[CAUT] Steinway "sound"

[David Love]

While I agree with this generally and also have experienced the effects
first hand I have to add a caution about throwing the baby out with the
bath, so to speak.  Because there are so many different elements
incorporated into these redesigns and each element can be executed in a
variety of ways, I think it would be a mistake to conclude that any redesign
will result in what is implied below-a loss of power, carry and range.
While some of the redesign elements by their nature lean in that direction
in an attempt to gain control over certain undesirable tonal outcomes, it's
not necessarily the case that the overall effect will be a perception of,
say, power loss.  But when you start adding up the collective impact of
these elements that are incorporated, then in spite of what seems like good
reasoning, you definitely can end up with something a bit too far removed
from expectations or, in this case, very clean and controlled but lacking a
broad enough range of expression.  So as I see it, it's not just the design
elements themselves, but the combinations employed, the degree to which each
is incorporated and also the specific executions.  Each element needs to be
looked at not only in terms of what it does by itself, but how it might
affect the overall outcome when combined with other elements.  It's not
simple, where the line gets crossed is not obvious in the design stage, and
there is also some leeway, at least in my experience.  But as I mentioned,
it's very easy to get caught up in the logic of the design element(s) and
forget about the overall impact from the standpoint of the broad range of
expected and desirable musical expression (DAMHIK).  The goal of musical
expression has to come first.   And that sentence has finally gotten
tattooed on my frontal lobe.  

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

 

            I think I might go a little farther than that, particularly with
respect to concert instruments. There is really a base line expectation in
terms of power, carry and range for most concert situations of any size at
all. A colleague of mine sent a 9 foot off for a remanufacture/redesign of
this ilk (elements described by David Love and by me in previous posts), and
got back what he described as a very nice 6 foot piano in a 9 foot case.
Playing it myself, I had to agree with his assessment. This is not a unique
case, as I have heard from a few others, privately, of similar instances.

            So I think there is a real danger, in pursuing improvements to
design, with the best will in the world and based on what seem to be
incontestable principles, that the results of the whole may not only fall
short of expectations, but actually constitute a step backwards.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm at unm.edu

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape
it." Brecht

 

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