It's Alive!!!!

David M. Porritt dm.porritt@verizon.net
Wed, 3 Dec 2003 13:01:29 -0600


Ed:

Do you have a lot of "randy dowagers" attending concerts in Nashville?

dave


__________________________________________
David M. Porritt, RPT
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275


----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <caut@ptg.org>
Received: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 13:51:37 EST
Subject: Re: It's Alive!!!!

>>>Comments like, "It is stiffer".  Is all too often tone 
>related.   >>

>    I agree, and I will also go out on a limb here and say that the majority 
>of professionals that like hard hammers do so because they have a narrow view 
>of tone. They don't think in terms of changing a note's spectrum by dint of 
>force, but, rather, how loud or soft the note is.  To these same people, "Color" 
>is contrasting volume, not changing in the harmonic "envelope" to favor more 
>or less high partials in the note.   It is the "Volume", not "Tone",  control 
>that their fingers are glued to.   Passages are soft or loud, and by using all 
>points in between they appear to be nuance-sensitive and musically complex.  
>At no time will the performer have to strain to get all there is in perceived 
>"power".   
>    However, there is a musical dimension missing with so little change in 
>the actual tone between pp and FF. IMHO, what is missing are the more complex 
>results from hammers that offer a full palette of tone to accompany the volume.  
>Who cares?  (that is a rhetorical question!)    As the world continues moving 
>ever further into hard, edgy pianos, those that recognize the difference and 
>know why are few and far between.  Many don't listen to the piano, they listen 
>to the artist, or the music, etc. They aren't focussed on the same thing we 
>are.  
>    When the swash-buckling, hired-gun, piano-slinger shows up for the 
>concert, the lively, hot-rod piano is usually the one of choice because it doesn't 
>ask for a lot of work out of the artist,  it's easy to play.  That the sound is 
>thin out in the hall often doesn't matter to the artist, but the tuner in the 
>audience that knows a harsh piano when he hears one will be less impressed 
>than the randy dowager sitting in the front row wishing that swooning was still 
>in vogue so she could make her pitch.  
> 
>Regards, 
>Ed Foote RPT 
>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
> <A HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
>MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>
>_______________________________________________
>caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives



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