The descriptive language enabled me to open up the research discussion about the Stuart piano tone to the public. I produced a series of audience survey concerts and used specific verbal attributes in survey questions that attracted responses of over three hundred participants. The piano sounds of the Stuart and Steinway were equally portrayed to the audience in various concert venues, and in performances of varying styles of music repertoire. The survey results indicated that the psychophysical nature of musical perception played an important part in peoples’ descriptions of the Stuart sound. That style of music, the various interpretive dynamics chosen by the pianists in performance, and preconceived notions of instrumental tone, influenced the audience survey responses. Compared to the Steinway sound, the sound of the Stuart piano received favourable audience descriptions of tone more frequently in smaller performance halls.

Wayne Stuart’s piano designs are presented as logical developments in the timeline of development that started early in the 18th century with Cristofori’s invention of the piano. The Stuart pianos sit at the most modern point of the chronological keyboard compass illustrated in the introduction and in Appendix 1, showing that the presumed completed evolution of piano design indicated by its standardisation late in the 19th century, is far from complete. Indeed the spirit of experimentation in piano design that occurred frequently before standardization has been continued by Wayne Stuart, particularly in regards to his expansion of the piano’s frequency range and his innovative collaborations with Stephen Paulello, the French piano designer and wire manufacturer.

At the beginning of this paper, I stated that this research project has added to my total sense of what it means to be a creative working musician. I feel prompted now to add to this sentiment by saying that the theoretical practices, the cultural diversity, and the musical explorations I have experienced whilst producing this research have opened my eyes to the continuous possibilities of a rich musical life.