Both instrument maker David Klavins and musician Nils Frahm are interested in exploring novel piano ideas. When they got to know each other, they started to discuss plans for making a piano. A difficulty presented itself as soon as they started to discuss the character of the sound that would result from their design. Klavins first unfolded the technical specificities of the piano he had in mind. He explained “that I would use stainless steel for the frame, that we would make it una corda (…) and that it would be an open design, without any case cover, which is actually a demerit for sound emanation.” Frahm became interested to have a custom-built piano that would allow him to bring it everywhere, modified as he wanted it.
Yet, when Klavins specified the technical aspects of his idea, the sound that would result from the design fudged precise expression. “I, myself, had like a 95% correct perception of the final outcome of sound and I tried to communicate it to him by describing it to him: ‘It will have a warm sound, it will have a clear sound, it will have this character, that character.’” On Klavins’ website, the Una Corda sound is described as ‘natural’. But how exactly the piano would sound escaped precise description. When trying to describe sound, like describing a painting or a picture, much of the detail gets lost compared to when we actually hear or see it. Klavins puts it like this: “It’s like you try to describe a taste to somebody. For example, if you try to describe how a mushroom tastes to somebody who has only eaten, let’s say, one kind of mushroom.”
Without exactly knowing what the resulting piano would sound like, Frahm took the risk and commissioned the building of the Una Corda based on the principles as they had discussed it.
- Want to know more about the piano building?
- Or perhaps you would prefer to read about John Cage's interpretations of sound?
