Harrumph!

14 June 2024, 11:14 AM

Bernard

Harrumph!

quote:
I will only remark here, that wind instruments, including the human voice, and stringed instruments, capable of continuous sound, have generally a beneficent effect–while the piano-forte, with such instruments as have no continuity of sound, has just the reverse. The finest piano-forte playing will damage the sick, while an air, like “Home, sweet home,” or “Assisa a piè d’un salice,” on the most ordinary grinding organ, will sensibly soothe them–and this quite independent of association.

--Florence Nightingale, 1860: Notes on Nursing

Yikes.

14 June 2024, 12:40 PM

piqué

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.

14 June 2024, 01:10 PM

RealPlayer

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.

14 June 2024, 01:37 PM

CHAS

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.

14 June 2024, 03:49 PM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by CHAS:
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.

15 June 2024, 03:06 AM

Daniel

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.

15 June 2024, 06:22 AM

ShiroKuro

Interesting quote, Bernard.

quote:
1860

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.

15 June 2024, 08:04 AM

Axtremus

Which would you rather listen to while lying sick in bed:

Bagpipes vs. Banjo

15 June 2024, 11:22 AM

RealPlayer

quote:
Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Interesting quote, Bernard.

quote:
1860

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.

I think they were pretty well developed but not like the behemoths of today…though closer to today’s pianos than Mozart’s.

15 June 2024, 01:30 PM

AdagioM

quote:
Originally posted by Axtremus:
Which would you rather listen to while lying sick in bed:

Bagpipes vs. Banjo

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?

15 June 2024, 01:44 PM

Daniel

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!

15 June 2024, 01:48 PM

Daniel

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.

16 June 2024, 12:33 AM

Bernard

quote:
Originally posted by piqué:
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.

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.

16 June 2024, 12:39 AM

Bernard

quote:
Originally posted by RealPlayer:
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.

I, too, initially thought she was referring to the ability to sustain.