APRIL I, 1915] 
NATURE 

permanent tensions produce different effects even when 
it is sought to maintain the corresponding degree of 
loudness by suitable variations in the strength and 
method of pedalling. This observation leads us to 
believe in the existence of a relation between tone- 
quality and touch. While it is easy for an inexperi- 
enced person to produce the necessary differences of 
touch with a pneumatic player fitted with this con- 
trolling device, I find it very difficult to obtain the 
same effects by striking the keys of an ordinary piano 
with, my fingers. 
(5) There appear to be two different ways of accent- 
ing particular parts of chords by hand pressure applied 
to the control lever. With a slight sub-permanent 
tension, treble notes are usually best accented by de- 
pressing the lever before the note has reached the 
tracker board, and subsequently allowing it to fly up 
smartly. With a heavy sub-permanent tension, it 
is necessary to jerk: the lever upwards from below just 
after the note has reached the tracker board. For a 
bass note with light tension, the lever is firmly pressed 
down after the note has reached the tracker. With 
heavy tension the lever is previously raised, and then 
allowed to drop down with the note. In either case 
the action is supplemented by a corresponding action 
in pedalling. 
(6) With a heavy sub-permanent tension and the 
lever supported from below, it is possible to obtain 
very soft effects in which the treble parts ring out 
clearly and are not drowned by the bass. With a light 
sub-permanent tension and the lever pressed down the 
results are more brilliant. I attribute these differences 
to the inertia of the controlling weight. 
(7) There is a great satisfaction in being able to 
slam down a vigorous chord, hand and foot working 
in unison. 
(8) In the earlier experiments the connection be- 
tween the lever and the bellows was made first with 
strings and tapes, and afterwards with wires passing 
over pulleys. It was found, however, that the stretch- 
ing of these connections greatly interfered with the 
effects and led to the production of harsh results, and 
the connections frequently broke. 
(9) The best accentuation of particular notes in 
chords is obtainable when the notes reach the open- 
ings in the tracker board at exactly the same instant. 
When they are cut unevenly it is often very difficult to 
accentuate at will either the upper or lower notes of 
a chord. 
(10) With experience it is possible to learn the exact 
kind of effort required to accentuate a note in any 
part of the scale, and thus to obtain marked differ- 
ences between the treble and bass parts of a compara- 
tively short chord. : 
(11) Where a note or chord is repeated a number 
of times in rapid succession it is advantageous to hold 
the controlling lever firmly. This obviates all the 
strain on the ankles in pedalling, which under 
ordinary conditions is considerable. 
(12) In every case the exertion of pedalling is 
greatly reduced, not improbably by about 50 per cent. 
(13) Some players have separate regulating bellows 
for the bass and treble parts, but this does not inter- 
fere with the working of the device. 
(14) A very small effort often produces a consider- 
able difference in the effect. It is possible to empha- 
sise a particular note or chord by a suitable stroke of 
the pedals alone, but the lightest possible touch of a 
finger applied to the lever will often produce a con- 
spicuous improvement in thé effect. 
(15) Experiments with pianos of different makes, 
both upright and horizontal, operated by either de- 
tachable or interior players, lead to practically identical 
results. 
NO. 2370, VOL. 95 | 

133 
Although I have been trying for ‘a’ long 
time past to account theoretically for the ob- 
served effects, the results are still far short of 
finality. It is clear that neither Helmholtz’s nor 
KKaufmann’s mathematical investigations fully suffice 
for the purpose. There are, however, other difficul- 
ties. One is that, although it is ‘easy to observe 
differences of effect which are, as a rule, quite con- 
spicuous, it is not as easy to define exactly in what 
these differences consist. Again, the success of a 
piano-player as a musical instrument largely arises 
from the fact that the manipulation of the various 
controls, both for tempo and expression, soon becomes 
intuitive. A great deal evidently depends on the 
elasticity of the muscles of the hands and feet. It 
would be very difficult to ascertain precisely the effect 
of differences in this elasticity on the tension in the 
playing pneumatics while a note is being sounded. 
In short, it appears probable that a complete dynam- 
ical theory of the observed effects will involve inves- 
tigations of no small degree of difficulty. The mere 
engineering of this contro] device into a form in 
which it can easily be adapted to any internally fitted 
player without interfering with its use for hand piay- 
ing, has given Mr. Ireland a great deal of trouble. 
It is now important that the experiments should be 
repeated by a number of different independent ob- 
servers, and their experiences compared; until this is 
done it would be futile to proceed much further in 
seeking a theoretical explanation. 
Educational Problems. 
The average children of player owners will not wish 
to spend much time in acquiring manual dexterity 
with scales and five-finger exercises. In place of the 
present ‘practising,’ they will practise exercises in 
player manipulation, and begin by learning the mean- 
ing of the expression marks on the roll. The exercises 
will be mainly devoted to :— 
(1) The control of the speed regulator and _ the 
acquisition of the subconscious or instinctive faculty 
of playing every note or chord at the desired instant. 
Practice in accompanying. 
(2) The production of differences of expression and 
touch, including those described in this lecture, and 
the acquisition of the power of accenting parts of 
chords in any part of the scale. The pupil must not 
be satisfied until he has learned the exact action corre- 
sponding to every note on the keyboard. For school 
practice automatic accent perforations and separation 
of bass and treble halves must be forbidden. A school 
prize should be given for the best rendering of some 
composition. 
The pupils will, however, require some familiarity 
with the structure of music, and musical notation. 
For this purpose there will be needed a scale to be 
placed in front of the tracker showing the black and 
white notes, and in addition special rolls marked in 
such a way.as to illustrate :— 
(1) The rulings of the treble and bass clef in the 
ordinary staff notation. 
(2) The relative value of semibreves, minims, 
crotchets, quavers, etc., and the corresponding rests. 
(3) The distribution of the sharps and flats in 
different keys. 
(4) The meaning of such terms as staccato, legato, 
arpeggio, trills, etc. 
(5) The lengths of the various musical intervals, 
such as major third and minor fifth. 
Finally, in order to acquire practice in reading 
music, the pupils may learn to cut their own music 
rolls. Appliances for this purpose are already obtain- 
able, and will doubtless become common in the future. 
A school class in roll cutting should prove an efficient 
