This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment HAMMERMAKER'S CORNER 11 Ari Isaac. I was making hammers now. The year was 1982. They had a large, round = tone in which a number of partials, along with a strong fundamental, = were easily audible. A long sustain and a wide range of musical color = but. sales, that year were slow. Looking back on it now it's not = surprising since Isaac Cadenza hammers were the new boy on the block. To = me it was a deep disappointment. I'd put so much money and effort into = making a hammer that, easily, got more tone out of a piano than anything = I'd used, the slowness of sales at that time started me thinking about = why I should go on, why bother. Then something happened that gave me = back the resolve which had carried me thus far. The convention had been a pretty good one, New York state conventions = were good ones in those years, they probably still are. We were sitting = at a banquet, the gathering was friendly and cheerful, everyone was = enjoying the concert laid on by the chapter and played by a music major = from a near by, well known music school. He was playing pieces by Liszt, = Scarlatti, Mozart, maybe some Chopin and he was playing them very well; = his fingers moved nimbly over the keys and he didn't miss a note. The = music sounded as interesting as see through plastic. No passion! No = color, no expression. During one of the breaks between pieces I turned = to Hanna and said; a.. the piano sounds like a Steinway M -=20 the chap sitting on my other sideturned towards me and said a.. - no, Ari, he is playing a steinway D. -=20 At first I couldn't believe him although I knew he was just being nice. = How could a Steinway D sound like a Steinway M? and no color in the = man's playing? The realization came to me in a flash, he could not get color out of the = piano because the hammers didn't have any color to give. Also, if, = during his years of studying music, he was playing on instruments that = couldn't produce colorful musical tone how could he ever learn to play = with expression, passion and color? That's when I realized it, in the = case of pianos it's the instrument that makes the musician. I am = convinced that when a player hears a difference in musical color while = playing the keys with varying intensity, he or she will be drawn to play = with musical expression.=20 It was at that point I decided to go on. Sales would improve, as they = have. If music is important, and, to me it is, then hammers that produce = a musical tone need to be made available. What is a 'musical' tone? This = is one of the many words whose meaning is suggested by the user to imply = a general understanding but, in practice, has no such understanding = automatically attached. The term 'musical', while liable to benefit from = an occasional attempt at a definition, actually enjoys more of a = visceral understanding than most other such adjectives. Consider, for a = start, the many bowed string instruments built in Italy from 1560 = through 1730. A pretty early period and yet. No one now or since has = succeeded in matching their tone. To me they suggest the idea of musical = tone was well understood even then. So what is 'musical' tone?=20 My own definition is, like everyone else's, subjective by virtue of my = own, subjective pair of ears. We gain awareness of tone subjectively but = my awareness of musical tone is based on many years of listening to a = wide range of instruments; recorded and live, all of which have conveyed = the same tonal impression. Other instruments I've listened to, no fewer = in number, have conveyed a different tonal impression. The similarity of = tonal impressions emitted by the finest instruments; pianos, violines, = celli, woodwinds and brass, makes up the objective component of my = conception of 'musical' tone. To me, a 'musical' tone must permit you to hear three or more = frequencies simmultaneously; the fundamental frequency will be the = dominating one but the other two or three need to be clearly and = distinctly audible. When listening to a musical tone I do not need to be = able to identify the non fundamental frequencies so clearly as to be = able to sing them but if I cannot clearly distinguish three or four = frequencies - the tone is not a musical tone.=20 The second feature of a 'musical' tone is its sustain (this pertains to = the piano). The sustain needs to extend to all of the audible = frequencies of a note. The difference between the attack - what is known = as the 'transient' in the recording industry - and the part of the note = immediately following, needs to be small. The attack needs to flow = smoothely into the bloom of the note. The greater the audible difference = between the attack and the rest, or, the bloom of the note - the more = percussive and the less musical the tone. I hear people saying = "Sometimes you want a percussive tone". True, but sometimes you want a = cold shower or coffee with no sugar or a good argument, fight, with your = wife, girl friend, husband or boy friend, it adds spice but it doesn't = change the definition.=20 The third and most elusive component of 'musical' tone is the color = range. For all but the finest instruments there is only, mostly, a = volume change with no audible color change. The grouping of audible = partials along with the fundamental for a given intensity, loudness, = remains constant throughout the volume range - that is about as far from = 'musical' as it's possible to get. For the finest instruments the = grouping of partials along with the fundamental frequency changes along = with the change of intensity, loudness, producing the rich range of = shades, gradations, nuances referred to as tonal color.=20 These three components of tone are the ones I have aimed for and, for = the most part, succeeded in building into Isaac Cadenza hammers.=20 Cadenza hammers will, ;sometimes, require some tweaking to match them to = either a particular hall or the responsiveness (or lack thereof) of a = sounding board, but the tonal components that, ;to me, make up a musical = tone are always there.=20 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/3f/91/8a/e1/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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