soft, bass trill regulation

[William Ballard]

At 6:29 PM -0500 8/29/05, Barbara Richmond wrote:
>Barring any fault with the pianist (or not), would there be 
>something about the regulation of the notes that would make trilling 
>down there at pianissimo more (or less) successful?  I'd welcome 
>both comments on pianistic technique and an analysis of what in 
>regulation would help or hinder the performance.

We all know what the action needs to deliver deep/fast repetition. 
The matter which Barbrie and I were exploring offlist was with an 
action thus regulated, at what point as a trill became quieter and 
quieter, would it fail because the momentum of parts (the hammers in 
particular) required for trilling had dropped below a minimum 
threshold. A similar minimum threshold as the quietest note you can 
play on a given note.

Una Corda pedaling can enhance the impression of quiet notes simply 
by the at-a-distance quality it imparts, and the sustain pedal can 
certainly smooth over the momentary absence of a tone which fails to 
sound during the course of a trill. But we were exploring strictly 
how the mechanical process of the trill would be affected by the fact 
that a quieter sound was requiring that the hammer move slower. And 
further, how the regulation might be tweaked to help out.

The answer probably lies, as Barbrie suggested, with someone who can 
actually trill. They would be able to resolve a preliminary matter of 
whether such a peculiar trill would be best executed at the top of 
the keystroke instead of the bottom. There's a clear trade off here 
between the reliability of repetition at the top of the stroke 
(because the jack never escapes), and the reliability of speaking at 
the bottom of the stroke (where the hammer is always operating within 
1/4" of the string). But neither she or I was willing to bet where a 
quiet trill was best done.

(Of the two of us, she is the one who trills.) Anyone else here who 
was on the high school trill team?

Mr. Bill

"I'll play it and tell you what it is later...."
     ...........Miles Davis
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