Modern Tone II, the Return of the Question

[David Andersen]

> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
> 4. For those with limited experience and little opportunitity to mentor w=
ith
> someone, terms like "large, dark, powerful, clear, and throaty, with roar=
 and
> snap at double or triple forte, but NEVER clangy or distorted" just leave=
 one
> guessing as to what they mean. I assume that "dark" means power in the lo=
wer
> partials not overshadowed by the higher ones (?) but I'd be guessing abou=
t
> that "roar and snap" thing. This isn't to criticize David's description,
> merely to point out the difficulties and frustrations of communicating se=
nsory
> perceptions through verbage. I've watch Roger Jolly and Ari Issac do some
> voicing and marveled at what they can do and how well they do it. But eve=
n
> trying, in person, to demonstrate and teach voicing to a room full of peo=
ple
> seems very challenging: "See, the sound is now a broad 'Ohhhhh' instead o=
f an
> "Ehhhhh and it sits higher against on the shelf."  (Made part of that up =
....
> sorry)
> =20
> I think it's like people describing wines without giving you a sip: Yes, =
and
> this vintage is drier than a moselle, slightly nutty, with just a hint of=
 the
> vine not revealed in the bouqet unless consumed at midnight in a graveyar=
d
> while holding a dead cat.
> =20
> Alan R. Barnard
> Always Studyin' but Not Always Gettin' It in Salem, MO

My friend---I=B9m just trying to give words to an aural phenomenon, and it=B9s
tough, but that=B9s what =B3developing a tonal memory=B2 means: developing an
internal sense of how a piano is =B3supposed=B2 to sound at all volume and
attack levels. If you played the concert grands that Dale Erwin and I
brought to the Sacramento PTG Convention, I can say that both of those
pianos are in the ballpark of what most artists, technicians, and serious
listeners would describe as achieving the sonority of the 40=B9s and 50=B9s
pianos---powerful and clear, without distortion or a brittle quality. There
I go again :--)

The CDs I mentioned in an earlier post are a good indication of what I=B9m
trying to put in words. If we=B9d met in Sacramento, I would have given you a
CD that I had a few copies of there---an amazing young jazz player named
Tamir Hendelman, playing trio versions of Christmas songs on a 1923 long A
my shop rebuilt.  That piano is a touch brighter, but sounds like a Bill
Evans record, which nearly always had imeccably tuned and voiced pianos.

It=B9s a lifetime of listening and learning.  I still feel like a rank novice
a lot of the time.
Voicing is a noble challenge. It demands that so many things about the pian=
o
be right.
When you become passionate about the voice of the instrument, your
toleration of unregulated and unprepared pianos becomes slimmer and slimmer=
,
and your business changes. This coming week, 4 of the 5 days are one long
day, or 2 long days, with a good grand piano. It wasn=B9t like that 6 or 7
years ago; it was much more tuning 3 or 4 pianos a day. As my ears have
grown, my practice has grown and improved.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/35/86/32/b9/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--