Attack (piano)

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The attack on the piano is the activity of the player moving the piano key down. The way in which this is done is called the attack type . The downward movement of the key activates the lever system of the piano mechanics , the piano hammer is thrown against the string and causes it to vibrate. Depending on the force exerted on the key ( strike force ), the hammer is thrown against the string at different speeds and generates tones of different volume and timbre . The greater the hammer speed , the louder the tone and the richer the sound in overtones . The question of the extent to which the timbre of the tone depends only on the dynamics, i.e. on the speed with which the hammer hits the string, or whether certain types of attack can influence the timbre of the tone has not yet been clearly answered.

In the course of the history of piano making and playing, various attempts have been made, depending on the doctrinal opinion, to systematize the types of keystrokes, but without arriving at a generally binding system. The different types of attack are often incorrectly referred to as the articulation types legato , non legato , portato and staccato . This is rejected by some because a type of articulation is not necessarily implemented with just one type of attack. So z. B. be played legato with raised or lying fingers. For special effects, such as those required by jazz music , corresponding deviations from traditional tactics are necessary. For the glissando z. For example, the pianist strokes a row of white or black keys with the back of one or more fingers of one hand. In addition to the flat hand, the fist can also be used to strike the keys to achieve impact effects.

There is also an important difference to other keyboard instruments such as the organ or the synthesizer in the variety of touch options . Good digital pianos are characterized by the fact that they try to capture the attack as precisely as possible and to convert it sonically. For almost every brand, the process is divided into the following two sub-levels: First, the translation of the mechanical movement into the MIDI protocol (a distinction is made between 128 different velocities) and second, the conversion of this information into the corresponding sound. The first part of this translation can be implemented quite well with today's hardware and software (but there are also manufacturers with new ideas and different concepts), while the second part of the large Japanese manufacturers of digital pianos such as Yamaha , Casio , Roland or Kawai each have their own Techniques developed, up to the simulation of the complete sequence of movements from the finger to the hammer to the string (with Yamaha's Silent Piano ). But Roland also took this development into a new dimension with his V-Piano, released in 2009, by calculating the complete sound live by simulating the physical processes of the real piano and no longer based on samples, as was customary until then.

literature

  • Ludwig Riemann: The essence of the piano sound and its relationship to the attack. An acoustical-aesthetic investigation for classrooms and at home. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1911.
  • Otto Ortmann: The physical basis of piano touch and tone. An experimental investigation of the effect of the player's touch upon the tone of the piano . EP Dutton & Co, New York 1925.
  • Otto Ortmann: The physiological mechanics of piano technique. An experimental study of the nature of muscular action as used in piano playing, and of the effects thereof upon the piano key and the piano tone . EP Dutton & Co, New York 1929.
  • Arnold Schultz: The riddle of the pianist's finger and its relationship to a touch scheme. Carl Fischer, New York 1936. Reprint 1949. (Together with the works of Ortmann's fundamental presentation with sharp criticisms of the previous presentations of the attack problem, especially the views of Rudolf Maria Breithaupt .)
  • Georg Roth : Method of virtuoso piano playing (Alfred Hoehn's method) . Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1949. 2nd edition 1953. (A much expanded version under the same title was published in 1995 by Florian Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven. ISBN 3-7959-0683-0 .)
  • Bernhard Böttner : Old and new truths about tone formation on the piano. Their physical and physiological foundations and the consequences for piano pedagogy that have been overdue for 50 years. A contribution to the didactics of universal technology. In: ZfMP (= magazine for music education). Gustav Bosse Verlag, Regensburg, ISSN 0341-2830, issue 29 (March 1985), pp. 45-69.
  • Bernhard Böttner: Habituation of art movements. Prerequisite for ensuring optimal piano technique. In: practicing and making music . Schott Verlag, Mainz, Issue 5, October 1985. pp. 354-360.
  • Bernhard Böttner: 9 theses on the evolutionary theory of universal technology based on a method-integrated definition and systematics of the types of touch and their consequences for modern piano pedagogy . In: Documentation 1982 for the EPTA Congress (= European Piano Teachers' Association), Saarbrücken, University of Music 1982.
  • Wolfgang Wagenhäuser / Michael Reuter: Play like Horowitz? Edition Omega Wolfgang Layer, Trossingen, Berlin 1997, ISMN M-700122-00-3.
    (This contradicts the results of the theory generally held up to now, according to which the same final velocity of the hammer leads to the same overtone structure and thus to the same sound. With the same sound level values, different sounds can be produced (p. 129). Takes the view that the type of attack influences the sound of the piano, every movement creates its own sound. According to the authors, the type of acceleration can change the contact point of the string impact and thus the timbre).

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