Piano

This isn't strictly tuning-related, but I'm sure some of you will have
some thoughts on it.

I got the impression that the piano is techincally classifed as a
percussion instrument. It's obviously not percussion in the sense that
it's in the same instrument family as, for example, a drum. It's a
percussion instrument because it produces sound ... well, by percussion -
things striking other things, in this case hammers striking strings.

My girlfriend's mom, who teaches piano took exception to that though.
What do you folks think?

Gary asks:
>It's a

>percussion instrument because it produces sound ... well, by percussion -

>things striking other things, in this case hammers striking strings.
> My girlfriend's mom, who teaches piano took exception to that though.
What do you folks think?

It is a percussion instrument, but pianists hate to be thought of as
drummers. When the string is hit, the contact between the hammer and player
has already been broken, so really, the only control a pianist has over the
string's envelope is how hard they hit the key.
This sounds like percussion parameters to me.
( I know, pianos have pedals etc. but that is just more mechanical stuff).
Regards,
Ed Foote
Precision Piano Works
Nashville, Tn.

>I got the impression that the piano is techincally classifed as a
>percussion instrument. It's obviously not percussion in the sense that
>it's in the same instrument family as, for example, a drum. It's a
>percussion instrument because it produces sound ... well, by percussion -
>things striking other things, in this case hammers striking strings.
>
>My girlfriend's mom, who teaches piano took exception to that though.
>What do you folks think?

Pianos are dulcimers, percussion instruments.

C.

Gary:

The field of organology is full of controversies over taxonomy. If the
taxonomy is based on playing technique, then the piano is a strucked
instrument in a string subclass, if it is based on the sounding material,
then it is a stringed instrument in a strucked subclass. If one pays closer
attention to the spectrum of the instrument, one might be tempted to
classify it as an idiophone, in that the stiff wires behave somewhat like
bars. Some organologists even use a 'keyboard' category, lumping together
plucked and struck stringed instruments with keyboard aerophones like the
organ or accordion and electronic keyboard instruments.

Personally, recognizing that the taxonomy of musical instruments is an art
rather than a science, I would prefer to group instruments according to
their functions in real musical contexts. Historically, although struck and
possessing the powerful resource of a sustain pedal,, piano (and before it,
clavichord) performance and compositional technique developed essentially
from the technique of plucked instruments, directly from the harpsichord
which was itself one step removed from the lute. (Consider the direct line
of evolution from the continental lute tradition to the clavecin works of
the Couperins and on to salon piano of Chopin). In my opinion, it is
really in the 20th century -- let's say starting with Debussy -- that the
piano comes into its own as a percussion instrument with the adoption of
techiques wildly divergent from the plucked tradition

Daniel Wolf
Frankfurt

Ed Foote wrote:

>the only control a pianist has over the
string's envelope is how hard they hit the key. <

Isn't it more to the point to characterize this as control over the
velocity of the key stroke?

Good players also do some subtle things with the timings of repeated notes
or in combination with the pedal that do have a real effect over the
envelope. To bring this back to the mainstream of the tuning list, if the
player is listening to the beating rates of unison courses and intervals in
making such timing decisions, the performance can be very much enhanced.

Alex J Van Wey wrote,

>Just a piece of Trivia - Neil Peart of Rush (the drummer) started out
as
>a piano/keyboard player...

more trivia: Alan White (drummer for Yes and John Lennon) was quite a
pianist too!

and on the subject of prog-rock multi-instrumentalists: I was just
listening to some late '70s Gong, aroung the time Hansford Rowe (of just
intonation bass fame) joined the band. Allan Holdsworth is the
guitarist, but also plays violin on one track, and is astounding! It
blows my mind that someone could achieve such a high level of technical
prowess on two different instruments. (Eddie Jobson plays keyboards and
violin, but Holdsworth's a notch higher on the virtuosic technique
scale; I know Tony McAlpine is supposed to be quite the
guitarist/keyboardist, but I haven't heard him, and good violin playing
impresses me more because of pitch control -- even one or two of the
most famous classical violinists are often off by a quarter-tone.)

"Paul H. Erlich" <PErlich@Acadian-Asset.com> writes:

>Alex J Van Wey wrote,
>
>>Just a piece of Trivia - Neil Peart of Rush (the drummer)
>>started out as
>>a piano/keyboard player...
>
>more trivia: Alan White (drummer for Yes and John Lennon) was quite a
>pianist too!

And not only is Bill Bruford a tuned percussion player,
he's released more CD's under his own leadership
than both of those guys combined. He even wrote
a lot of that material himself!

And then there's Jack DeJohnette's piano album....

And didn't Max Roach have M'Boom???

Willy, Jack and Max didn't sell out but then none of these guys
made any music in a tuning so it's all quite beyond
this list...I hear Lou Harrison and Harry Partch has explored this
territory...

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm