Klarinet Archive - Posting 000003.txt from 2004/08

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] ClarinetFest 2004, day 4
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 09:47:13 -0400

Benjamin Maas wrote,
>Closing a lid on a piano will not make it softer.
>It *will* muffle the sound and the lack of clarity
>helps keep it from projecting sometimes (thus
>helping balance). The issue of volume for a
>piano falls squarely on the pianist to play quietly
>enough for a given instrument and/or room. This
>is a common misconception (and I see it all the time
>in performances that I record) but a misconception
>that should be brought to light. A piano will sound
>a lot better on full stick, but you need a pianist that
>is aware of the issues surrounding that kind of playing.

I'm scratching my head over this comment. Ben, I know you're a pro
recording engineer -- are you saying that you've done decibel tests that
prove that closing the lid doesn't mute the volume of the piano? I've
played the piano, as an amateur, for about fifty years. What you write
goes against everything I think I know.

Yes, the tone quality is muffled and different, and not as good, with the
lid closed. That part I agree with. Any pianist would rather hear the
piano on full stick, with half-stick a pretty good second choice. With the
lid shut, the sound is now being made inside of a closed box, instead of an
open box. It's like closing the windows of a house to avoid annoying the
neighbors when cranking up the volume on the stereo speakers, isn't it? --
Closing the windows means less noise gets out of the box: the house.
Closing the lid means less noise gets out of the piano.

Maybe I just misunderstood what you wrote -- were you talking about what
happens *inside* the box of strings (as opposed to what the audience
*hears*)? Because it's true that the lid isn't a damper. The lid position
doesn't change in any way what the keys, the hammers and the strings are
doing. The strings vibrate the same amount whether the lid is up or down.

However, I totally agree that the main problem is the pianist, not the
piano. The problem is also the clarinet (or whatever) player's, too,
because a chamber music partner or a soloist has a perfect right to tell
the pianist, "Sorry, but it's too loud," and needs to work up the nerve to
say it. A friend doing a sound check in the hall beforehand should be
ready with this information, too. Most pianists are sensitive to this
complaint and do know how to back off.

Many pianists get giddy over a great big grand that can let out a
bone-rattling roar. Very few of us have got anything like that in the
house for everyday practice. (I play a Yamaha Clavinova electronic
console, because it's the best sound I can shoehorn into a small,
odd-shaped space and because the price of a fine grand, even used, is much
more than I can afford.) When a powerful piano does become available, I
find the temptation to do the gorilla dance all over it nearly
overwhelming.

Christy Erickson wrote,
>Ben, I agree with you to some extent but I was
>always taught to raise the lid on a short stick for
>accompaniment and full stick ONLY for solos.

Same here. My Aunt Mary Wrany (Mary VanEss after she married), a pro opera
and recital singer during the 1930s into the early 1950s, didn't hesitate
to reach over and short-stick the lid herself, or even close the lid of a
big piano in a smallish, "live" room, if the pianist didn't do it. "You
don't mind, do you?" she'd say, cheerfully, but in a tone of voice that --
well, you know what a coloratura soprano sounds like in spoken dialogue.
I've heard that pianists didn't argue with her much. She married her best
accompanist, btw. Smart woman.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban
America can do better: Kerry and Edwards in 2004

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