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Minor Deity |
Yikes.
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana  |
I wonder if she is talking about the limitations inherent in the piano, that it is dependent on how it is tuned, and that the keys can only play certain frequencies, and cannot play the infinite frequencies that exist in between the keys. Whereas a stringed instrument has access to everything possible in tones. This is something I explored in my book. Michael Harrison talked about this a lot in the chapter "Revelation" and I described his unusually tuned piano that produced pure intervals. There are virtually never pure intervals in a conventionally tuned piano, which means there is always some level of discord. It's an interesting experiment in physics to tune a piano to overcome this.
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| Foregoing Practicing to Post Minor Deity  |
Sounds to me like she is referring to the capacity of an instrument to sustain notes one into the next without decay of sound. But the "grinder organ" I don't get, as it's inexpressive and almost too continuous, with no "breathing." I would suppose her comments represent her observations with patients.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Fiddler Bruce Molsky said the fiddle has no frets which gives it all the notes in the world. That is the good news. He also said that most of those notes are the wrong ones.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
The ancients considered stringed instruments superior to wind. (Not at all sure they were talking about the human voice). So, I think they would have considered a piano as akin to a harp. Not sure how or if this relates to the quote. | |||
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
Interesting quote, Bernard.
I don’t know enough about the history of piano development to be able to guess how much of her comment might have been due to limitations of the instrument at that time.
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Minor Deity |
Which would you rather listen to while lying sick in bed: Bagpipes vs. Banjo
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| Foregoing Practicing to Post Minor Deity |
I think they were pretty well developed but not like the behemoths of today…though closer to today’s pianos than Mozart’s.
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| knitterati Beatification Candidate  |
Banjo! I like bagpipes, but they can be overbearing. Banjo music is happy music. How could you remain sick in bed with happy happy banjo music?
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Banjo. Much use of it in Delta blues. Bagpipes? I think His Majesty King Charles III gets woken up by a man playing the bagpipes. Not my ideal alarm clock. How about this scenario instead? I'm not sick in bed! | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Joe, I love ancient music performed on period instruments with original performance techniques. It's a hobby of mine to listen to it. But when it comes to the piano-- never! I can't stand it. I'm also not a fan of the harpsichord. | |||
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| Minor Deity |
There is certainly something about having the whole spectrum of frequencies under one's control, to bend and tweak into gorgeous harmony. But I do wonder if Ms. Nightingale has perhaps succumbed to a bit of exaggeration? I would think, given today's techniques, one could devise a decent study to see if pure intervals have greater healing power than impure ones. But, she holds up a grinding organ as a better example than 'the finest' piano-forte playing and a grinding organ is not continuous of sound, it's tempered in one way or another.
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| Minor Deity |
I, too, initially thought she was referring to the ability to sustain.
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| Minor Deity |
LOL, CHAS! 
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