Solenoid players try (again) to equal the human presence

Hello MMD Readers,  Piano technician Richard Friedman was kind enough
to mail me an article from the June 13, 2002 issue of The New York
Times, entitled: "An International E-Competition Relies on the
High-Tech E-Piano: Egad!" by writer Anthony Tommasini.

(There is an extract of his article on the web, but you have to
purchase the entire text for $2.50, at this late-date, from their
Archive department.)

Another article about the conclusion of this so-called "E-Competition"
appeared in their newspaper for June 18, 2002.

 [ Douglas supplied URLs for the articles at the NY Times web site
 [ but unfortunately they can be viewed only by subscribers to the
 [ NYTimes.com email news service.  -- Robbie

The gist of the first article was that pianists in St. Paul, Minnesota
were going to be playing, in competition, for a prize, in a series
sponsored, in large part, by the Yamaha Disklavier people.  The results
were to be transmitted on the Internet to Japan, where pianist Yefim
Bronfman would be watching a video, while allegedly hearing the same
performance on another Disklavier piano, thousands of miles from the
auditorium in the States.

Also, among the "solenoid-player-plus-video-signal" judges was to be
Emmanuel Ax, who pulled out, at the last moment, due to a "scheduling
conflict".  It was pointed out that he expected to judge the playing
through a "video feed", only, and not by listening to a self-playing
electronic player-piano, with a television image to assist in the
assessment of each performance.

(Note: Pianist Ax used to appear, frequently, at the City Hall
auditorium in Portland, Maine, often with 'cellist Yo-Yo Ma,
advertised, when playing together, as "Ax & Yo", in our local
newspapers.  We heard Mr. Bronfman perform with the Portland Symphony,
a few years later, and he presented the Saint-Saens "Piano Concerto
#2", with that orchestra.)

Artist Ax called the Disklavier "a fabulous gadget" while Bronfman, who
stayed on to be an invisible judge, had no previous experience with
these solenoid players.  He was one of several musicians who used the
word "weird", according to the Times article.  Writer Tommasini wisely
introduced the variables among different pianos: their subjective
voicing, plus the room ambience, and other related factors.

As I have said, in many of my own articles, about the failure of the
pneumatic 'reproducing' piano to capture every nuance, as the 'Twenties
advertisers usually claimed, the journalist added, "Pianists learn to
adjust their touches to a particular piano with a degree of refinement
that would seem impossible to calibrate.  And no measuring system can
replicate an artistic presence..." -- which is absolutely true.

Yamaha's spokesman, however, claimed that the identical pianos were
voiced to be "the same", and that the differences between the pianos
in Minnesota and Japan were, quote, "insignificant".

For over a decade, the Disklavier, in my opinion, has disgraced
itself, when mentioning George Gershwin's audio recordings, especially
when a spokesperson evokes "the Ghost of Gershwin" or other deceased
pianists, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, as being replicated through the
medium of their solenoid player.  Even writer Tommasini comments that
"it's easier to trust the fidelity of those old 1930s recordings of
Schnabel playing the Beethoven Sonatas."

This is why I defer to audio for a reference source, and not old
perforated rolls with a logotype on the leader, or some instrument like
a solenoid player, sloshing through a keyboard performance.  Despite
the low fidelity of the vintage audio recordings, including Edison
cylinder records, the "information" is there, for many performance
characteristics, which no machine (be it at pneumatic player piano or
the solenoid equivalent) will transmit to the listener, beyond the
differences between pianos and/or the concert halls in which they are
being used.

The June 18th Times article, listed above, reveals that pianist
Bronfman "finally adjusted to listening to the Disklavier piano",
yet it closes with the following statement:

  "At first, Mr. Bronfman found it disconcerting to listen to
  performances on a self-playing piano, he told officials of the
  competition.  So he followed the musical scores of the Schubert
  works as he listened.  But he increasingly took advantage of the
  video relay that was coordinated to the performance.  'Watching
  the television screen helped to make it believable,' the statement
  concluded."

Thus, the E-Competition judge, in Japan, relied upon audio/video
sources, when all was said and done, didn't he?

I find it amazing that the Duo-Art, Welte-Mignon and Ampico were able
to promote 'reproducing-the-artist' concerts, using modified pianos and
special rolls, in the 'Twenties.  However, it's doubly amazing, for me,
to witness this business of trying to replace the flexibility of human
fingers with solenoids, a striking force that has many drawbacks,
musically, in spite of the "high tech" statements.

Tommasini's article wrote that the Yamaha people claimed that one
would, eventually, quote, "pop a floppy into a Disklavier", instead
of experiencing an audio recording.  That promotional remark makes
no sense, for you have to tune and regulate the solenoid player
instrument, whereas a fine audio system not only costs vastly less,
even with Bose 901 speakers or a Klipschorn, but requires no scheduled
upkeep, such as an acoustic piano fitted with an electromagnetic
striking action.  (In the computer field, the floppy disk is no longer
"high tech", as it was, a few years ago.)

This proves, once again, that the human individual reigns supreme,
as a live keyboard artist, as a virtuoso pianist captured on
audio/video equipment, and as a pneumatic player piano "controlled
by a musically-inclined roll interpreter" (viz., the Pianolist).

The unattended Duo-Art usually leaves a lot to be desired, including
the tempo varying - after several minutes.  To date, I've never heard
any solenoid player, including the Boesendorfer Imperial SE at M.I.T.
in Boston, 'record' a musician and then 'play back' with an accuracy
that excites me.

The Disklavier definitely got some publicity, but, when you read
between the lines of the first article and then scan the shorter second
one, with the results, it's safe to say that the E-Competition bordered
on being an artistic flop.  Thank goodness Mr. Bronfman had a video
relay, to make the final performances "believable", as the text stated.

This roll arranger doesn't buy into "the Ghost of Gershwin" nor the
substitution of "data streaming" for solenoids, attached to piano keys,
to duplicate or replace the human artist.  Some of my releases might
sound like Max Morath or Masanobu Ikemiya, but they are my arrangements
"inspired by" their audio recordings and/or live performances, which is
not "reproducing" the artist.

Regards,
Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/

 [ At http://www.yamaha.com/musiced/accent/Accent401/03.htm is an
 [ an article by Yamaha entitled "Piano-e-Competition Will Send
 [ Music Over the Net".  Details are presented at the competition
 [ web site, http://www.piano-e-competition.com/  -- Robbie