[CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights

[Fred Sturm]

On Mar 2, 2011, at 9:20 PM, Keith Roberts wrote:

> So increasing the action ration and using a lighter hammer can  
> deliver waaay more force to the strings.


	Obviously within some limits.
	But something just as important as how much force is delivered to the  
string is what happens to the hammer felt during the impact. The felt  
itself is like a spring, and becomes harder on impact. The more  
velocity in the impact, the more the felt compacts, becomes hard.  
Harder felt means more higher partials.  So the wider the range of  
velocities you can achieve, the more variety of felt hardnesses you  
can achieve. In practical terms, a higher ratio action with lighter,  
softer hammers can achieve a greater range of tone color.
	Power is important per se, but I'd say tone color is more important.  
Piano tone is special because it changes timbre from soft to loud. The  
addition of more upper partials to the mix as it gets louder is what  
gives piano music its character. What we hear as "louder" is not so  
much more sound pressure (decibels) as a change in tone color, or  
rather the two things put together. If all that happens is increased  
decibel level, it takes a whole lot more change to be noticeable, and  
the sound produced by one hammer can't be very easily distinguished  
from other sounds produced at the same time by other hammers.
	That is where the smoke and mirrors of the pianist comes from.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu