Rouse Awards – Juliette Richards’ research into piano sounds

23 Nov 2020

Juliette Richards (Upper Sixth) received the Rouse Research Award with her exploration of the piano’s ability to replicate the sounds of other musical instruments.

A professional standard pianist, who was recently crowned Perse Musician of the Year 2019-20, Juliette chose to research this area as she wanted to combine her love of the keyboard with her scientific Sixth Form studies.

She said: “I like to inter-connect these two sides of me and I wanted to do something I’m passionate about. I was just really interested in seeing to what extent it’s possible for a piano to replicate the sound of other instruments from a physics perspective.”

Juliette set about her project by recording notes of the same pitch on piano, cello and trumpet before analysing the spectrum of their frequencies and making comparisons in terms of their sounds.

She said: “Different techniques of playing notes on piano relate to different sound qualities, such as if you press a key down slowly or quickly. The piano also has pedals, so I also looked at what they do to the sound.

“I found that although I think it’s possible to create a sound on the piano that can be close to a sound created by another instrument, it’s not the same.

“The other thing to point out is that the bulk of my project looked at individual notes. It may be harder to make an individual note replicate another instrument, but when put into the context of musical phrasing, it sounds very close to the actual instrument.”

Perse music scholar Juliette, who has been playing piano for 10 years, added that the research had impacted her own perspective on the instrument.

She said: “It was really useful to apply what I’d learned. It just changed my whole way of thinking as a pianist and what I’m doing to achieve a sound. Piano teachers will tell you about different techniques, but it helps to have an understanding of why they affect the sound.”