[CAUT] Performance facility inventory - a 2nd twist

[Porritt, David]

So far we don't have a "policy" here on prepared piano use.  Both of our
concert grands have been "prepared" for different pieces and so far no
damage has been done.  I suppose if we suffer some damage, we'll have to
decide a policy then.

dp

David M. Porritt
dporritt@smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jeff Tanner
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 12:29 PM
To: College Technicians
Subject: [CAUT] Performance facility inventory - a 2nd twist

Hi All,
I'd like to add a new twist to this survey.  After years of what I 
thought was an understood policy of not allowing our primary recital 
piano to be "prepared", we had a bit of a snag here this semester 
because, apparently, there is very little saxophone repertoire which 
does not involve some form of piano preparation.  We have a 2nd piano 
available for prepared piano.  It's a very fine piano, so I'd rather 
bring a junker in, but the understood policy had been to use the 2nd 
piano for the few prepared pieces.  Somehow a nasty rumor got out last 
summer that the sostenuto was not in regulation on the 2nd piano 
(nobody ever told me about this until after all this blew up, but when 
I went in to check it, everything worked just as it is designed), and 
so the argument was that the 2nd piano, while in pristine, like new 
condition, was somehow an "inferior" instrument -- a big shovel full of 
hog manure.

Israel's statement, "We do not allow our primary performance 
instruments to be "prepared"", gave me an idea to be able to present to 
our administration.  I will be happy to compile the results of this 
survey, and publish it for those of you who are interested.  I know 
we've discussed this at length in the past, but we haven't done any 
kind of formal survey on the subject.  My intention is not to rehash 
the opinions but to learn if there is or is not any kind of official 
policy at other institutions around the country.

How many of you have a policy that prohibits any form of preparation on 
your primary recital piano (including just using tuner's mutes in the 
strings)?  Both yeas and nays would present an interesting study.

Name of Institution:

Do or do not allow preparation of primary recital instrument:
(if you allow some but not all, explanation is appreciated)

Reason why:

Is your policy understood or in writing?

What do your instrument use for "prepared piano" performances?

Thanks a million,
Jeff
Jeff Tanner, RPT
School Of Music
University of South Carolina

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