… is very much like the fourth dimension – everyone knows that it is there but very few know what it is, or what it means.
With regards the Stuart piano this was brought home to me in no uncertain terms by reviews of the NAMM piano manufacturers and dealers exposition held last month in Los Angeles. Given the state of the world economy in general, and the piano industry in particular, is not what one could call healthy, it was no surprise when attendances appeared to be less than in previous years.
But even so there were still some things happening and claims being made which quite frankly are so far off the planet it wasn’t funny. For example, Mason & Hamlin – the world’s finest pianos. Good pianos they are – but that claim is going a bit far. I don’t even make that claim about the Stuart (although privately it would take a lot to convince me otherwise). And Fazioli were making great store with their fourth pedal as if it were the latest ‘invention’ from a brand that was trying to make its name as innovatory.
Well, I hated to burst their bubble, but of course Stuart pianos have had this fourth pedal since the beginning. The other crazy thing about the Fazioli is the placement of the pedal – it’s in such a weird position that it is impossible to control both soft pedals at the same time. Talk about a waste. It seemed to me that they were making out that the major advantage of their fourth pedal was playing very softly on a large grand piano. Little to they know I can do that on a 2.9 metre Stuart piano without any pedals at all. The use of the pedals allows me to play more softly still …
In fact, in the Stuart & Sons piano this is only a minor part of the whole philosophy behind the fourth pedal. Like the Fazioli, not only are the hammers moved closer to the strings but the key depth is reduced. This is a consequence of the fact that the distance the hammer and the key travel are vital in the production of certain harmonics which are translated into what we hear and feel as the sound’s attack and decay transients.
In the normal context of the correct regulation of the grand piano action, a reduction or narrowing of the hammer’s striking distance from what is considered the minimum distance (45mm) for so-called normal function affects the sound envelope by reducing certain harmonic developments which give the sound a particular warm or cloistered effect and removes the vertical driving projection from the sound envelope. This can be interpreted and indeed, experienced as a more lateral projection of the sound envelope. This peculiar effect can give the sense of a more distant, less aggressive sound. A similar effect can be obtained by reducing the travel of the key only. This is the reason this pedal is called the 'dolce pedal'.
It must be noted that decreasing both the striking distance and the key depth in this way by depressing the fourth pedal magnifies the combined outcome and produces a distinctive quality that cannot be achieved by finger control alone. This is the result of mechanical dynamics in a leverage system designed to convert kinetic energy into an acoustic response disregarding the nature of the playing technique employed. This is something many players do not fully appreciate, understand or like to hear as it means that there are certain mechanical limits to the artistic aspirations of the pianist. This is also a factor in the Steingraber Phoenix's combination of the two functions in the one pedal - clearly a very limited attempt to harness a very wide tonal pallette.
What the Fazioli misses by the somewhat obscure pedal placement, and Steingraeber in their 'two into one' pedal mechanism, in their approaches to a fourth pedal function is the crucial importance of independently utilising both the dolce or kinetic moderator function of the fourth pedal together with the shift or reduction in the number of strings struck function of the third pedal. These functions have significant potential to reveal a whole new sound pallette for musical interpretation and from my own and others' experience on these pianos, only those who have mastered the concept of the two pedals on the Stuart piano can have any idea of this importance and significance. Those who fully understand the function and can hear the results have been ardent supporters of this advanced addition to influence the dynamic and textural aspects of a composition. To bring together such potential for artistic sensitivity hitherto unavailable in the standard piano must surely be an advantage.