The mystery behind the music
(Posted May 21, 2016)
I want to thank the choir for their excellent anthems this past Sunday. They are a wonderful group with which to work.
Reminder: This Sunday is Jazz Sunday. Doug Hartline and his ensemble will be leading the service, musically. NEXT month – June – Jazz Sunday will be moved to the last Sunday - June 26. So mark your calendars.
This week the sanctuary piano was ‘revoiced.’ Many people have asked me what that means. I will try and do my best to explain after talking to Chris Farrell our piano tuner. When a piano begins to sound ‘…harsh, bright, and metallic…” it no longer has tones that blend. Some notes sound louder than others when struck at the same time creating a harsher or piercing sound. The purpose of ‘revoicing’ is to make all the notes blend so no one note in a chord or series of notes will sound distinctly different from the others.
How is this done, you ask? The piano tuner has to adjust the tone, the touch and then tune it. The hammer heads will be first realigned, and then made softer. The striking of the strings by the mallet will be made even. The keys all need to be leveled. Finally the tuning of the 88 keys should finalize this process which takes at least a full day! My answer is of course an abbreviated one, but I hope it gives you somewhat of an insight of the process.
Peace and warmth through music. - Jim Moriarty