recital piano usage

[Greg Granoff]

Hi back;

This very glib remark sounds reasonable on the surface, but is completely lacking in any indications of knowledge of what exactly are the functions of the various categories of instruments in a music school, and what services a technician can reasonably be expected to provide. And this is not even mentioning such side issues as facilities scheduling, etc.

First of all, a traveling concert artist such as Horowitz would simply never request 'unlimited' time  to practice on a particular venue's piano, knowing full well and respecting the fact that he/she is simply one of many uses of the facility and that time is limited. Often busy schedules mean that the artist him/herself does not arrive more than a short interval before performing, so again, a moot point.  Traveling performers and music schools generally face the
reality of these issues as a united front, and conflicts of interest are usually minimal if everyone involved is committed to communicating frankly and respectfully.
Secondly, not everything can be understood properly in terms of 'client' versus 'service provider', even where money is changing hands.  This pernicious view is ruining something far more important and lasting in any culture-- a sense of community.  The 'client' here (in this case the student looking to practice on the concert instrument) has certain rights within reason, but also is learning to become aware of need to respect others so that he/she may be respected
in return.  A concert instrument's function is to be ready for performances and always sounding and playing its best.  This requires a great deal of attention on the part of a technician, who has only so much time.  Generally no effort is spared to insure the best performance from a concert piano, but in the same way that you wouldn't wear your Sunday best clothes every day, and then wonder why you didn't have time to take them to the cleaner's before the next real
need, and puzzle over the fact that they wore out far sooner than was economically sensible;  in that same way practice time is very sensibly limited on
concert pianos so that spaces occur to maintain them for the next performance, and so they don't loose their luster prematurely, and also as part of a process of generating a culture of mutual respect and self-regulated behavior around them so that everyone can have a good experience with them --- in other words community.  Each gives up a little, so that all may participate equally.
No 'business model' view of the educational process - expecially in an equipment intensive place such as a music school- can ever come to grips with this subtle but extremely important understanding.  It partakes of budget issues, but also transcends them.  Anyway, sometimes it seems as though half of a university piano technicians life is fighting the battle of the inadequate budget, and the endless competition from other hands held out for funding mean that it
will usually be inadequate on some level.  But again, to imply that money will entirely resolve the problem in question is to carry around a grave misunderstanding.

Greg Granoff

afriend@alfleck.com wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I wonder what Horowitz would have said to limiting *his* practise time on an instrument he was going to perform on. *evil grin*. Far too often organizations end up serving the "staff" rather than the clients. The student is the paying client, the rest of the infrastructure is there to support the client. Replacing/repairing pianos is part of the cost of that support, instead of limiting access, push for increased budgets so that the clients can be better served.
>
> At 09:59 PM 08/07/2000 -0600, you wrote:
> >
> >Hi Ken,
> >             Practice time should be restricted to the length of the
> >recital.  A Concert Grand, is just that, and not a practice instrument. If
> >the student is not able to handle the instrument with just a fews hours
> >practice, maybe they should not be in the programme.
>
> >Regards Roger
> >Roger Jolly
> >Saskatoon, Canada.
> >306-665-0213
> >Fax 652-0505
> >
> >