[CAUT] Gradually improving voicing

Erwinspiano@aol.com Erwinspiano@aol.com
Wed, 12 Jan 2005 09:49:59 EST


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Sorry It's Jeff, My aplogies.
     I Have also Had the experience you  listed in the bottom of this post 
but only once. & I'll  contribute it mostly to Nervous artist syndrome for only  
the pianist thought he wasn't getting enough sound at the keyboard in  the  
MJC rectal that was  somewhat lacking in acoustic enhancement.( But I  am 
talking D & not M as was in your case & I think that would give many  -concert 
players a dis- advantaged feel if they were indeed used to a  bigger sound for the 
music they prepped for). I think some halls can suck the  sound away from the 
piano as did this one. Partly because of that and the  placement of the piano 
too far back from the front of the stage.
  .  Any way  am very familiar with the D  I refer to.  (mine). 
  Many had played it prior to this occasion  & In fact the sound the 
audiuence was experiencing was GIGANTIC . It  was enormously satisfying to hear that 
much of the piano & I like big noisy  pieces.The concert artist was playing a 
huge all Russian music program. He  played with SO much force his nails 
completely destroyed the finish on the front  of the fall board. He did everything he 
told his Master class that day not to  do. ie keep ones bottom on the 
bench,don't pound,dont' stomp foot etc.  I refinished the fall board later $300.00
 At intermission he opted to finish his  program on a newish B that had the 
sound of shattering glass. Very typical  linear Steinway sound with hammers 
that had too much lacquer.
      The rest of his Performance was  glassy & empty sounding compared to 
the D he started out on & this is  the opinion of many others including music 
teachers. 
  The applause at intermission was spontaneous &  warm. At the end it was 
obligitaory for Vladamir had shot himself in the foot  with the my home town 
crowd by switching horses mid  stream
  So here is another "depends on" to add to the  mix
  And that's the rest of the story
   Dale
    

On  Monday, January 10, 2005, at 04:15 PM, Erwinspiano@aol.com  wrote:

>  HI Jason

Jeff?

>   SO,what  you're saying is if the piano has no power at the keyboard  
>  it can still fill a large hall?

Just to clarify, no, that's not what I  meant.  I was addressing your 
statement:

> the thing I  learned first was that in order for a D to project ,& have 
>  color & susutain it must be voiced so that sitting at the piano 
>  it will  literally Roar at you.

I only meant that just  because the artist can't hear the piano, doesn't 
mean it isn't projecting  well into the hall.  You have no argument from 
me that if the artist  perceives the instrument as weak that that is 
when you get the  complaints.  But I think it is often the deceptiveness 
of the hall,  or the placement of the piano in relation to acoustic 
projection  installations which brings on complaints, rather than the 
instrument  itself.

I tuned for a performance at a local church Friday.  The  piano was a 
1966 Steinway M that I'd never seen before, and if you asked  me it had 
been tuned all its life and that's about it.  The pianist  felt she had 
to really work to make the piano project because she couldn't  hear from 
the keyboard what was being projected up out and away from  her.  The 
regulation was terribly uneven and the voicing was  worse.  I would have 
needed about 3 days with that piano to make her  comfortable.  Out in 
the room, however, which was pretty large for an  M, but had excellent 
acoustics, the piano was booming and had a lovely  tone quality from pp 
to ffff.  Sounded more like a B or a D -- plenty  of piano for that very 
large room.  The piano sounded much better  when she backed off and 
didn't work so hard.  Thankfully, her husband  (also a pianist) was also 
there to console her and coach her towards that  direction.

I think this isn't such an uncommon  scenario.

Jeff


 

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