[CAUT] Thumbtacks in hammers!

[Victor Belanger]

How ironic!

Next week I have to prep a piano for Lou Harrison's Symphony #3, and 
in the score there are instructions of installing thumb tack in the 
hammers.
At first I thought to myself "what kind of piece of s&%t  of a piano 
can I put on stage" but then I looked at the score and it is somewhat 
demanding.
It does not make me happy but, I chose an upright and I will take it 
as it is and find out what needs to be done after. If I need to 
change the hammers, then that is what I will need to do; sadly.

Anyone with other kind of experiences with thumbtack that could 
recommend a few pointers.

Best.

Victor Belanger
MIT

----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: John Minor <jminor@uiuc.edu>
To: caut <caut@ptg.org>
Received: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 10:55:11 -0500
Subject: [CAUT] Thumbtacks in hammers!

>Well, it finally happened. Every university technician fears
>that one day the following will happen in their school:

>A recently rebuilt Steinway B was used for a performance of
>Stravinsky's RAGTIME. The piece calls for cymbalum so, in it's
>place a piano had thumb tacks pushed into the hammer felt to
>imitate the sound. This was for a NEW MUSIC performance here
>at the University of Illinois.

>I wrote a nice email to the performing arts center director
>where the atrocity was committed and informed them the hammers
>would need to be replaced at a cost of $400 for the parts.
>Unfortunately, I failed to mention the 30 or so hours it could
>take to bore and hang the new set!

>The department directors spoke and the offenders were
>supposedly "spoken to" about the matter. Personally I'd rather
>have had the chance to talk to people face to face and ask,
>"What were you thinking?" There seems to be an attitude of
>"I'll do anything I darn well feel like doing" among many in
>our music department. Is that an isolated attitude?


>John Minor
>University of Illinois