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thickness

LV4-26

Senior Member
Hello,

I'm not sure what thickness means in the following sentence
Other composers – Stravinsky, Hindemith, Toch, Malipiero, Casella - had already written pieces for player piano, but, despite some forays into superhuman speed, thickness, and endurance, not with such complexity as to render the instrument entirely nescessary.
What kind of skill is thickness for a pianist? Or is it a skill at all?
(Dictionaries didn't help).

Any help appreciated
jm
Isn't a player piano an automatic piano known also as a pianola ? I had never heard the term so I looked it up for your first question.

I mostly can't understand this text.

"Other composers............. had already written pieces for player piano, but .... not with such complexity as to render the instrument entirely nescessary"

Things are usually rendered unnecessary

Hermione
Thick writing for piano, or indeed for orchestra, means writing in which a lot of notes are sounding simultaneously. There are usually a lot of inner parts moving together.

Wagner's Parsifal is thicker than most of Satie.
Hello J-M.

"...but, despite some forays into superhuman speed, thickness, and endurance, not with such complexity as to render the instrument entirely nescessary."

First, this is not a common way of describing pianistic or musical performance.
Next, I offer a personal interpretation that may be far from what the author intended, or may be correct: Thickness, as used here, refers to many notes and chords played either simultaneously or in rapid succession. Think of Liszt's piano compositions, or perhaps Beethoven's Appassionata.
I think it's quite normal to talk of thick musical textures. It's certainly an expression I am used to.
Isn't a player piano an automatic piano known also as a pianola ? I had never heard the term so I looked it up for your first question.

I mostly can't understand this text.

"Other composers............. had already written pieces for player piano, but .... not with such complexity as to render the instrument entirely nescessary"

Things are usually rendered unnecessary

Hermione
Thanks for your answer, Hermione. The sentence does make sense to me.
What it means is those other pieces remained within the limits of a very good pianist's skill. Unlike Nancarrow's pieces, you didn't necessarily have to use a "machine" to play them.
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