Deep River Bridge :

The bridge is played in the same register on both pianos. The ‘rounder’ tone of the Stuart is more obvious in comparison to the ‘brighter’ sounding Steinway. Several written comments were critical of the Stuart sound, using attributes, ‘muffled’ and ‘muddy’ to describe the sound. Another more complimentary comment described the Stuart sound as – ‘deep and rich like listening to vinyl’.
The two accentuated ‘F’ chords sound to be more successfully balanced and sustained on the Steinway, possibly a pianistic error of chordal balance, whilst playing the Stuart.

The upper notes of the chord are heard more clearly in the chords played on the Steinway at fortissimo. The notes in the bass registers of the Stuart chord respond more to the fortissimo than the treble notes in the chord. Here perhaps the overall brightness of the Steinway tone is enabling a clearer presentation of the chord at fortissimo. Achieving a good resonance of closely voiced chords played at fortissimo in the higher registers on the Stuart piano could possibly require a different weight pressure on the notes within the chord, than is being applied in this extract. Chapter four closely examines the resonances of single notes, whereas a test on the resonance of chords would be a useful follow up study.

A comment in response to pianist’s sound of concert 6:

Steinway is conventional and immediately recognizable. But can hear more detail with the Stuart. But I think the Steinway is more expressive. I think we are socialized to expect a more prominent melody than Stuart can deliver. While the pianist is the most important ingredient, the Stuart is the more expansive of the two. ³⁵¹

This comment from concert No 6, offers a participant’s description of the Stuart sound not projecting melody notes as clearly as the Steinway. The top note, i.e. melody note, of the chordal texture of the Stuart sound in the previous extract of ‘Deep River’ was not as clearly heard as when the Steinway was played. Pianistic interpretation, style and the room acoustic cannot be ruled out as influences of this difference in tonal balance. At concert No 4, in the larger venue, the Stuart piano was heard to sound extremely clear balanced melodic and chordal textures.

Deep River Melody prt 3 and final vamp

Played at pianissimo, the Stuart sound has a more ‘percussive’ onset. A wider dynamic range in volume and harmonic spectra is exhibited here in the Stuart sound. The sound analysis in chapter four found that more harmonics were present in the onset of the Stuart sound, which contributed to the more percussive edge to the front of the sound, and also a faster onset rate of decay. (see Chapter four).

³⁵¹Survey response, written comment – qu.11 & 12 concert No 6, participant No 47.