HammerWt/Tone

[Stephen Birkett]

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