This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Hammermaker's corner 6 Ari Isaac. I had but a vague idea of the tests I would have to pass but I knew I = had to do some deep thinking about how, exactly the tone I wanted would = be produced. The shape of the hammer press and the formers, the = construction of the felt sheets, all would depend on providing clear = answers to that question. Music, to me, is a story told in sounds (or tones). The word "story" is = a stand-in for impression, feeling, worldview and accompaniment. "story" = will do. Stories are many and varied and they sound a lot better if not = told in a monotone. To put it in other words, if they're told with as = many shadings of volume and color as possible, or as demanded by the = story being (musically) told. Every composer of piano music, from = Beethoven to Gershwin looked for, demanded, a greater degree of = lyricism, tonal color from piano makers. Hammers designed to produce a = primarily "clear" tone without the capacity to excite varying = combinations of partials across the volume range, as well as, = incidentally, the current fashion to play and record music played by = "original instruments" - both fly in the face of every major composer's = perception of musical tone.=20 The obvious problem with producing piano tone is the one Bernard Shaw = spoke of when he pointed out that we 'destroy our appetites in the act = of satisfying them'. The hammer blocks the string as soon as it impacts = on it. What to do about that? The common answer has been to get the = hammer off the strings as quickly as possible, to give it a minimum of = contact time so less of the tone is damped. This, to me, is a clumsy = answer. It doesn't make use of the available energies. Regardless of how = light you make the hammer, there is still a loss of energy; the string = starts to push the hammer until it falls away and we have derived no = benefit from all of that energy.=20 It became evident to me that the hammer string contact time is a = variable. Getting the hammer away from the string as fast as possible is = not the priority. The priority, the trick, is to make greater use of the = reversal of the hammer momentum by the hammer-string impact. If the = hammer were a compression spring, the impact would compress the spring. = When it began to open, when the spring compression was released, the = compressed spring would push more energy into the string. The degree to = which the spring compressed would depend on the intensity of the impact = so that the energy pushed back into the string would vary as a function = of the impact force, enabling the production, by the hammer, of varying = combinations of audible partials - tonal color. This second transfer of = energy into the string as the hammer rebounds would compensate, to a = considerable degree, for the loss sustained by the hammer damping the = string. The damped components of the tone are always; it seems to me, = the fundamental and the first few partials. The functioning of the = hammer like a spring is, so I thought and so I know now, the most = efficient, most labor saving and most long lasting way to restore most, = if not all of the tonal components the impact damps out. At this point I needed to define hardness. There are two types of 'hard' = relevant to piano hammers: one is the hardness which renders the felt = immobile. This inability, of the felt, to flex is caused by laquoring or = by steam shrinking as practiced in Europe. The impact will, for a hammer = with this type of hardness, rob the tone of important groups of partials = and throughout the volume level the same groups of partials will be = lost, damped out and remain absent. Applying a simple test, using this = kind of hard, or non flexing hammer i.e. dividing the volume range into = six steps: pianissimo, piano, mezzoforte, forte, fortissimo and double = fortissimo, the volume will increase or decrease, depending on the = direction one moves in but there will be no chage audible in the tone = color range. By 'tone color' I mean grouping, or combination, of = partials and fundamental frequency for a given playing intensity. It is = possible to employ various needling techniques to force the hammer to = produce some color up and down the volume range. Piano technicians have = been forced to become expert in these techniques due to the lack of = hammer design by many hammer makers. I refused to go that route. If I = were going to go to the immense trouble of making hammers - I would = attempt to do it right, or differently.=20 The second kind of 'hard' for hammers, is the hardness of a compression = spring. Every compression spring requires a certain weight, pressure, = impact, before it will compress. I have, at one time, purchased a 200lb = spring. I placed a 195lb weight on top of it - the spring did not budge. = When I increased the weight to 205lbs - it began to compress. At less = than 200lbs that spring was absolutely hard, inflexible but it was still = a spring. Felt, too, can be constructed to be as springy as one wishes. = In a set of hammers the spring, like the hammer weight and size, needs = to graduate so that the 'hardest' spring is at the treble end graduating = down to the bass. How could I get felt makers to do what I wanted? They, = like anyone else, were used to do things their own way and, judging by = what I had seen, the various hammer felt sheets showed no sign of = graduating density. In my sheets of hammer felt I wanted the density = graduation to be the result of a downward graduation in the wool fiber, = all of the sheets I'd seen appeared to be made of one wool blend with no = change from bass to treble end. Here was my next challenge and it was = crucial - if I could not get the felt I wanted.=20 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/ee/93/bd/ef/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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