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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PRODUCING COLOR EFFECTS WITH THE PLAYER-PIANO.
It is Possible, with a Froper Understanding of the Instrument, to Produce the Same Delicate
Effects That Are Secured by the Artist with Trained Touch—The Essentials, Mental
and Mechanical, That Bring About Desired Tonal Results Interestingly Described.
Second Article.
In the Player Section of June 28 there appeared
the first of a series of articles on tone-color and
tone-coloration in connection with the player-
piano. It was there stated that future articles
would definitely disprove the musical world's gen-
erally held opinion that the tone quality of piano
playing as done with the player-piano is neces-
sarily hard and colorless, and it was further prom-
ised that the secret of producing beautiful tone-
quality through the pneumatic mechanism would
be adequately set forth.
Since then there has appeared in the London
scientific weekly, Nature, certain articles by Pro-
fessor G. H. Bryan and Christopher Wheatley, in
which reference is made to experiments conducted
by the former as to the tone-color possibilities of
the player-piano. Professor Bryan has made some
most interesting experiments with auxiliary con-
trol of air pressure through manually operated ex-
pression governor devices. Mr. Wheatley takes
the view that the control of the player-piano over
touch is not sufficiently elastic to cover all the pos-
sible cases covered by finger work, and he thinks
that in its present shape the player mechanism
can never reach desired touch delicacy. Professor
Bryan's experiments lead to definite conclusions in
the direction of obtaining necessary tone-color con-
trol ; and thus the state of supposedly expert opin-
ion is seen to be much mixed. One must, of
course, be only glad that in England they take
these things seriously and investigate them rightly.
At the same time, one must say that neither Pro-
fessor Bryan nor the other correspondent of
Nature seems to have grasped all the implications
of the problem. This imperfect and incomplete
understanding makes their remarks less valuable
and, in fact, largely vitiates their conclusions.
I shall here show what has not as yet been
clearly revealed in all this discussion; namely,
that (1) all tone-color is produced by control over
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hammer velocity in combination with other ele-
ments; (2) that the player mechanism is per-
fectly capable of controlling this, and (3) that the
technic necessary to use this control is easily ac-
quired with any good instrument. If the above
three points can be well proved, the whole discus-
sion must necessarily take on an entirely new
aspect. M r > W heatley's Contention.
In the paper to which I have referred as re-
cently appearing in Nature, Mr. Wheatley has re-
marked that tone-quality differences appear to be
controlled by minute variations in the length of
time during which the hammer of a piano is re-
tained in contact with the string. He also says
that the harmonics of a note are most prominent
when the note is produced by pressure alone, but
that pressure alone cannot, in fact, produce a note,
as there must be some "fractional hit" to give the
hammer the necessary momentum. He concludes
that the trained fingers of a pianist can give the
necessary differences in momentum impulse, but
that the piano playing mechanism is not sensitive
enough to do this satisfactorily.
Now, the first point I would make is that tone-
quality, as indicated by Mr. Wheatley, depends in-
deed upon the .presence of partial tones or har-
monics. The more prominent the first eight
partials are, the less strident and more mellow a
tone-quality will be, other things being equal.
Now, it is a fact that if the strands of loose felt
that always appear at the crown of a hammer are
sufficiently numerous in a given case to form a
sort of minute cushion which will cling slightly
to the string after contact, the upper dissonant
partials of the string will be damped thereby, and
the tone-quality will thus be mellow rather than
hard.
Contrariwise, where the hammer rebounds
immediately, without such clinging of its loose felt
particles, the upper partials will not be damped
and the tone-quality will, therefore be harder;
other things being equal. Now, this is the physical
explanation of the difference between hard and
soft hammers so-called, and is the basis of tone
regulation of hammers. But it need hardly be
said that no sort of finger control through keys
and action that can'be conceived will be delicate
enough to hold the hammer at will in such a way
as to bring about this slight clinging. If the piano
hammer could be held in contact with the string
at all through the finger pressure on the key, the
result would be, an immediate blocking of the
string vibration, since the finger could never hold
the hammer lightly enough to damp off partials
• without also killing off the fundamental vibration.
