a: 



5^ 



NATURE 



[July 31, 1913 



kinds of blows were intermingled irregularly, and 

 according to a list previously drawn up, and the 

 damper was held up while the note was being struck. 

 As each note was struck a verdict as to its quality 

 was given by a person sitting out of view of the 

 piano, and this verdict was compared with the char- 

 acter of the blow given. The observer, it should be 

 mentioned, was not a trained musician, but was ex- 

 ceptionally appreciative of what is called touch. 



Discarding all cases where the note had accident- 

 ally been more or less loud than the average, it was 

 found that in 49 per cent, of the cases of uniform loud- 

 ness the effect on the auditor coincided with the char- 

 acter of the blow given, in 51 per cent, the reverse. In 

 another series of 100 notes the values were 51 and 49 

 respectively. It is evident, therefore, according to 

 this, that different quality of touch produces no differ- 

 ence in the quality of the sound produced. No doubt 

 further evidence should be obtained by a repetition 

 of such experiments with other performers and other 

 observers, and a further test would be obtained by 

 having two performers alternately striking the same 

 note, and ascertaining whether the observer could 

 detect the difference. 



Even if the independence of " touch " on the char- 

 acter of the stroke is fully established, there is no 

 difficulty in explaining the apparent difference in 

 touch of a performance with the fingers and one 

 with a piano-player. At least seven factors may be 

 specified as determining touch : — (1) Differences in 

 loudness of a note (or notes) as compared with that 

 of the preceding notes, (2) deviation from the theo- 

 retical value, according to the score, of the duration 

 of the note as compared with that adopted for the 

 preceding and succeeding notes (i.e. different degrees 

 of staccato or legato) ; (3) variations in time as com- 

 pared with that of the preceding notes; (4, 5, and 6) 

 similar differences in loudness, duration, and time of 

 one note in reference to its nominally contemporary 

 notes ; (7) the use of the loud pedal. The use of the 

 soft pedal is so specialised that it need not be con- 

 sidered ; it is used more for modifying a whole passage 

 than for modifying individual notes, and it practically 

 gives the performer the command of a second instru- 

 ment ; but, perhaps, an eighth factor of a general char- 

 acter should be included, namely the extent to which 

 the above means of emphasising notes is made to 

 harmonise with the rhythm and sense of the music. 



Now, in the piano-player we have the means, either 

 by moving levers or by pressure on the bellows, of 

 altering the loudness (1) or time (3) of a note as 

 compared with that of preceding notes, but such 

 alterations are gross and sluggish in comparison with 

 those possible in finger playing ; the inertia of the 

 mechanism has to be overcome, and the result depends 

 directly or indirectly on the pressure of air in the 

 bellows, which cannot be altered instantaneously. 

 The least unsatisfactory operation is a retardation of 

 the time. The duration of the note as compared with 

 that of its neighbours (2), or of its fellow-notes (5), as 

 well as the loudness of it as compared with its fellow- 

 notes (4), can only be accomplished by modifications 

 in the slots of the roll, and they are, therefore, stereo- 

 typed_ and always the same ; this produces a very 

 unsatisfactory result. 



When hearing for the first time a well-plaved piece 

 with the air strongly brought out in this way, the 

 impression produced is decidedly favourable, but at 

 the second hearing a sense of irritation is felt ; we 

 know exactly the degree of emphasis which is going 

 to be placed on each note of the air, and the monotony 

 is even more trying than where no emphasis is 

 attempted. It is a case similar to that of a beautiful 

 landscape which never chancres; the charm of music 

 lies largrely in its imperfections, or. at least, in the 

 NO. 2283, VOL. 91] 



varying and unexpected degree in which its beauties 

 are brought out. An alteration in the time of con- 

 temporaneous notes (6) is, I believe, attempted on 

 some rolls, but the eliect, I should imagine, would 

 be even less satisfactory than in the other cases. The 

 use of the loud pedal is a potent defect in the piano- 

 player. Needless to say, this pedal is not used in good 

 finger playing only to produce loudness, but more 

 generally to produce softness, and a smooth flow of 

 sound. In a slow movement a good performer will 

 often depress and raise the pedal for nearly every note, 

 and the effect produced depends entirely on the cor- 

 rect timing of these movements with the depression 

 of the keys; this' is impossible unless the messages 

 from the brain to the fingers and to the feet are simul- 

 taneous. This cannot be so with a piano-player, 

 where the sound is produced by a separate mechan- 

 ism ; this sound (either of the particular note in ques- 

 tion or of its predecessor) must travel to the brain, 

 which then has to interpret it, and to send a message 

 to the finger which controls the pedal lever ; the per- 

 former is conscious of an act of thought being neces- 

 sary in using the pedal of a player, whereas in finger 

 playing its use appears as if it were instinctive. With 

 the player it is practically only used for producing 

 loudness. 



I believe that the thud of the air on the keys is 

 another defect in the player. When in the same room 

 as the instrument, it seems possible to decide after 

 hearing one bar whether the player or fingers are 

 beine used, and this is certainly so, as I have ascer- 

 tained by trial, and apparently more easily so, when 

 one is in a distant room, the reason of this being 

 that the thud penetrates the walls more easily than 

 the note, and hence attains more relative predomin- 

 ance. I have an instance of this in a striking clock, 

 of which the note is inaudible in the next room, while 

 the. thud can be distinctly heard. 



No doubt many of the defects of the piano-player 

 will be diminished in time, especially by such devices 

 as those of Prof. Bryan. Already one of the best 

 piano-makers is putting on the market an instru- 

 ment which is a great advance on its predecessors, 

 the chief feature of it being a reduction in the size 

 of the bellows, which admits of much greater control 

 over the sound production. Still, it is a case of play- 

 ing with the feet, instead of with ten independent 

 fingers. 



When the damper is allowed to act in the ordinary 

 way, it is possible that the effect produced (touch) mav 

 be modified by the character of the blow given to the 

 keys, for this blow results in the damper being raised, 

 as well as in the hammer striking the strings, and 

 these two actions mav not synchronise to the same 

 extent with blows of different character. 



Spencer Pickering. 



A Danger of so-called " Automatic Stability." 



From time to time devices have been proposed for 

 securing "automatic stability" in aeroplanes by means 

 of a suspended weight or "pendulum," which operates 

 on rudder-planes governing the motion of the machine. 

 A similar device is also in actual use for governing 

 the motion of torpedoes in a vertical plane, in con- 

 junction with a further device for maintaining the 

 torpedoes at a constant depth below the surface, or 

 more strictly at a level where the hydrostatic pressure 

 is constant. " Pendulum " arrangements for auto- 

 matic stability of aeroplanes have frequently figured 

 in the pages of such journals as The Scien'ific 

 American, and it must be admitted that such devices 

 are calculated to appeal strongly to the imagination 

 of readers whose knowledge of dynamical principles 

 is limited in range or nil. 



The statement, which stands in my name, to the 



