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OCTOBER 25, 1919
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Fundamental Principles Involved
in the Composing and Arranging of
BY DR. EDWARD SCHAAF
Music for the Player-Piano
ranging, especially for wind instruments, knows that
piano compositions are very often incorrectly bal-
anced. In arranging piano compositions for the
band, it is necessary very frequently to alter the
valuations of various notes set down in the piano
score, so as to obtain a suitable response from the
instruments to which these notes are being allotted.
If this is not judicially done, the wind instruments
which are playing the accompaniment parts will often
simply overbalance and render ineffective the entire
melodic line.
Skilled pianists, consciously or not, have a practice
of curtailing the value of accompaniment tones for
BALANCE OF TONE
the purpose of overcoming their tendency to drown
Every writer for orchestra or band knows per- the melodic voices. The arranger for the player-
fectly well the meaning of the term balance of tone. piano must always remember his limitations as to
It is a term not easy to explain, but there is no fea- contrasts of power and must make his calculations
ture of musical arranging where a failure can be for obtaining balance of tone on the basis of uni-
form intensity of all tones struck at the same mo-
more plainly perceived by the listener. The great
fault of the manually played piano is in the gap ment. In spite of the many improvements which
which always exists between the right and left hands have been made in the player-piano of late and which
include the further and further subdivision of the
on the keyboard. If the hands are close together
keyboard into separately controlled dynamic sec-
then they do not command the whole keyhoard. If
ihey are playing at a distance from each other, there tions, the arranger will be wise to abide by the prin-
is a bad gap between them. The resulting gap be- ciples here set forth.
When the notes of a melody are of the same length
tween the two bodies of tone gives that effect of
"all top-and-bottomness" which is so characteristic as the chord accompaniment, the latter should be cur-
of piano music. Incompetent composers for military tailed judiciously, otherwise the melody will not be
properly balanced. This applies particularly to the
band or orchestra frequently make the mistake of
writing for these instruments as if they were writ- scoring of close part-writing.
The example shown in Fig. 37 appears to show
ing for the piano and with similar results. Thinking
in terms of the piano when scoring for the orches- effective scoring for the player-piano, but in truth
tra is responsible for the miscalculated effects of
orchestration to be found even in the works of the
tVi I
great composers.
Now balance of tone depends upon writing in such
a manner that the different harmonic intervals will
Fig. 37
all be properly filled in, and no one part will over-
it is very barrel-organ-like in effect. On the piano-
balance the others, so as to render them ineffective.
The player-piano with its eighty-eight fingers is in forte it is capable of satisfactory performance in the
hands of an expert pianist. But the figure must be
exactly the same position in respect to this principle
rehandled to fit the player-piano's requirements, in
as is the orchestra and the arranger for the player-
piano must keep in mind constantly the great neces-
sity for balance of tone. A few examples will show
just what is meant, and it is necessary that these
should be stated carefully. Even where only a sim-
ple harmonic progression is planned, as in a choral,
Fig. 38
it requires something more than mere observance
the
matter
of
balance
of tone, somewhat as shown
of the rules of musical grammar to produce a proper
by Fig. 38. If it be needed, we here have further
effect. In the example shown by Fig. 35, the inter-
proof that the pianoforte and the player-piano are
vals of the chords are properly laid out from the
different instrumental voices.
Again in arranging an organ selection for the
player-piano the arranger must lemember that the
pipe organ tone begins and ends at the same level
of power. At least it is on this basis that the com-
poser calculates when writing for the organ, but the
Fig. 35
point of view of harmony, but the actual effect when arranger for the player-piano must remember that his
played upon the player-piano will be to drown com- tone production is on an entirely different basis be-
ginning at its highest level and ending at the zero.
pletely the melodic voice through the greater power
It would be folly for him not to keep this in mind
of the lower tones. True balance will be preserved
when transcribing organ music. For all these rea-
sons, therefore, it is obviously absurd to study the
problem of tone balance for the player-piano from
the standpoint of the manual piano. "Piano logic" in
composition and arrangement is not necessarily
Fig. 36
"player-piano logic."
if the foregoing example be arranged as is shown in
Fortunately the tone balance of a player-piano
Fig. 36, the traiupoition to G insuring a softer ef- composition cannot be marred by any carelessness on
fect.
the part of the performer. There is no soloist to
To balance properly work for the player-piano re- reckon with, but the player-piano has a problem of
quires therefore real musical craftsmanship.
its own in this respect, and a problem which is
The arranger for the orchestra or military band unique.
