Piano Harmonics?

I was watching a recital of my violin prof and her husband, they played some modern compositions, and one of them called for the pianist to reach up and do something to the piano strings with his left hand, while his right kept playing.

I tried to figure it out earlier today, but I can't.

It produces an almost harmonic sound.

Has anyone ever heard it done? Can you explain to me how it's done?

thanks

depends on the specific node at which you touch the piano string, vf.

just google it, along with a discussion of the harmonic series.

I know if you hold down a number of notes in a particular harmonic series then strike on of the notes in that series (ideally end one i think) you can hear like an echo of all the notes - kinda eerie, but too quiet i imagine to be of much use in a composition...

Its pretty much just like a harmonic on any other string instrument.. you touch the string lightly at a specific point and then strike the key.

One of my professors performed a piece by Crumb that called for the technique. Apparently she spent two hours marking the different strings with chalk.

I've played around with my in-laws' B

It's not really that inconvenient for a pianist who is used to playing contemporary music - where it's a very common effect, along with pizzicato, strumming the strings with your fingers/fingernails, various ways of damping the strings, etc.

The only sometimes inconvenient part is the placement of the note stand, which can get in the way for the fingers to reach the strings if it's installed as it normally is. There are ways of installing it so you can easily get to the strings though.

One very interesting thing about such piano harmonics (next to the obvious timbral effect) is that it is one of the only ways of producing non-chromatic/equal temperament tones on a normally tuned piano, since you can basically get natural harmonics of rather high orders on the right strings. You can get natural thirds, sevenths, even an almost perfect quarter tone if you manage to bring out the 11th overtone (which generally isn't easy though), which you can then combine with the normal piano tones in equal temperament.

The thing firsty_ferret mentioned, i.e. playing with specific resonances is very common too, even though it's something quite different. I recently performed a whole piece by a contemporary Austrian composer that merely consisted of this effect: Various chords that are silently depressed and "excited" by different staccato-chords. It can be rather quiet of course, but depending on the piano and the room acoustics it's not very problematic and works very well. (Henry Cowell pioneered a lot of such stuff too. One rather famous of his pieces, "Aeolian Harp", consists solely of a variant of this: Certain chords are depressed silently, and you strum over the strings with your fingernails like a harp glissando, and only the depressed noes will resonate. It's a very short and easy piece and fun to do.)

AS a pianist I agree with all -- if you are familiar with contemporary piano literature most techniques to produce harmonics are not problematic (but attaching objects to the strings - well it isn't hard to do but you piss off many piano maintenance departments at schools).

So get to know your performer and make it as easy as possible for them to do the technique.

Thanks gardener for reminding me of the Cowell Aeolian harp - haven't gotten around to looking at that work.

I'd also like to add that manipulation of the damper, una corda and sostenu pedals and different attacks of the keys produces a wealth of sounds ...one of my favorites is to strike a chord sfffz with the una corda pedal (or no pedal) depressed then immediately upon release of the keys depress the damper pedal -- creates this wonderful shadow that is quite distinct -- to heighten and add to the harmony, silently depress a note while releasing the damper and depressing the damper again. You get a quiet harmonic ...this latter technique works well with solo piano, the former in chamber works.

The effect is not hard to use, as gardener said.

But one must be very careful with the piano in playing directly on the strings, as just touching the strings will stain them and damage them in the long run (from the natural oils that our hands have - the stain will not be immediately visible, but may leave a bad mark and eventually lead to destroying the string after, say, 6-9 months).

Before using such techniques on a piano it's best to consult a piano repairer/maker/expert to make sure that a) you're allowed to use such techniques on certain pianos (if you're in uni or if you're performing in a concert hall or whatever), and b) to make sure you take as many precautions as possible to avoid damaging the piano (for example, if you want to stick stickers on the piano to indicate the strings so you can pluck them from the inside, you must not stick them on the dampers but on the frameboard, or if you pluck the strings it's best to do it with a plastic glove, or another material other than directly with your fingers, etc etc).

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Excellent point. Piano strings are made from steel and thus very prone to oxidation (even being stainless steel doesn't make them corrosion-proof) - and iron/steel oxidation is even accelerated in the presence of salty water, which obviously is the main component of your hand's sweat. (And maybe there are even some other substances involved, as Juji mentioned.) And next to destroying your string in the long term, such corrosions also lead to a slightly uneven thickness of the string, which very quickly impacts the acoustic behaviour. (You only have completely harmonic overtones when the wires have the same weight/thickness at every point.)

So do what Juji said and don't play in the interior of pianos without permission!

What also helps a lot is just wiping the strings carefully with a dry cloth after you're done.

Oops...I didn't think of that...lalalalalalala....Last thing I want is the price of a baby grand added to my account, lol.

Thanks for the info though! I will look at the piano in a new light now. :D

This reason above is why bowed strings must be re-strung so often.

Personally, I'm not crazy about piano harmonics. It may be more beneficial to use either a) prepared piano or B) sweeping techniques using a pick or other non-hand instrument (see The Banshee)