruments in the world outside the UK?"

''"Would it be possible to trace records of birth and marriage (we have no record of whether Americus had a spouse or children or household staff in Jermyn Street) in Holland and in Saxony in the same way as we can in the UK through Parish Records?"

''"Is there a musicologist out there (other than the Leigh family) with an interest in castrati who can write up Tenducci and she light on his relationship with Backers?"

"Who owned Backers pianos (since we still have number 21 there must have been quite a few owner), what music were they inspired to write and/or play and to whom - family, friends or public audience - did they play?"

Guidewell (talk) 11:45, 13 January 2008 (UTC)


 * This may or may not help, but take a look at some of the sources cited in piano pedals, an article I cleaned up yesterday. Just to clarify, I didn't perform any actions as an administrator. administrators only have the extra powers of blocking users, deleting and protecting pages, and a few other tools that help in cleaning up vandalism. Anyone, whether an admin or not, could have made any edit they liked to this article. The position of administrator, or adminship as it is known, is granted to people who have broad experience in Wikipedia - my request is at Requests for adminship/Graham87, for instance. Graham 87 13:51, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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An error in the article
The article states that the Silbermann action was a crude copy of Maffei's drawing of Cristofori's action, without escapement. Whilst we have no information on Silbermann's first attempts at a piano action, the 3 Silbermann pianos we have from the middle of the century actually incorporate an exact copy (apart from a few changes in wood types) of the late Cristofori action as in the 1726 Cristofori piano in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. Although Silbermann did not use the 1726 piano itself (which remained in Italy), he must have had access or owned a similar instrument, as even parts not visible without dismantling the action are copied. The Cristofori action can be considered the first real piano action as it includes the escapement (as does Maffei's drawing, by the way), probably invented by him. The Cristofori action is in no way crude, it is a very refined and sensitive action, as anyone who has played on it will testify. The Backers action differs from Cristofori mainly by the elimination of the intermediate lever, made possible by lengthening the key levers. Otherwise, the elements, including the check, are taken from Cristofori, via Silbermann. I hope this is useful. Tony Chinnery, Florence, Italy 82.193.28.115 (talk) 11:19, 31 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi Tony, thanks very much for your comments; I've hopefully fixed the article. I don't know anything about this subject beyond what is written in Wikipedia, and I didn't write the article ... I'm just keeping an eye on it. Graham 87 14:40, 31 December 2018 (UTC)