[CAUT] Unauthorized "prepared pianos"

[Chris Solliday]

Thanks to Kent and Fred for these excellent insights. Has anyone had
problems with crushed copper windings on fine bass strings? This has been
the worst damage I have seen  on our Steinway D which has been a fine
concert instrument for many years. After consulting and reaching agreement
with the performer to put brass screws instead of steel screws between
plain wire strings, and wooden sticks (disassmbled clothes pins) between the
wound bass strings the performer decided that the sound was not right for
the bass strings and used the screws while my back was tunred and I did not
attend the concert. Well fool me once. Next time I'll be in the bluejays box
with a machine gun. That is when the damage occurred and the bass strings
began to buzz after they had left town. So that's a new set of bass strings.
Probably will improve the piano in general as they were over 10 years old
anyway. But really the sense of entitlement that allows a performer to do
this sort of thing is beyond the pale. Personally I can't find much value in
this kind of music anyway and relegating it to a dedicated POS or PSO seems
the best compromise.
If I can't sing it I sure don't want to whistle it.
Chris Solliday
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Unauthorized "prepared pianos"


> 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
>
>