This research is essentially a record of my investigations and perceptions of the Stuart & Sons piano sound. Since the launch of Stuart piano No.1 in 1995, this new Australian piano design has keenly interested pianists, composers and listeners from all over the world because of its new sound. My evaluations of its tonal qualities and my compositional settings of its sound are collectively presented in this paper as a journey of practical investigation and research.
The overarching aim of this research is to demonstrate how my artistic musical objectives are informed by my research objective. More succinctly, how my engagement with the Stuart piano sound in composition and performance, is informed by my objective to describe distinctive qualities of its sound.
By recording the piano sounds and implementing processes of tonal analysis, I have detected four distinctive characteristics in the Stuart & Sons piano sound that combine to produce its unique tonal colour:
- A slower rate of decay in the fundamental partial frequency
- An earlier transition into the after-sound states of string oscillation.
- A wider harmonic spectrum in the onset state of the sound.
- A more comprehensive projection of sound to 6 metres.
The detailed processes and theories used to measure and illustrate these characteristics are presented in chapters three and four of this paper.
As my perceptions of the Stuart piano’s sound developed, my awareness of its tonal intricacies made it possible to arrange and notation the piano sounds in fine detail. I found I was interacting with the elements of the sound itself, being led by the sound to produce musical statements. Defining the distinctions of the sound quality in an active creative way prompted me to interpret this piano sound as being an embodiment of many Australian characteristics. The fine attention I was giving to the elements of the sound produced for me an environment of sound to compose within. The vibrating Tasmanian King William pine of the Stuart soundboard, the Huon Pine wood of the Stuart panels, the pictorially abstract sounds enhanced by the expanded Stuart keyboard compass, and the aurally significant sustain in the Stuart sound throughout its frequency range, all established to me that this piano presented a clear Australian departure from the traditional standardised European and American piano sounds we are accustomed to today.
The Stuart piano sound itself engendered for me the promise that an exploration of its characteristics would produce composition that could connect me musically with Australian Aboriginality. So I invited several Aboriginal musicians who were connected culturally in the Sydney region to collaborate
