Too much sustain?

[Stephen Birkett]

Cy wrote:
>Did you have too much sustain only when the pedal is down, or also 
>when it's up?  In either case, can't you control it with the 
>dampers, either individually on the key or with the pedal?  In 
>classical guitar, we sometimes use our hand to mute strings quickly, 
>when needed.  The only situation in a piano with too much sustain 
>that I can think of is in the undamped high treble.

Damping is a different issue. It's sustain in the sense of how the 
notes decay and how long that process takes.

John's comments that ...
>1) As an example, just a couple of weeks ago I was performing with a 
>flautist on a Baldwin SF10 which had an unusual amount of sustain. 
>Although pianists are used to varying playing techniques with 
>different pianos, the increased sustain on this piano caused some 
>interpretative problems which had no solution, no matter how 
>creatively one may approach it.
>
>It seems to me the nature of the piano to have a certain amount of 
>limited sustain. Varying degrees are certainly acceptable, and maybe 
>that's what everyone is talking about. Too little is as bad as too 
>much.

... echo the musical interpretive problems encountered, for instance, 
when playing classical repertoire originally written for fortepianos, 
on a modern beast. Too much sustain in this sense is "much more 
sustain than originally present on the instrument for which the music 
was conceived". This musical issue relates to articulation, how the 
"spaces" between the notes are utilized. Precisely why classical 
fortepiano repertoire sounds nothing like the original conception 
when played on a modern piano, regardless of how the pianist attempts 
to get around the problem of too much sustain. Also why Beethoven is 
not a good choice to show off the merits of the Stuart piano. It's 
all in the articulation.

Imagine a piano that had infinite sustain. It would be an organ. Is 
that a viable musical instrument to play the piano repertoire? I 
don't think so. "Too much sustain" is a value judgement that 
ulitimately has to relate back to the musical interpretive issues. 
Like shoes....one size fits all is definitely not the answer. Neither 
is "make them so big that anyone can fit into them".

Stephen
-- 
Dr Stephen Birkett, Associate Professor
Department of Systems Design Engineering
University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON Canada N2L 3G1
Director, Waterloo Piano Systems Group
Associate Member, Piano Technician's Guild

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