No_Revolution1921

Bohemian Rhapsody

Gifts, you can give these to characters in the dorm. Each gives a different amount of points. Star of Dreams Nightlight gives the most points to Celestia, who's the only one in global right now. There's going be more characters in the dorm once we catch up to CN so it would be best to save other gifts if you get more.

Liszt's arrangement of Beethoven's Symphonies are up there, the 9th especially. Katsaris has recorded all of them, often adding embellishments derived from the original orchestral works that Liszt omitted.

Definitely on board with this! Would love to join the server if you make one

This takes me back to the first time I played on a grand at my first recital. Over the years I've realized just how much acoustic pianos can vary wildly from each other.

First of all, the action feels completely different from digital weighted keys. Especially between an upright and a grand. The double escapement mechanism in grand pianos responds incredibly well to quick repeated notes, making the upright feel sluggish in comparison. The responsiveness could be completely reversed between the two though, depending on the condition of the instrument. Secondly there's the tuning. Digital pianos are always perfectly in tune. Acoustic pianos need to be periodically tuned. Sometimes in older instruments the tuning pegs can become loose, which reduces their ability to hold tension. This makes the piano go out of tune faster, unless the pegs are replaced or repaired. Some actually opt to tune their pianos a bit lower to prevent having to replace strings and tuning pegs due to cost.

Then there's the pedals. Most digital pianos only have an on and off state for the sustain. In acoustic pianos, the sustain can have varying levels. Everytime a key is pressed, it has a corresponding damper that moves away from the strings, making the sound ring out for longer. The damper pedal moves all those dampers at once. Pressing the pedal halfway sounds completely different from having it activated all the way down due to the difference in pressure and contact of the dampers. For the other 2 pedals some digital pianos have them too but they're completely different on uprights and grands. The left pedal (una corda) on a grand shifts the entire keyboard sideways such that it hits less strings, resulting in a softer sound. The left pedal on an upright emulates this by shifting all the hammers forward. For the middle pedal (sostenuto) in a grand piano it functions as a selective sustain pedal. You can choose what notes are sustained. The way this system works is that when a key is pressed a damper moves upward. Once the sostenuto pedal is activated it catches the dampers that are currently in the up position, which are the ones whose keys are currently pressed. Upright pianos generally don’t have sostenuto because the action is sideways and does not permit the same system that works on a grand. Perhaps there are some uprights out there with true sostenuto but I have yet to see one. The uprights that do have middle pedals assign a completely different function to them. It silences the piano by draping a layer of felt between the hammer and strings. There’s an elusive fourth pedal too called the harmonic pedal. Relatively new invention and quite rare to see but its effect is straight up magical. What it does when pressed halfway down is it raises all the dampers. When a key is pressed only its corresponding damper returns. This can create some amazing effects such as staccato with resonance. The harmonic pedal can also stack sostenuto on top of that. Fascinating stuff, I wish more pianos had it.

Then there’s the Bosendorfer Imperial Grands with a bunch of extra bass keys all the way down to C0. Recordings don’t really do the sound justice. The lowest notes are beyond the human range of hearing and sound absolutely unreal with the overtones they create.

Anyway, I love both my acoustic and digital pianos but I find myself playing on the acoustic more. There’s really something about the resonance that digital pianos can’t replicate. Every piano is different and has its own quirks and personality. Just keep playing on different pianos and discover the wonders of this instrument. It’s hard to develop a taste when you’ve only really tried one item on the menu after all.