Subtle tone duration control; small variations of loudness from tone to tone; lifting the melody above the accompaniment; loudness and timing differences of the notes of a chord; the percussive component given by the ‘thump’ sound of the keys as they hit the stop rail.360
Supporting the pianists’ argument, A.Askenfelt’s tests have found a connection between types of pianistic touch and hammer movement361 and A. Galembo’s studies have found that pianists more accurately identify a ‘make’ of piano kinesthetically, through the touch and the tactile senses of pianos’ key and action mechanism, than by listening to the sound of the piano out of sight, in a performance space, from the audience area.362
Affirmative responses to the survey questions No 9 & 10, which asked audiences about their perceptions of the individual pianists’ ‘sound’, may suggest that the audiences perceived that each pianist sounded as themselves, regardless of which piano they were playing!
Q.9.3 Do you think Simon Tedeschi produces his own similar sound on both instruments?
Q.10. Do you think Kevin Hunt produces his own similar sound on both instruments?
At concerts 1,3 and 6, 88% ,78% & 63% of participants, respectively, responded that Simon Tedeschi produced his ‘sound’ on both instruments, and 90% , 70% & 70% participants respectively, responded that Kevin Hunt produced his ‘sound’ on both pianos.
The same pianist played the same pieces of music on both the Stuart and Steinway pianos in concerts No 3, 5 & 6. This process was initially presented to aid the audiences’ assessments of the instrumental sounds by narrowing the variables, listening to the same musical subject, and the same pianist, on each piano. This process, also revealed how the pianists reacted or manipulated particular characteristics of each piano sound, for instance the ‘fullness’ of the Steinway sound, and the onset ‘brightness’ of the Stuart.
360 19 Roederer,124. source : 4Askenfelt & Jansson “String contact duration and dynamic level,”Five lectures on the Acoustics of the piano.
361 20Roederer,124.
362 4Galembo.
