How to imitate the sound of other instruments with piano

Question

Playing classical music on an acoustic piano, one is often required to imitate the sound of other instruments in order to create different atmospheres.

This is especially the case in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, to name a few composers. For instance Beethoven's op 26 first movement looks a lot like a string quartet and in this bit of Mozart's Fantasia in c, one can argue that the left hand motive imitates a muted horn whereas the right hand can be thought of as some woodwinds instruments.

This is a rather advanced topic that I'm discussing currently with my teacher, one with which I have practically no experience at all, except hearing suggestions of this kind in masterclasses on YouTube.

It has occurred to me that this may not be only a matter of stimulating one's imagination, but also a very practical means of achieving the desired sound.

I am struggling with this practical aspect. I understand that by varying articulation, range of dynamics, phrasing, etc. and in a more general way weight and velocity at the moment of striking the keys, one can achieve a million different kinds of sound. I would be very interested if anybody had any hints about what specifically can be done to approach the sound of different instruments.

More precisely I would like to construct a table with entries for each instruments such as "special quality of sound" and "means of achieving it".

Please note that I'm not talking about imitating in a strict way. I understand that a flute is a flute and that one cannot reproduce the sound of a flute on the piano for obvious reasons. I am interested in what can be done with the technical limitations of the piano to make it sound the most possible like a flute.

EDIT : in response to comment saying this question is too broad. I guess every instrument can achieve a variety of different colors itself so to determine a single way of imitating it whithout the help of the context is impossible. However I was hoping that it might be feasible to draw general guidelines.

For instance when imitating a flute, I noted the folowing guidelines : expressive phrasing while avoiding fortissimo, very soft attacks, carefull legato and the melody needs to breath a lot. For a clarinett I might use a completely different touch. I repeat that I am a beginner in this kind of thinking, so I might be completly wrong with what I said about the flute, or even wrong in this kind of approach, hence my question.

Answer 1

I think these effects come from:

• characteristic rhythms
• characteristic figures, melodic line
• general range

So, for example horns can be imitated in mid range with tonic chord fanfare type figures, dotted rhythms would make sense.

Tympani could be imitated with low range, just rhythm, no "melody" (it's a drum), at the most play the fifth above for just tonic/dominant patterns. Even rhythms like one eighth, two sixteenths could suggest the two handed motion of drum sticks.

"Sighing" figures, appoggiaturas, and flowing scales in thirds/sixths, upper register, might be a good way to suggest wood winds.

Certain figures would seem to fit into groups while excluding others. For example, tremolos in sixth in treble range would evoke fast bowing on violins, but probably not double bass or brass, certainly not a timpani.

I think you imitate instruments on the piano along these lines.

An orchestration book might provide some ideas. Check instrument ranges and examples of usage in the orchestra.

I wouldn't call this "advanced." Honestly, I think it works mostly by exploiting cliches of basic instrumentation.