Mathematics will feature at a music festival this week to explain how instrument maker Wayne Stuart built a world-class piano that may become the basis of a new industry in Australia.

The Stuart pianos not only look magnificent, they have also attracted praise from concert pianists around the world because of their remarkable clarity of sound.

CSIRO Mathematician Dr Bob Anderssen will present a talk about how Wayne Stuart achieved this unique sound at the Keyboard Festival at the University of Newcastle's Conservatorium of Music on Monday.

"A piano festival might be a strange place to hear about mathematics," says Dr Anderssen. "But mathematics reveals why this piano sounds so wonderful."

It's all a matter of vibrations.

Wayne Stuart works with the Faculty of Music at the University of Newcastle to produce the pianos. With his technological innovation, supported now by mathematicians, scientists and engineers, he hopes to establish a world-class piano manufacturing industry in Australia.

The Stuart pianos are based on Wayne Stuart's vision to design and build a piano with outstanding sustain and clarity – a piano that 'sings'.

"A key feature of the new pianos," explains Wayne Stuart, "is the way the strings are coupled to the soundboard. The coupling design found in other pianos is as old as the piano itself."

"But, we needed to know why the new coupling method gives the Stuart pianos such wonderful clarity. And this understanding had to be mathematical, so that the future production and continued improvement of the piano could be placed on a firm scientific basis," adds Professor Robert Constable, Director of the Conservatorium.

Dr Anderssen has found out how the new coupling method is responsible for the wonderful clarity of sound that the Stuart pianos produce.

By exploiting existing knowledge about piano sounds and string vibration, some of it over two thousand years old, Dr Anderssen was able to build a mathematical model of the way piano strings vibrate.

"The model reveals how, in standard grand pianos, the strings begin vibrating vertically but change to vibrate horizontally, parallel to the soundboard," Dr Anderssen says.

"This change to a horizontal vibration makes the sound less harmonious."

"But, in the Stuart piano, the vibrations stay in the vertical plane because of the special coupling method implemented by Stuart. This gives a more harmonious and stronger sound," he said.

"CSIRO's modelling will continue to assist Wayne in refining his design for future Stuart pianos," says Professor Constable. "Our long term goal is to establish a piano manufacturing industry in Newcastle."

Contacts:
Dr Bob Anderssen
CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences
Phone: 0418 425 445 or (02) 6216 7260 (from 17/8)

Professor Robert Constable
Dean and Director, Faculty & Conservatorium of Music,
University of Newcastle
Phone: (02) 4921 8908 (business hours)

Over the weekend: via Mr Philip Sketchley (Hall and Concert Manager) on
02 4921 8905

Wayne Stuart
Stuart and Sons
Phone: (02) 4961 3771 (business hours)
Over the weekend: via Mr Philip Sketchley (Hall and Concert Manager) on
02 4921 8905

Sound and vision opportunities:
The Stuart piano will be played on many occasions during the Festival which runs from August 13 to 19. Please contact Mr Philip Sketchley (Hall and Concert Manager) on 02 4921 8905 to arrange to see and hear the piano in action.
Footage of Wayne Stuart making the pianos is also available – contact Wayne Stuart.