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SEPTEMBER 30,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1922
A New Light on the Subject of Player-piano "Touch" Which Will Serve to
Dispel Some of the Fallacies Which Have Arisen in Connection Therewith
—The Player-piano as a Means of Producing Very Unusual Tonal Effects
Nothing is harder than to cause any change
in ideas which have persisted for a long time
and have become embedded in popular con-
sciousness.
It makes very little difference
whether the ideas are well or ill-founded. The
mere fact that they exist and have become
established is sufficient to make the task of up-
rooting them extremely formidable and some-
times impossible. In fact, the more wrong-
headed they are, very often, the harder it ,is to
change them.
During the development of the player-piano
musicians have constantly complained about its
"touch." They have said that it is "mechanical,"
and, in fact, must be "mechanical," because it
interposes a mechanism between the piano and
the pianist. They have said that the player-
piano can never be a true musical instrument
because it can never permit the true interpre-
tation of music. And much more to the same
effect.
It is not our business in this place to puncture
all these bubbles. Suffice it to say in passing
that such talk comes ill from those who in the
next breath praise the reproducing piano, in
which the mechanism is still more elaborate,
and interposes a still more complex wall be-
tween the artist and the result. To argue that
the reproducing piano is in some mysterious
way less of a mechanism than the ordinary
player-piano would be nothing to the point, even
if it were true, which it is not; but the fact
that musicians do at one and the same time talk
two sepaiate kinds of nonsense about the same
thing is sufficient to show the entire wrong-
headedness of the prejudice against the player-
piano.
The real gravamen of the complaint as to the
"mechanical touch" of the player-piano lies in a
group of related facts comprising bad arranging
of music, inept or misleading expressive direc-
tions on the rolls and the general ignorance on
the part of the users. It may be natural enough
that the player-piano should itself be blamed
for the existence of these facts, but the accusa-
tion is wholly unfair, nevertheless.
Now, the real question about the "touch" of
the player-piano is far away from all the fool-
ishness we have thus been compelled to notice.
It relates to certain qualities which the action
of the player-piano, in concert with the music
roll, is seen to possess. The points on which
we are about to touch permit us to take a new
view of the expressive capacities of the player-
piano, and of its ability to serve as the vehicle
for a new and powerful musical language.
Meaning of "Touch"
In any musical instrument the technical art
of playing it is to be considered solely as means
to an end, that end being the due production of
good tone. When we speak of "touch" on the
piano we refer to the technical method of ob-
taining tone through the medium of the key-
board, by the fingers, wrists and arms of the
pianist. Take away the keyboard and the
method naturally changes. Now, in the case
of the player-piano we have the keyboard taken
away, so that the method of tone production is
modified accordingly. Of course, in both cases
the object of all mechanism is to strike the
string with the hammer, through the action. The
difference between one another lies in the
method adopted to get the action into motion.
There is, however, nothing sacrosanct about this
method in itself. The hammer and the action
constitute together the only actually necessary
parts of the mechanism, and all study of touch
should therefore concentrate itself, for the
player-piano at least, upon these parts and not
upon the keyboard.
Pianists get into the habit of supposing that
the keyboard has some virtue of its own
whereby alone good tone can be coaxed from
the piano. This, of course, is due to a confu-
sion of the means with the end. The best proof
in the world of the absurdity of such views is
found in the fact that the reproducing piano,
which bears the endorsement of many eminent
exponents of piano "touch" in its highest mani-
festations, produces its tones by contact with the
piano action direct. This is true even in the
reproducer grand, for here the pneumatics work
from the rear of the keys at the end opposite
the ivories, and would touch the action direct
if the keys were not in the way.
If this principle be once perceived—namely,
that touch is merely the expression of the neces-
sary mechanical limitations of the piano's key-
board— it can easily be seen that the unlimited
technical capacities of the player-piano's pneu-
matic mechanism ought to be, and can be, used
to produce entirely novel and very valuable
kinds of touch. This is truly the case, as we
shall see.
If we analyze into their mechanical parts the
operations of the pianist in playing a piece of
They're the Chimes of
Lib - er - ty,
music we shall see that everything he does may
be classified under the following heads:
Elements of Tone Production
Duration of finger contact with the keys.
Velocity of hammer in each case of such
contact.
Speed of motion of groups of such contact—
operations.
Pedal-work.
Now, it must be obvious upon the slightest
consideration that the player-piano can repro-
duce anything in classification number one
which can be imagined as produced by any
human fingers. Indeed, it can do more, though,
as can at once be perceived, all that it can do
depends as much upon the appropriate arrang-
ing of the music roll as on the speed and power
of the pneumatics. The same is, of course, true
of the second classification, subject to the con-
dition that the bellows be sufficiently sensitive
to allow the player-pianist to obtain such va-
rieties of pressure as he from moment to mo-
ment requires. This obviously is a matter of
mechanical development and has already been
practically realized in many cases.
Two Properties of Player Touch
Now, suppose that we call in the aid of the
music roll and proceed to make better use, by
means of it, of the practically unlimited repeat-
ing qualities of the player-piano. A consistent
complaint against the action of the piano is that
it cannot swell or diminish a single tone. The
player-piano, even in its present state, shows a
possible way toward a solution of this problem.
The rapid repetitions of a single note produce
an effect similar to the swell of the organ, sim-
ply through skillful pedipulation (as it may be
called) by the player-pianist, whereby the work-
ing pressure is from moment to moment modi-
fied. How easily this can be done may at once
be seen by trying an ordinary trill on an ordi-
nary music roll. It is true that when the speed
of repetition becomes very high the chances of
blocking the hammer increase in number, but
with due care not to force things too much the
single repeated note can be swelled and dimin-
ished very effectively.
Further development
may be expected, both in the matter of me-
chanical speed and of skillful arranging, when
this property of the player-piano is better appre-
ciated.
At the present moment and in the pres-
(Continued on page 7)
• Chimes lhat rin& for
you
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Edwin Franko Goldman's Inspirational Success
The Chimes of Liberty
AsTriumphantly Played, by
" T H E GOLDMAN BAND*
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