[CAUT] tone and pitch

[Andrew Anderson]

On some pianos with a weak "killer octave", it will make things  
worse.  I maintain a D that is poorly balanced across the compass.   
Moving it down to 440 from 442 really opened up the tone.   Pretty  
obvious to the pianist as well.

Andrew Anderson

On Feb 25, 2011, at 11:56 AM, Laurence Libin wrote:

> 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
>