[CAUT] Just how much brilliance can a pianist make ?

[Fred Sturm]

On Aug 23, 2008, at 4:36 AM, Richard Brekne wrote:

> That said, and interesting as the above contrast is, I am really  
> most interested in hearing more on the lines of just how strong a  
> pianist needs to be to get the most out of an instrument. If Jeff  
> Tanners post is representative... then it strikes me that there is  
> something else going on then just the velocity / momentum of the  
> hammer.  Jeff is probably no overly light handed person yet he  
> reports a heavy weighter being able to induce a buzz that no one  
> else could... that would seem to indicate that very very strong  
> hands can indeed get more volume/energy out of the instrument then  
> less strong hands.  Yet the physical limitations as I understand  
> them... and as has been discussed several times here and on  
> pianotech would seem to prohibit this.


	I've had an experience similar to Jeff's. A musician in the orchestra  
(who is a friend and fellow piano technician) told me something must  
be wrong with the piano, as he had heard some very strange noises from  
the bass in a Liszt concerto performance. He had a CD of the  
performance (they record them all for private use), and, sure enough,  
there were some "strange noises." I played those same notes, and was  
unable to reproduce them. Obviously the pianist had played harder than  
I am willing to (and I am not a shy pianist).
	There isn't really any limit to how hard a pianist can pound the  
keys. I guess until parts start to break (the hammer flange at the  
centerpin and drop screw is usually first to go - from practice room  
experience). But what sound does that produce? Brilliance? I don't  
think so. At a certain point, "noise" outweighs identifiable musical  
tone. Hammer impact, key to keybed impact, and distortion from  
whatever happens to the string - which we can only guess at until  
maybe Stephen Birkett documents it on high speed film. You can only  
drive the strings so far and have the results be useful musically.
	The physique of a pianist is usually quite strong enough to go beyond  
what the piano will take. For a young man, this is doubly true. The  
young man will tend to listen with his fingers more than with his ears  
in many cases - an imaginary sound, not actually what is happening  
physically. Trying to play a loud passage so that the melody (or  
whatever is supposed to be most prominent) stands out from the rest:  
just keep banging the keys you want to hear harder and harder, trying  
to bring it out. A more mature pianist realizes that this doesn't  
actually work. That the only way to get a full, fortissimo sound with  
definition of a melodic line is by bringing down the volume level of  
everything else. You find out what the limit is for recognizable  
musical volume on the notes you want to have stand out, and then you  
voice (with your fingers/hands) everything else below that level. It  
is counterintuitive, as it means that in a fff passage you are playing  
the bass at mf perhaps (and it says clearly on the score fff, so that  
means pound as hard as you can, doesn't it?).
	So I would tend to come down on the side of saying that a pianist  
can, and many will, push the piano past what is usable, but there are  
limits to what is usable. There is a definite limit, though the line  
is fuzzy depending on taste. There is no limit, though, on how much  
energy can be pounded into the system (well, not strictly true, but  
true enough for our purposes). The best voiced piano can be made to  
sound horrible. Sad, but true.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu