It's Alive!!!!

[A440A@aol.com]

>>Comments like, "It is stiffer".  Is all too often tone 
related.   >>

    I agree, and I will also go out on a limb here and say that the majority 
of professionals that like hard hammers do so because they have a narrow view 
of tone. They don't think in terms of changing a note's spectrum by dint of 
force, but, rather, how loud or soft the note is.  To these same people, "Color" 
is contrasting volume, not changing in the harmonic "envelope" to favor more 
or less high partials in the note.   It is the "Volume", not "Tone",  control 
that their fingers are glued to.   Passages are soft or loud, and by using all 
points in between they appear to be nuance-sensitive and musically complex.  
At no time will the performer have to strain to get all there is in perceived 
"power".   
    However, there is a musical dimension missing with so little change in 
the actual tone between pp and FF. IMHO, what is missing are the more complex 
results from hammers that offer a full palette of tone to accompany the volume.  
Who cares?  (that is a rhetorical question!)    As the world continues moving 
ever further into hard, edgy pianos, those that recognize the difference and 
know why are few and far between.  Many don't listen to the piano, they listen 
to the artist, or the music, etc. They aren't focussed on the same thing we 
are.  
    When the swash-buckling, hired-gun, piano-slinger shows up for the 
concert, the lively, hot-rod piano is usually the one of choice because it doesn't 
ask for a lot of work out of the artist,  it's easy to play.  That the sound is 
thin out in the hall often doesn't matter to the artist, but the tuner in the 
audience that knows a harsh piano when he hears one will be less impressed 
than the randy dowager sitting in the front row wishing that swooning was still 
in vogue so she could make her pitch.  
 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
 <A HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>