Indeed, the piano action is so designed that the
hammer is not brought into contact with the string
through the direct action of the key at all. The
hammer leaves the control of the key at a definite
instant before the contact with the string, is car-
ried to the string by its own momentum, rebounds
therefrom and returns to the finger control. At
the moment of actual contact or stroke the ham-
mer is altogether out of the control of the finger.
Thus it appears that the element of tone-quality
control, which depends upon variations in the form
of the sonorous wave, is not to be altered by the
direct manipulation of the hammer surface' on the
string through the finger, but only through the in-
direct method involved in propelling the hammer
towards the string up to the point of escapement.
From this point onwards the result is entirely de-
pendent upon chance, allowing that the previous
impulsion may be so governed as to determine to
some extent the later conduct of the hammer.
and the amplitude of its vibration—quality and in-
tensity—are alike matters of hammer velocity.
To this element must, of course, be added the
further element of time duration of the sounding
of the string as governed by the damper action,
together with the element of sympathetic vibration
governed by damper raising device or loud pedal.
The statement that all piano touch is simply a
matter of hammer velocity will not be accepted by
pianists until they stop analytically to think of
the matter. But as soon as they do so think they
will see that the conclusion is inevitable. It is
quite impossible to think otherwise without positing
the perfectly impossible notion that there is some
sort of quality in the touch wnich imparts intelli-
gence or thought to the key motion. There is no
quality of "stroke-ness" or of "pressure-ness" in
touch. The hammer is brought in front of the
string, then released and allowed to strike. It re-
bounds and is ready for another stroke. What has
done it all? The motion of the key. And what is
this? Simply the turning of a lever through an
arc of a circle at a given speed. As for the rest
of the piano action, what are all its motions but
the turnings of other levers through arcs of circles
at given velocities ?
Piano "touch" is but the control of hammer
velocity. Therefore tone-quality in piano playing
is essentially controlled in the same manner.
Assuming that the above reasoning is correct,
can we control this hammer velocity and thus the
tone-quality of piano playing through the pneu-
matic mechanism? I assert that we can.
The pneumatic of the piano playing mechanism
is in itself a key, in precisely the same respect
that the ordinary digital of the piano is such;
namely, mechanical means or acting upon the piano
action and thus upon the hammer. In other
words, just as we press the ordinary black or
white key with our fingers, so also the external
air pressure presses upon the pneumatic of the
playing mechanism. Even the leverage of the two
is essentially the same. Both turn through arcs
of circles. What is more, the two can be regu-
lated in any given piano, to turn in the same arcs,
with the same leverage exactly., The whole ques-
tion, then, is one of controlling the speed of turn-
ing. Can this be done? It certainly can.
That is the matter as it stands. Let us next
consider how we can make the pneumatic do what
we want. We may have to suggest certain minor
improvements in air control, but these will be seen
to be but elementary and incidental.
{To be continued.)
Governing Tone-Quality.
United States Music Company
2934-36-38 West Lake St., CHICAGO, U. S. A.
Thus it appears that we govern tone-quality
through touch only as we govern the earlier part
of the hammer movement. The actual tone-quality
control is thus directly effected through the ve-
locity of the hammer's approach to the string, which
alone determines both the rapidity of rebound
therefrom and the amplitude of the string vibra-
tion. Thus the form of the string's sonorous wave
DEATH OF_B^H. OXLEY.
Musician and Piano Man of Pawtucket, R. I.,
Succumbs to Bright's Disease.
Benjamin H. Oxley, one of the most prominent
musicians in Rhode Island, and recently head sales-
man with the Pawtucket store of the Meiklejohn
Co., died at his home in Providence, R. I , last
week of Bright's disease and heart trouble. Mr.
Oxley was for many years president of the Provi-
dence Musicians' Union and active in the affairs
of music unions generally. He was a member of
the Theatrical Mechanical Association and Paw-
tucket Lodge of Elks.
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