I perceive the sound of the Stuart & Sons piano to be nationally significant. I am careful not to state out too loud, ‘THIS IS AN AUSTRALIAN PIANO SOUND’, because to succinctly answer the annoying quantifiable question, ‘what makes it sound Australian and why’, is difficult, even though I feel that it is an Australian sound and I can describe what its characteristics of tone are. It is made in Australia, devised and crafted by an Australian, it comprises of Australian woods and steel. The fact that this is an Australian piano that presents at the ‘cutting edge’ of world piano design makes this a modern Australian piano of its time and place.
In the following section, a vocabulary of Stuart piano sounds illustrates my creative perceptions of its sound qualities. These sounds are particularly useful to me for ‘honing in’ aspects of my perceptual pianistic approach to playing the Stuart piano.
Playing The Sound
A vocabulary of Stuart piano sounds is compiled in the following section to illustrate several unique tonal characteristics I have observed whilst playing the instrument. For three years I had regular playing sessions on a smaller 2.2m Stuart piano at the Sydney Conservatorium, made more recently than M19,STU and with an innovative lattice ribbing of carbon fibre on the soundboard. The room was smaller than the MW where the M19, STU 2.9m Stuart piano is situated.
These notations are in the form of musical phrases that were realised in my regular sessions of improvisation. Each sound was found to enhance the resonances of Stuart soundscape. The sounds combine the sonic-vibrational tonal elements found in chapter four with applied pianistic techniques, especially with regards to touch dynamics on the keyboard and the use of the pedals. The notations and audio excerpts are important to the formulation of my perceptions of the Stuart piano sound. The piano sound is new and full of surprises. These sounds initiate the beginning of an anticipated extensive vocabulary of Stuart sounds. Evaluating these sounds separately from musical or compositional contexts enhances my perception of their tonal qualities. Once the sounds are documented, they become familiar, ready to be expanded upon and also ready to be used either as the primary resource or a starting point for composition.
It was stated in the introduction of this paper that improvisation was the process by which the comprehensive tonal spectra of the 97 key and the 102 key Stuart pianos soundscapes was first explored musically, as recorded by Bill Risby, myself and several other Jazz pianists on the A New Voice I & II CD recordings.376 Artur Cimirro also has stated that his discovery of piano sounds377 for his Eccentric Preludes compositions was initially through his improvisations. Cimirro is the first composer to notate piano music for 102 and 108 keys, specifically for the Stuart & Sons piano.
376See New Voice I & II CDs releases see Introduction.
377 Opus Dissonus, “Artur Cimirro -The Documentary.” YouTube video, 1:25:33 Brazil: Opus Dissonus, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6YJ_w6Qfbc,www.arturcimirro.com.br&www.opusdissonus.com.br
Accessed October , 2015.
