[CAUT] tight balancier - (Ed Foote)

[David Skolnik]

At 02:50 PM 11/10/2006, Ed Foote wrote:

>The feeling of the tail hitting the backcheck will be missing from the key,
>and repetition power will suffer because under fast repetition there is
>virtually no blow distance.  Very few pianists can play extremely 
>rapdily at ppp
>level!
>    Repetition depends on how fast the key returns and how far it has to go.
>It is instructive to compare the key return speed between two adjacent white
>keys.  Play one firmly enough to go into check, and slowly lift the other so
>that it doesn't.  Release both keys at the same time and observe 
>that the checked
>key will come up much faster.  However, the unchecked key has much less
>distance to travel before the jack is reset.
>        If the hammer doesn't check, but rather, stays up at the drop level,
>you may have fast repetition but little power.


Dear Ed -
As you may know -
>There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There 
>are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we 
>don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we 
>don't know we don't know.

So, what do we know?  At this point, I feel like I only know what I 
can see in some nifty high-speed video.  As I reread you post above, 
I found myself doing the unthinkable..questioning!  (Please note: 
this is not meant as retribution for uncovering my earlier mis-think; 
this is an opportunity for me to commit some new ones.)

You say that there is no blow distance in fast repetition, and thus, 
no power, presumably speaking of soft dynamic, but what power would 
you be looking for at p or pp or ppp.?  You say that very few 
pianists can play fast repetition at ppp, but isn't that just as 
likely a limitation of the pianos they are performing on?  After all, 
in concert performance, what really constitutes p or pp or, heavans, 
ppp ?  In a hall, even those dynamics need to project.  There would 
seem to be a meaningful "mechanical pianissimo potential"(MPP) which 
exceeds what a pianist would normally try to employ in a performance.

You say that under fast repetition there is no blow distance, again, 
presumably referring to piano dynamic, but, of course, a fast 
repletion produced at forte will have considerable blow distance. In 
both cases, am I correct in thinking that there is NO hammer checking 
taking place?  The more I think about this, the more intensely I feel 
the need to "go to the videotape".  I could not discern anything from 
trying the key release experiment you described.  Maybe it's bad lighting?

Lastly, with regard to a quote from a different post -

>Alicia
>de La Roccha played Ravel on a piano I had set up with jacks pinned 
>like this,
>and told the stage manager it was the first time she had ever found a piano
>that needed nothing but tuning.)

If you're that good, why did it even need tuning? =D> (don't answer this!)


Regards -

David Skolnik
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