John Hartman wrote: > A light hammer moving at a faster speed could have the equivalent > force upon impact with the string as a heavier hammer moving > slower. > David Stanwood replied: > Theoretically it would seem it could. The reality is, it doesn't. > The single most important conclusion of my years of studies is that > a heavier hammer moving more slowly creates more tone than a lighter > hammer moving faster. > The single most important characteristic of the action/hammer/string system is its *nonlinearity*. This is what accounts for many of the most interesting properties of the piano. Intuition is not a good thought process for nonlinear problems because of the natural inclination of most people to think linearly...presumably something to do with our `linear-biased' education. Equating heavy/slow and light/fast is fundamentally wrong because it assumes linear relationships as you might expect in a ballistics problem. The tonal spectrum produced by a fast hammer is quite different from that produced by a slower hammer, regardless of the mass. Question for D.S...what do you mean by `more tone' above? Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos) Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos Waterloo, Ontario, Canada tel: 519-885-2228 fax: 519-763-4686
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