[CAUT] CAUT Endorsement

[Fred Sturm]

On Oct 20, 2007, at 6:18 PM, Wolfley, Eric ((wolfleel)) wrote:

> the CAUT task force - and everyone else who posted on this subject -
> create the impression that the CAUT's position starts and ends with
> the quality of the concert tuning.

	Let me add a bit about this notion of "concert tuning" versus  
"whatever other kind of tuning" there may be. We (the skills test  
subcommittee) discussed a number of ideas about tuning. We thought a  
caut needed to be able to do an efficient bang-up job of pitch  
change, and come up with a good solid tuning in the end in a pretty  
short period of time. Ken Eschete expressed another side to what kind  
of chops a caut needs to have, saying we should check the seventh  
tuning of the day and see how that measured up, and then the same  
after a week, a month. . . Maybe a bit exaggerated, but the idea is  
one of focus, efficiency, chops to get it done, and the professional  
attitude that says every single one is a quality tuning, with a focus  
on solid.
	And we also discussed, for very good reason, on ability to produce a  
"concert tuning." That is where we contribute to the end purpose of  
the department: the actual public performance of music. That's what  
we're all there for (the whole music department), training students  
for that and contributing our bit to the process.
	What is a concert tuning? Well, I would say it is a tuning done with  
extra care, one that is able to stand up to public scrutiny.  
Obviously every single tuning we do should meet that standard,  
ideally. So we are really just talking about taking a little extra  
time and trouble to make sure we got it as good as possible. In the  
same sense, playing a piece of music in public performance isn't  
essentially different from practicing or playing for a lesson, except  
that it is more focused on making sure the final result is as good as  
possible. Concert prep of a piano is a very similar thing: nothing  
essentially different from any other prep and regulation and voicing,  
except that the standards and expectations are higher.
	Is "concert tuning and prep" a significant part of the workload? It  
sure is where I work. I'd put it at over 20% of my load. Even if it  
were only the 2% Jeff Tanner claims, it would be by far the most  
important 2%. It is where the department shows itself to the world.  
It is where the students and faculty show what they can do. It is  
extraordinarily important. If you don't believe that, you have no  
business working for a music department.
	Now when it came to developing a draft notion of how to structure a  
caut tuning test, it was pretty obvious that major pitch change would  
present considerable practical obstacles, as would having someone  
tune seven pianos in a day <G>. So we decided to focus on "concert  
tuning" but bring along as many of the other abilities we had  
identified as we could. Efficiency and ability to produce within a  
real life time frame was one. Another was solidity. There are plenty  
of possible ways to go about evaluating "concert level tuning." Many  
people I have heard in discussions on the topic say that we should  
just use "CTE level" tuning as the standard (meaning the current test  
passed at 90% or above in all segments, done aurally). That is  
certainly one route we could have taken. We chose a completely  
different route. We chose to look at the real life chops to get a  
complete piano done and end up with solid and clean unisons. And we  
added a bit about stretch as well, but I think I'll leave that for  
another discussion.
	The point I am trying to make here is that this is not some kind of  
rarified standard we are proposing. It is very much an "in the  
trenches" standard, one that applies not just to the concert grand,  
but to the practice piano and every single other piano we face. If  
you have the chops to do an efficient and solid concert grand tuning  
to a solid standard, you can do the rest as well. That is the ability  
we are aiming to assess.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



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