Music Trade Review

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MAY
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
28,
The Art of the Player-Pianist
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The following is the seventh in a series (if articles by Wil-
liam Braid White. The aim of the series is to teach the
salesman and the music lover the secret of playing the
player-piano artistically, a secret apparently known to few,
but which can readily be imparted to anyone who is inter-
ested in music and is willing to give the player-piano a
fair trial. At the present time, when it is more than ever
necessary to attack the selling problem from the stand-
point of demonstration, this series should be extremely
valuable.
"TOUCH" AND PHRASING
It is always the part of wisdom to confess
limitations freely, for only when we have done
this are we in a position to set forth the advan-
tages which we possess apart from the limita-
tions. In the April article of this series,
attention was given to the limitations of the
player action in respect of what Tobias Matthay
calls the "prominentizing" of a note in a chord,
and to other limitations directly following from
this. Since then the writer has had the oppor-
tunity of reading a very remarkable and sug-
gestive little volume by Ernest Newman, of Lon-
don, called: "The Piano-Player and Its Music."
Mr. Newman is a musical critic of international
reputation, whose study of Richard Wagner is
perhaps the best thing of its kind ever done.
He is a partisan of the player and most thor-
oughly believes in it, going so far as to agree
with Doctor Schaaf as to the composition of
music especially for it. On this question of
limitations Mr. Newman is very frank. He
admits them; but he also shows that we need
not worry about them. With automatic accen-
tuation the question of prominentizing becomes
less impractical, while as to "touch" and "phras-
ing" he agrees with what has been the writer's
constant argument, during years, that the player
piano need be deficient in neither of these essen-
tial features. Let us just examine these matters
candidly and without prejudice.
What is "touch"? It is the art of controlling
the dynamic power and the acoustic quality of
tones produced from the strings of the piano,
by manipulation of the key. Now, those who
believe that there is an essential difference be-
tween the "touch" of the pianist and of the
player-pianist overlook all that has been accom-
plished by the reproducing piano, for the re-
producing piano has shown very clearly that
merely by ingeniously changing, within delicate
degrees and with necessary rapidity, the air-
pressures brought to bear on the pneumatics, we
can obtain an extraordinary variety of "touch"
effects. It is absurd, in face of these achieve-
ments, which rest on the simple technical fact of
changes in air pressure on a pneumatic, to argue
that "touch" and the pneumatic are not commen-
surable.
But, of course, the musicians are never satis-
fied with any statement of this sort. In the end
they can always fall back on their individual
sense of hearing and declare that they hear
things no one else hears. It may be; but
whether it is so or not, no single one of the
reasons alleged by any enemies of the player-
piano, for the supposed inferiority of the pneu-
matic over the finger, will hold water for a mo-
ment. As a matter of fact, we have over and
over again exploded the "touch" fallacy in these
columns, but a further brief allusion will do no
harm.
The point is this: No matter where the fingers
be placed on the keys, no matter whether one or
another of the usual technical names be applied
to the action of the finger on the key, the fact
remains that this key is a balanced lever, whereof
neither the fulcrum nor the arcs of motion can
be changed. This rigid lever contacts a system
of other levers turning through arcs of circles,
and finally imparting motion to a rigidly pivoted
hammer. Now, whatever the fingers do they can
only cause the key-lever to move through its
arcs with greater or less velocity. It does not
make a particle of difference what the finger
action is which produces the motion, or where
the finger touches the key. With the conditions
as they are stated above (and those conditions
never vary) the only variable is the velocity of
key-motion.
That being the case, any isolated tone, taken
entirely away from surrounding tones and there-
fore from the "atmosphere" set up when groups
of tones are brought into relation with each
other, will be produced at precisely the same
level of tone color and dynamic value, so long
as the key velocity does not change.
"Touch," when analyzed, is seen to be a func-
tion of velocity, and nothing more.
But what the musician means by "touch" is
something else. His ideas are invariably mixed
up with considerations of phrasing, of the skilled
use of the damper pedal and of the duration of
each tone in relation to surrounding tones. Take
all these considerations together and we obtain
those necessary atmospheric conditions which
make "touch" perceptible to the musician;
though what he calls the effect of his perceptions
is quite another matter.
(Continued on page 6)
James & Holmstrom
Established 1860
Manufacturers of the Artistic
JAMES & HOLMSTROM
PIANOS AND PLAYERS
THE SMALL GRAND WITH THE BIG TONE
and the
TRANSPOSING KEY-BOARD PIANO
..
are
TWO OF OUR MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
JAMES & HOLMSTROM PIANO CO., Inc.
Factory: Alexander Ave. and 132d St.
Office and Warerooms: 46 W. 37th St., New York