Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1895 — Music By the Ton. [ARTICLE]

Music By the Ton.

It requires more force to sound a note gently on the piano than to lift the lid of a kettle. A German composer has figured that the minimum pressure of the finger, playing pianissimo, is equal to 110 grammes—a quarter of a pound. Few kettle lids weigh more than two ounces. The German’s calculations are easy to verify if one takes a small handful of coins and piles them on a key of the piano. When a sufficient quantity is piled on to make a note sound they may then be weighed and these figures will be found to be true. If the pianist is playing fortissimo a much greater force is needed. At times a force of six pounds is thrown upon a single key to produce a solitary effect. With chords the force is generally spread over the various notes sounded simultaneously, though a greater output of force is undoubtedly expended. This is what gives pianists the wonderful strength in their fingers that is often commented on. A story used to be told of Paderewski that he could cracu a pane of French plate glass half an inch thick merely by placing one hand upon it, as if upon a piano keyboard and striking it sharply with his middle finger. Chopin’s last study in C minor has a passage which takes two minutes and five seconds to play. The total pressure brought to bear on this, it is estimated, is equal to three full tons. The average “tonnage” of an hour’s piano playing of Chopin’s music varies from twelve to eightyfour tons. Wagner has not yet been calculated along these lines.