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Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 20, 2010

A New Documentary About the Piano and Mathematics Begins Shooting This Week

TUNERS - What's Your Take on This?
NOTE: Michael LaPointe has contacted me and mentioned he'd be very happy to entertain any Q&A about this project. If anyone is interested, please let me know, or just respond to this thread.

( Frank B.)

Appassionato: A Mathematical History of the Piano begins principal photography in Los Angeles, California, on July 17, 2010. Extensive in scope, the production will document experts from UCLA, USC, Yale University, Princeton University, and MIT.

Appassionato: A Mathematical History of the Piano is the story of the multiple failed approaches toward a unified piano tuning throughout the ages, and also the men (Galileo, Newton, Pythagoras, Bach) who tried to create a “perfect” musical harmony.

While some believe that music is the perfect art form and mathematics the perfect science; neither are. They harbor mysteries deeper than the caves of the human mind. Music and mathematics and the link between them raises important questions in our cultural evolution: What is harmony? Who gets to say what is pleasing to the ears and what is utter garbage? Why does music move us? How come mathematics is recognized as the perfect science; yet, many mathematicians realize there are anomalies layered throughout its structure?

Using a myriad of original interviews from the leading minds in the field, as well as reenactments and modern storytelling techniques, Appassionato: A Mathematic History of the Piano will be the most comprehensive documentary about the legacy between humanity, mathematics, and music.

The feature length documentary is an ode to pianos, music, math; and, the leaders of art and thought who dared to challenge notions of what is possible in our world.

The movie, helmed by Michael LaPointe, is gathering a diverse and talented group of professionals including sound designer/composer Rob Simon (Ambient Music Designer for Iron Man, The Unborn, The Wolfman) and Producer Cicely Gilkey who has helped produce all three seasons of the Madmen behind the scenes documentaries.

Additional information on Appassionato: A Mathematical History of the Piano can be found on the film's fundraising webpage: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/889010276/appassionato-a-mathematical-history-of-the-piano or Facebook page: facebook.com/appassionatothemovie

sounds like he's going to go deep into some themes explored in GRAND OBSESSION. sounds terrific! i look forward to seeing it.

:-)
I thought of Grand Obsession (along with you and Mark) when I first read about the documentary.

I'm hoping some of our tuner-techs and designers join in too.

I don't know. It is a dry subject to get into. I think they will have to play some games to make it interesting. Like how they changed the tone and not just the tuning of the harpsichord when demonstrating Well and Equal Temperaments in the clip. Not to mention can anyone really know how they tuned in Bach’s time? They may even have some kind of agenda and are willing to obscure the truth to make a point. But then isn’t that what most documentaries do?

Hey Jeff,
We did not change the tone of the Harpsichord in the clip. Eric, the professor in the clip, actually does go into great detail about the tuning in Bach's time but atlas, it would make the clip 5-10 minutes long and I wanted to just show a short piece from the shooting. There is no agenda other than trying to make a documentary about the subject.

Will that take in account the new approaches to tuning (dating +- 1985) by Cordier, Stopper, and now ALfredo capurso 'CHAS" ?

I guess the movie will be about temperament instead of pianos. After all pianos did not really exist before mid 18th century. But with "piano" in the title it will get a larger audience. Look forward to the result. Regarding Kamin's question, I hope the producers have a crackpot detector on call and will evaluate recent "innovations" critically.

Kees

For this sort of project, the crackpot detector is generally used to find material to put in, not to keep out.

I eagerly look forward to it.
Thanks for posting this!

(BTW......I assume I couldn't be the Mark you meant! Although if I were, I certainly wouldn't mind.)

Too funny : what is a crackpot ?

You know, Cordier is relatively common in France, and was even told in an university in Montpellier. Those symetrical concepts are valid to me, Chas bein slightly different because of the realisation method, and the goal (sort of self referred acoustic equilibrium).

those tunings generate all a particular resonant flow, and are playeable. The reference to circle of fifth remain, even if not as evident than in other methods.

Hey All,
To answer a few questions; yes, the movie is more about temperament. We feel that most people gravitate to ideas better if there is something specific they can latch onto visually and emotionally; hence, the use of piano over temperament in the title. I do plan on asking the piano technicians about Cordier, and will ask also about Stopper Scale and Capurso. Although I am not familiar with Capurso? So any enlightenment would be appreciated.

I suggest you start here.

Pythagoras would have loved Cordier tuning; let the octaves deal with his comma!

Kees

Note added in edit: This is a nice page on the octave.

Yes it satisfy the mind for that aspect, that said it is diversely appreciated. may be because it project the resonance very high in the spectra, may be because of the hyperactive double octave (probably not but I don't know)
Sure the orchestra find his justness easily.

Now what should be very interesting to study, is the natural settling form of those tunings/ All tunings find a path [acoustical ?) to a stability. (I of course don't talk of pin or wire settling, this is supposed to be done actively by the tuner, and if well done, it does not move)

An hypothesis is that the "CHAS" form (equilibrium 12/15) is a natural settling of a pure 12 [or eventually more stretched tuning as long as the 3:1 relation is not too much skewed)

That is more or less the way it is produced, with an appreciation of the soundboard - bridge motion when the unisons are tuned. When one think about it, the method is so imprecise that the reason why the final form install naturally is worth investigating (with Chadli experiments or similar ?)

On the paper, Chas sound a little difficult. but it rely on a natural geometric ratio, which is probably the one which is the most near of the usual theoretical ET.

I am looking forward to the progresses of the video !
Btw I have a few recordings of a tentative for Chas on Viennese Forte, a Pleyel pianino (1848) and other more modern instruments. but Alfredo Capurso may have more quality .recordings probably.

as probably Bernhard Stopper..

Best wishes

In my opinion all this talk about "acoustical equilibrium" etc is utter nonsense. The only stable tuning of a piano is when all strings are tuned to 0Hz. That is it's natural state.

Kees

Why ? ask engineers . All pianos settle in a stable form, if they go out of tune it is because the tuning is not strong enough, because the pianist play too hard, because the moisture change the soundboard shape.

If not brutalized a tuning can hold for years...

Acoustical stability, is a very important concept, ask plane builders. I also have hard time to believe that, but it was confirmed.

A 0 Hz string ?

Setting a pin is yet an equilibrium question. I even wonder if the fact that when set actively (the tuning pin is made springy enough to hold the wire)the higher resonant frequency of the system does not help for stability.

See : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Bmj6Hwyxk

pin setting and other..

I liked your site, but did not find the modes explained (while it is not so important !) Live music is worth any piano tuning theory or practice !!

The original pianos did not use felt hammers and did not have modern scales and more sophisticated components that are used to construct modern pianos, so what we do today must only simulate what might have happened in regards to tuning the original pianos. I am not sure, but I think the original Cristofori pianos had leather/paper hammers, used two strings in the compass which were made of some type of metal and the overall piano was constructed with slightly more than 4 octaves. My guess a tuning on a piano like that would have produced a much different sound than one on a modern piano.

I look forward to the documentary and hope that whatever historical reference regarding the evolution of tuning temperaments also incorporates the types of instruments (pianos) on which they were tuned and their evolution as well.

Glen

Thank you, Issac for demonstrating that aspect of pin-setting and tuning stability. Excellent video - you can hear the vibration quite clearly and the unison seems to favor sympathetic vibration quite nicely - long sustain.

Glen