Fred: I think you're dab on. I also think that the sociology of piano sound, that is, the "accepted" sound of a piano has changed so radically since the early years of the 20th century largely due to the influence of hammer types which have drifted toward harder, denser, more brilliant, and more piercing. The Oriental influence is most notable in this regard. What we find "acceptable" piano sound now is more Yamaha-ish, Imadegawa-ish, than M&H or Dolge hammers. What composers heard as they composed would be, I think, largely unrecognizable as the pianos for which they wrote. As you say, this doesn't condemn the modern piano, or the modern sound, but it does make one think, and maybe wish for a bit more spectrum bandwidth. :-) Paul In a message dated 4/15/2009 7:25:13 P.M. Central Daylight Time, fssturm at unm.edu writes: I think there is a lot to learn from the 19th century, which was, after all, the century of the piano composer - most of the standard rep comes from that period. Brahms played a Graf he got from Clara Schumann for much of his life, which can give a sense of proportion. What I am thinking of is the whole picture: amount of energy in versus sound out; ease of making various voices in various registers stand out from one another; degree of difference in timbre versus finger technique (how much "effort" to make a difference). I think there is a whole world of sound and expressiveness out there that earlier pianos had and modern ones don't. This doesn't mean modern ones are bad, it just means that they are limited to a particular spectrum of sound and performance, and the loss is a real shame. **************Great deals on Dell’s most popular laptops – Starting at $479 (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220631252x1201390195/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213968550%3B35701427%3Bh) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090415/ff1285e2/attachment-0001.html>
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