[CAUT] Unauthorized "prepared pianos"

[Fred Sturm]

On Apr 13, 2008, at 6:39 AM, Kent Swafford wrote:

> Things ebb and flow in popularity. Ten years ago, duo piano playing  
> was all the rage, and we had to constantly maintain pairs of pianos.  
> Now, inside-the-piano techniques appear to be particularly popular.  
> There is too much inside-the-piano activity here to limit it to  
> certain pianos. All pianists can understand that if inside-the-piano  
> techniques cause damage, they won't have good pianos on which to  
> play their traditional pieces. Unauthorized piano moving has caused  
> considerably more damage than inside-the-piano techniques. For that  
> matter, simple heavy playing can cause more damage to pianos than  
> inside-the-piano techniques. I try to take care of a Yamaha MIDI C6  
> at a church where the pianist (he did his undergraduate work at an  
> Ivy league school) plays almost exclusively classical music. During  
> the busy times of the year, I hear from him every couple weeks to  
> repair broken strings, loose hammer heads, etc. The heavy playing  
> and constant presence of new strings make it impossible to keep the  
> piano in tune. And don't get me started about the damage caused by  
> removing piano lids; I thought I had successfully banned the  
> practice of removing piano lids; then one of the faculty scheduled a  
> performance of Crumb's Makrokosmos III with Bartok's Sonata for Two  
> Pianos and Percussion; off came the lids, but I was there myself to  
> do it safely.
>
> From my point of view, I see little reason to single out inside-the- 
> piano techniques.
>
> Kent Swafford

	I agree with Kent's sentiments for the most part. When it comes to  
reaching inside and plucking, strumming, touching nodes, and the like,  
I agree wholeheartedly. This is simply so common, and really so  
innocuous from the point of view of damage to the instrument (with  
very few exceptions), that I think we need to simply accept it as a  
given, as being standard use of a piano in the caut setting. Same goes  
for various percussive effects produced by slapping or knocking on  
various case parts. (Yes, one _can_ cause damage, but, as Kent points  
out, moving, lid removal, and abusively hard playing can be more  
destructive).
	It is in the true "prepared piano" realm (Cage and Crumb being prime  
examples, though Crumb is mostly "prepared on the fly" during the  
course of performance) that I think a dedicated piano becomes  
valuable. Partly because most of their works  of this ilk are written  
with a six foot instrument in mind for strut placement and number of  
bass strings, partly because then the instrument can be prepared in  
advance and have things left in it between dress rehearsal and  
performance. And, yes, partly because there is somewhat more  
likelihood of damage of some sort, even if it is only a dropped screw  
causing binding parts or the like. The dedicated piano would also be  
indicated for such effects as use of percussive implements (mallets  
and the like) on strings or other parts, with some degree of  
supervision and consultation.
	Our concert instruments are regularly plucked and strummed (the head  
of the piano faculty composes music which makes some use of these  
techniques - which would make it pretty hard for me to try to control  
or prohibit them even if I wanted to). I have seen next to no damage  
from this kind of activity, the sole exception being occasional  
trichord dampers that are not seating (have been misaligned, and a few  
seconds usually serves to correct the problem, though admittedly that  
doesn't help in the concert situation where I am not present) - and  
really I think that has only happened on rehearsal instruments, not on  
the concert ones. I have never found that this activity causes tuning  
issues, or at least none that is more severe than hard playing. Same  
goes for "bowing" strings. Hitting a string with a marimba mallet is a  
different story, so there I would want to set limits.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu