Gratuities & concert tuning

[R Moody]

I was always on the look out for an institution position when practicing in
the SF Bay Area and yet managed to do my share of institution tuning without
a contract.  For example I was a substitute tuner for the Conservatory and
for Sheldon Smith at UC Berkeley.  At the Conservatory there were 1 to 10
concert and recital tunings per week.  I remember a few Saturday and Sunday
tunings that were two per day.  That was not the norm but if that is what
was scheduled, it was done. No one thought twice about it.  The conservatory
contract tuner told me not to worry about pitch, just go through and touch
up.  He had certain days to do pitch alterations if necessary much like
Joel's Friday morning tunings.
     The touch up tunings were done aurally.  I spent 3/4 of the 20 to 40
minutes listening to checks.  If it took 40 minutes there were unison issues
or tweaking the pitch in the last two octaves.  If it took 20 minutes, less
than 10 notes were tuned.  I never thought about wearing out the pins or the
piano from touch up tuning from these few notes much less wearing out the
action.   I am not a banger and don't use a machine.  From experiments with
machines it seems to me to take more time freezing the lights than
listening to the intervals in fine tuning.  There is the adventure comparing
machine and ear and it is well worth it to settle once every 5 years the
issue of machine vs ear as far as you are concerned.  (Once every 5 years
there is a "new and "better machine" so you have to check that out).
    The CAUT tuner should be in charge of contract tunings ordered at that
institution. To clarify, part of the contract at UC Berkeley offered the
opportunity to do the contract tunings at Zellerbach Hall for outside
performers, or find a substitute.    If there was a Wednesday night concert
and the piano was to be tuned according to a type of contract called a
rider, (a list of needs sent to the venue by the performer's management) a
tuner was engaged and paid for by the performer's management.   If Sheldon
couldn't make it he called me or any of a few other tuners. If the piano
got tuned for the Wed night show but another group needed the piano for a
Saturday afternoon show and the rider said "tune at 2:20 and after sound
check at 4:30",  then a tuner was hired for those times at that event.
      I never heard any concern, nor advanced any concern about hardship on
the piano from too many tunings.  Tuning and playing are stresses on the
instrument but that is part of  the nature of the beast.  However I don't
beat it, nor alter it every time to a machine determination of pitch.  In
all situations where I was a sub, I never altered pitch per agreement with
the head technician.  In situations where I was the primary tuner I had oral
agreements with the stage manager or theater manager or Musician's Union
about when the pitch was to be adjusted and indicated that a sub in my place
was not to alter pitch.
    The point is that many colleges and universities have concert halls that
make money for them from outside bookings.  Hopefully this means extra money
for the CAUT because the university does not know who it will book during
any year of a CAUT's contract. These bookings must satisfy a complex
contract that list the performer needs and when it is to be done.  So if
they want a tuning Sunday evening on a piano provided by the venue, someone
gets called.
  If the institution is worried about their instrument getting tuned too
much they could indicate in their agreement with the booking agency that the
piano be rented from an outside agency and specify who would pay for the
rental and tuning.  But with the price of rental, (including moving in and
out and the tuner) the institution might think to rent their own piano and
tuner for a little less and make that money for themselves.
    Another consideration of performance instruments is that they really get
played very little.... unless they are also used for practice.   If a
concert grand gave three performances a week, the playing time would be,
say, one hour per day or 3 hours a week?  Tuning of this should take about
1.5 hours a week.  What concert grand gets performed on as much as 3 hours a
week?  Chances are they get practiced on much more than performance or
tuning.

Richard Moody
.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jorgensen, Michael L" <jorge1ml@cmich.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 1:09 PM
Subject: RE: Gratuities & concert tuning


> I agree with this approach. IMHO tuning too much tuning causes instability
and wears out the action.
> -Mike Jorgensen
>
> > ----------
> > From: Joel Jones
> > Reply To: College and University Technicians
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2004 12:46 PM
> > To: College and University Technicians
> > Subject: Re: Gratuities & concert tuning
> >
> > For 30 years I scheduled the concert hall pianos to be tuned on Friday
morning.  I referred to it as a sacred occurrence.  No requests were
approved for last minute rehearsals, visiting school children, etc.
Everyone knew I was in the hall and could stop by for a quick consultation
about problems with the pianos.  Otherwise, the pianos were NOT tuned
specifically for a concert during the week.
> _______________________________________________