[CAUT] tone color

[Fred Sturm]

On Feb 24, 2011, at 4:16 PM, Douglas Wood wrote:

> Back to a different vocabulary. I'd like to suggest that we are not  
> responsible for the color. That's between the player and the piano.  
> Musician's responsibility. I take the position that what I do only  
> makes the player's job easier (or harder, hopefully not--this is  
> where limiting the piano can be so dismaying to some of them). It is  
> NOT my job to "make the tone". I'm maximizing access to the tone.  
> Then the player can find what he/she wants.


	I heartily endorse this attitude. We do influence the overall tone  
quality of the piano, but our aim should not be so much to "create a  
tone" as to "create a palette." The palette needs to have both pastels  
and brilliant, garish colors, and a full spectrum in between  
(controllable). The pianist uses the palette to do any number of  
possibilities, including creating a garish, ugly sound. But the  
opportunity is there to use the more brilliant "colors" as accents, or  
to create mixtures in all proportions.
	So I think the most important thing to emphasize in talking about  
voicing is that every single hammer must have an even voicing  
gradient. The mix of partials must rise in each and every one  
(obviously it is a smaller range at the very top). That is a far  
better concept to use than the aim of evening everything out at X, Y  
and Z levels of power. Yes, it needs to be even, but you have to  
create the foundation of the rising gradient. Which means in practical  
terms that you look at the hammer set as your friend (don't attack  
it), and assume, as is likely, that it starts out in a even state.  
Hence, you primarily do precisely the same thing to every single  
hammer, graduated by size of hammer.
	But the element of hammer string contact is king, when it comes to  
consistency of voice over a range of force, and that part of the  
foundation is critical.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
"I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played."  
Schnabel