•
has the great advantage of the different colors, and
The area of tonal concentration on the piano key-
different powers of the various instrumental groups. board is to be found within the limits indicated by
Using these, he is able readily to obtain balance of
the dotted circle in Fig. 39.
tone, contrast in power and variety in coloring. The
This octave, G to G, receives the greatest stress in
player-piano, on the other hand, is an instrument of nearly all extended and important works for piano
one color and for this reason alone the difficulty of
or orchestra. Rich scoring within this area props
the arranger's task is manifest.
up and balances the upper and lower parts.
Anyone who has had experience in orchestral ar-
Now of course it is plain that balance of tone is
(Editor's Note. Doctor Schaaf is a musician who has
given much attention to the problem of arranging music for
the player-piano in such a way as to bring out the instru-
ment's true voice and real musical value. As he says, "there
is only one way to unlock the magic of the player-piano
keyboard and that is to treat the instrument as a new voice
in music." Doctor Schaaf has self-sacrificingly devoted much
of his time, without thought of material reward, to the
rewriting of music for the special purpose of making it truly
suitable for the player-piano and has achieved some astound-
ing results. He has also composed a number of special pieces
for the player-piano only, conceived in the most modern
style of what he calls "plastic music" ; and altogether won-
derful. Doctor Schaaf has already published in The Music
Trade Review the results of some earlier researches into this
subject, and the present series of extremely interesting and
fascinating articles, of which this is the sixth, represents
the latest fruit of his studies.)
not so easily to be attained on the player-piano as in
the orchestra or military band. In spite of the fact
that a good player-piano transcription has, or should
have, the same character-
istics as a good orchestral
score, some difficulty in
obtaining needed balance
is always found, simply
because the. bass tones of
Fig. 39
the player-piano will tend
to overpower the treble tones, unless special
care is taken by the arranger to overcome
this. It must also be remembered that all tones
sounded simultaneously on the player-piano are
played with the same strength. Again, some devices
of writing and figuration have upon the player-piano
an effect opposite to that which they have in the
orchestra. On the player-piano the tremolo has a
higher suustaining power than has a sustained tone;
while in the orchestra the sustained tone has more
power than the tremolo. Musicians who understand
the force of the argument set forth above will at
once realize how difficult is the problem of tone bal-
ance on the player-piano.
The fact that the simultaneously sounded tones on
the player-piano are only capable of precisely the
same degree of power appears, at first sight, to con-
stitute a serious disadvantage. Nevertheless this
apparent defect does not always work outdisadvanta-
geously; for certain effects peculiar to the player-
piano depend wholly upon what otherwise would
appear to be a very serious defect in expressive
power. Some illustrations of this have already been
set forth in previous articles in The Review.
SOLIDITY
The most marked characteristics of player-piano
music are usually its sonority and its glitter. The
incisiveness of its rhythmic speech emphasizes the
glittering effects, while a splendid solidity of the
general tonal structure is always obtainable with
good scoring.
The foundation of solid scoring is found in the
middle register of the keyboard, to which attention
was drawn above and which represents a region left
entirely vacant in the "right-and-left" and "top-and-
bottoni" scoring and playing of ordinary piano mu-
sic.
A massive and splendid solidity should naturally
be expected of an instrument which has eighty-eight
voices at its command. There is no excuse there-
fore for thin or ill-nourished scoring and a player-
piano ought to outrival any instrument save the or-
chestra in its power to express the most massive
tonal structures.
This whole subject could be discussed of course at
this point in any amount of detail, but what we have
said about it in this article, and in others which have
preceded, should be sufficient for the purposes of the
reader. Other matters under the general head of
"Balance of Tone" and "Solidity" will be brought
up during later articles. It will now be proper to
pass on to the general topic of Ornamentation; and
this shall form the subject of the next article.
{To be continued)
WHITE, SON CO.
Manufacturers of
ORGAN AND PLAYER-PIANO
LEATHERS
530-540 Atlantic A?e. f BOSTON, MASS.