Kissin Review/concert prep

[Horace Greeley]

Fred,

This is great!  I don't think you lost focus in the slightest.  All of 
these things are important components in the relative "transparency" of a 
given instrument.

Your comments on dampers are dead on.  This is something which is 
all-too-often overlooked.  Dampers are scary, just by their very 
nature.  Keeping them well regulated is, perhaps, even more difficult than 
setting them up to begin with.  Of the different classes I have seen from 
S&S in recent years, the hands-down best is the damper class that Scott 
Jones used to teach.  Even there, the lack of consistency of manufacture 
took him a while to build constructively into the presentation.

Part of the problem, too, is that, even after one turns one's self into a 
pretzel doing all this stuff, the number of performers who can actually 
take advantage of the work is very small.  This is one advantage to doing 
college/university work, as the relative percentage of folks who can 
perceive and make use of the differences is arguably larger than in the 
public at large...definitely helps one stay focused  (to steal a phrase).

Best.

Horace



At 12:41 PM 1/5/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>I'd like to add a couple of observations to this conversation concerning 
>what is required of a piano in a high level performance situation.
>
>1) A very important factor is the ability of the pianist to create 
>multiple voices simultaneously, _audibly_. In its most  fundamental form, 
>this is simply "banging out the melody" so it appears clearly in the 
>foreground above an accompaniment. Slightly more complex, and much more 
>difficult from the point of view of execution, is the ability to bring out 
>one individual note of a large chord, typically an octave with at least 
>two additional inner notes, all played with one hand. Somehow, one finger 
>of the hand (usually the pinkie) must behave in such a way that the note 
>it plays is clearly heard above the rest.  And on a more sophisticated 
>scale, there is the creation of background/foreground/middle ground, often 
>with two or three melodic lines appearing in the midst of it all.
>         The point I want to make here is that it must be possible to make 
> one note stand out above others with a minimum of extra exertion - that 
> pinkie in the large chord is capable of only so much; and that "standing 
> out" is really more of an issue of voice/tone than decible level. It is 
> timbre that allows an oboe to cut through a sea of violins in a way that 
> the concertmaster finds very hard to match.
>
>2) In addition, though related, the piano should offer a wide tonal 
>palette. The voicing spectrum of a hammer should have both dynamic and 
>coloristic range: one should not aim for a single color at all dynamic 
>levels. One should not aim for pure and unadulterated "beeauutiful" tone 
>quality at all dynamic levels. The "estridente" "picante" and even the 
>plain loud, jangling and ugly all have their place. And though there 
>should be no sudden changes in timbre along the scale, there should be 
>distinction between tenor and bass, mid treble and high treble. Not monochrome.
>
>I look at the problem as one of providing a wide and varied palette (not 
>just pastels, not just shades of, say, reds or browns), together with 
>control and consistency. Change of color should be capable of being 
>produced by fairly small difference in "touch" (as perceived by the 
>pianist, but read acceleration/velocity from a physicist point of 
>view).  Voicing is only a part of the puzzle. Capo zings and sizzles and 
>duplex noise have a lot of importance in allowing a voice to be brought to 
>the fore, and to giving it different color.
>         And it is difficult to over-emphasize the role of extraordinarily 
> fine damper adjustment. It's not just a matter of "half-pedal" versus 
> "full-pedal." There are many gradations from a bare lift (dampers really 
> still in contact with strings, but not bearing down: bleeding), to wide 
> open. And many other techniques, including momentary "bouncing" on the 
> strings to clear mid and higher tones but sustain a bass harmonic 
> pedal.  All these require that trichords be trimmed, that dampers lift 
> exquisitely evenly with the pedal, and that felts be in good condition, 
> among other factors.
>
>But I'm beginning to ramble and lose focus. I'd better stop while I'm 
>ahead (if I am).
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm
>University of New Mexico