The modern piano sound is produced for this research by a Steinway Concert D piano made in Hamburg Germany in 2005, No 574500 and is identified throughout the paper with the acronym (STE).
The Stuart sound is produced by the 2.9m Stuart concert piano No19, made in Newcastle, Australia in 2002, and is given the acronym (M19,STU) throughout this paper. At the time of this writing (2015), there had been 58 Stuart pianos built since 1995. The ‘M’ in the Stuart acronym is the grade of Paulello strings used for the notes examined on this particular instrument.
Wayne Stuart’s Ethos.
Throughout this research period I met regularly with Wayne Stuart at his Stuart & Sons factory in Newcastle, north of Sydney, to discuss his general design ethos. The conversations were almost always about the Stuart & Sons design and sound, in comparison to the traditional standardised modern pianos’ design and sound.Being initially inexperienced with the Stuart piano concepts of design the comparative discussions were probably for my benefit. It therefore seemed logical that my study should take a similar path to the discussions and present a detailed comparison of both piano designs. At these meetings I would often play one of the Stuart pianos and occasionally under Wayne Stuart’s supervision, I would record a composition written specifically for his piano design.Of special interest to the maker, was in how his extended frequency range of the 102 key pianos was utilised in the compositions.
The discussions with Wayne Stuart showed me how valuable his words are to this study, so with ethical clearance from Sydney University and granted permission from Stuart,his wordsare featured throughout this paper. I stored and compiled Stuart’s words by recording the conversations and reiterating finer points with him in follow up emails.16 I also obtained the ethical clearance to interview four piano technicians,and one other local piano maker, Ron Overs.These other interviews were valuable to the study as they represented a secondary enquiry into the same design topics I had already discussed with Wayne Stuart. Interviewing others about the same issues helped me realise the main points of difference in the contrasting piano design philosophies. The main topics of discussion were, string coupling to the soundboard, down bearing, thickness and mass of the soundboard, projection of sound, string scaling tensions, string length, types of piano wire, the Stuart 4th pedal, and the extended frequency ranges of the Stuart keyboard compass.
The Stuart piano’s string coupling application to the bridge and soundboard presents its most significant change to the modern piano design. The Stuart design employs a bridge agraffe for the coupling of the piano strings at the bridge, maintaining the strings’ straight line which is fundamentally different to the standardized ‘pinned’ string attachment of the modern piano.The Stuart piano uses the 21st century technological advancements in steel wire manufacture of Stephen Paulello, enabling the expansion of
16See Appendix 7 to view the ethical clearance approval letters from Sydney University to interview Piano Technicians about the Stuart Piano design and sound.
