Referencing my email (amended) of 12/28: At HSU I treated both the old and the new sustenuto much the same and find corroberation with Ed Sutton but with two reservations, set the sustenuto a comfortable distance above damper pedal lift and below full key dip and limit the rotation of the sus. rod/blade ( to approximately 45° to 55°) to barely but positively catch the sus. tab on the damper.) Which in my experience at HSU worked on all S&S and Mason & Hamlins with either semi/rigid or pivoted tabs* being used in serious piano work whether or not the pianist was that advanced. I would find one in 40 including faculty who would complain about the new as it came from the factory and recieved no complaints with the old rigid tab type of adjustment which did require a little more care in the adjustment and maintenance. Thanks for Ed Suttons contribution, Dan Gurnee *But for the extra care/work on the old style, I prefered that old style partly because it could not operate with amature pedal work if adjusted in the new style. sustenuto adjustment: (CAUT 12/28/08) The new sustenuto pivoted/sprung tabs make adjustment easier than the old semi rigid tabs which were adjusted so that the sustain pedal would raise the tabs less than the key rise of the tabs so that: When a damper is held up with the sustenuto and the sustain pedal is pressed, the sustenuto tabs lifted by the sustain pedal do not reach the sustenuto blade. The sustenuto blade catches only the tab held up by the key slightly but positively and misses the rest tabs because they are not high enough even with damper pedal lift. The blade should pivot no higher than 90° and sometimes less and on return should miss the tabs lifted by the sustain pedal or gently brush by them. The key/damper lift is limited by the damper up stop and the sustenuto will push the damper lever into the up stop felt. Many pianos with the pivoted individual sustenuto tabs can be misadjusted so that the sustenuto blade may (by reaching 90° or more ) have a time getting past the raised damper tabs. The solution may be to first limit the pivot the pedal blade to 90° or less and possibly move the blade in its entirety either way to a little more than barely catch the damper sustenuto tabs. Dan Gurnee RPT, HSU Retired On Dec 30, 2008, at 10:53 AM, Ed Sutton wrote: > Fred, > > So, to hedge your bets, you would set the dampers to lift as early > as acceptable on the key, then set the damper pedal to stop lifting > as low as possible, i.e. make the difference as great as possible > between key and pedal lift. Then set the sostenuto to catch as high > as possible, when the key is fully depressed, and not very far in > toward the belly rail. Thus, hopefully minimizing the snapping tabs > when the sostenuto is released, and also minimizing the chance of > accidentally catching all the tabs when the damper pedal is depressed. > > This would work, unless there is a requirement to catch all dampers > with the sostenuto when the damper pedal is pressed. > > (Am I repeating something someone already wrote?) > > Ed > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu> > To: "Ed Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com>; <caut at ptg.org> > Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 1:29 PM > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Sostenuto > > >> On Dec 29, 2008, at 8:34 PM, Ed Sutton wrote: >> >>> What I am trying to imagine is what possible musical effect could >>> be accomplished by releasing the sostenuto pedal while holding >>> down the damper pedal? >> >> Apart from the nice percussive effect (the sort of thing somebody >> at CalArts might come up with <G>)? >> If you want to change the dampers being held by the sostenuto - >> change of harmony - and retain the connection of overall tone via >> the full damper pedal, it sure would be nice. Maintaining >> connection of sound becomes a very tricky, rapid fire change of >> two pedals simultaneously/one ever so slightly before the other. >> You play the new bass octave (or whatever), lift both pedals, >> press the sostenuto, press the damper pedal, all in the time of a >> 16th note. Or so it goes in some music I play. I certainly >> understand the desire, if only it could be made to work. If your >> timing is off ever so little, the sostenuto doesn't catch the >> right dampers. If it could have been released ahead, it would be >> easier to do the timing. >> Regards, >> Fred Sturm >> University of New Mexico >> fssturm at unm.edu >> > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20081230/550f1f88/attachment-0001.html>
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