[CAUT] tone and pitch

[Laurence Libin]

Would raising pitch from 440 to, say, 442 appreciably change tone color? Or, 
at what pitch differentials, sharp or flat, would change become apparent, 
both to pianist and average listener? And would change become apparent 
across the compass all at once or first in one range?
Laurence

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu>
To: <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] tone color


> 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
>