One of
the most polished and talented performers I've seen in a long time got
voted off by the judges in favor of a frisbee catching dog because two of them
thought he should have picked a different song
Jeff,
I couldn't agree with you more about the above. The fine musician you refer to, Charles Dewayne, is from CalArts, and he got a raw deal alright.
Alan Eder
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Tanner <tannertuner at bellsouth.net>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Sat, Aug 22, 2009 7:53 am
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Subservience, was CAF
I don't think of that as denigrating the pianists
who become stars so much as respecting the so many more who are just
as talented and don't. Without an agent and a brilliant marketing campaign, the
would-be performers join the audience. Talent is not the only reason
the stars become stars. Just watch an episode of America's Got Talent. One of
the most polished and talented performers I've seen in a long time got
voted off by the judges in favor of a frisbee catching dog because two of them
thought he should have picked a different song, even though the dog missed half
his frisbees. The classical music world is no different than pop. It's a
business. It's a political one. And it's all about the right person liking you
at the right time.
Seriously, you don't think their is a social reason
people buy tickets to the symphony?
Jeff
0A
----- Original Message -----
From:
Porritt,
David
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 8:50
AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Subservience, was
CAF
I haven’t really tried this
approach but I never thought we’d get more respect for our profession by
denigrating the pianists (“The ones who become
stars do so because they have brilliant agents and marketing
campaigns”) or the ticket buyers
(“the ticket buyers are season
ticket holders and just go to the concerts because it makes them
look well to do in the eyes of other people”)
I have taken short,
ill-advised trips to cynical. I just tried to avoid living there.
dave
David M. Porritt,
RPT
dporritt at smu.edu
From:
caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeff
Tanner
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:22 PM
To:
caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Subservience, was
CAF
My thinking was
along the lines of this. When Tiger starts hitting the ball in the woods (pun
fully intended), he goes to someone who is an expert in the MECHANICS of the
golf swing and equipment to show
him what HE is doing wrong and help HIM
correct his technique. The expert might also alter the equipment or
suggest different equipment. But usually, they work on Tiger's technique
(at that level, they can play about as well with KMart clubs - they just get
paid more money not to). With pianists and piano coaches, like no
other musicians, when it comes to mechanics, we essentially have the blind
leading the blind. Sometimes it helps to have the perspective of the
mechanics expert in how the thing functions to explain what's going
on. And we shouldn't think so lowly of ourselves that our understanding
of how the piano functions isn't important. (Susan, yes, I've had a very
similar experience with assisting with pedaling -- how pedaling too slowly
will create zings and zoinks no matter how good the regulation
is)
The phenomenon we
started out describing is action failure, and using the assistance of the rest
cushion to "correct" it. The more I have contemplated this, I have
realized that if the cushion is coming into play during repetition at all,
ACTION FAILURE has already occurred. Raising the cushion does not SOLVE the
action failure. It is by simple coincidence that the jack can reset at
all if the shank is bouncing off the cushion at whatever height. My
thinking is that a situation
like this (as rare as Fred has described that it
is) is one that the performers should be educated on. "If I may
explain what's going on mechanically: What you're doing is
creating something of a false start in the key, and by doing so you
are actually causing action failure. It may work on some actions
and not on others. But by raising the cushions, we are not eliminating the
action failure. It is still happening. This is in some
respect a bandaid approach which increases the probability that you
will be able to repeat the note."
But along the lines
of the "self-deprecating vibe", yes, I hear this subserviant attitude way too
much from us, which is part of why I responded the way I did. Humility is one
thing, but subservience is not a healthy attitude. We don't garner
respect because we don't respect ourselves. And this is most of why CAUT
work is so poorly compensated. It's a combination of "we're beneath the
DMA music faculty gods, so we shouldn't make as much as they do, and, besides,
the local tooner who charges less might get this job if I let them think
I should be earning more." CAUTs net $125 a day plus some
version of health care and retirement benefits instead of $400 because we
don't respect what we do. So nobody else will either. Fred, it
's not
mutual respect when we don't even respect the value of what we
do.
Ed Sutton
wrote:
"It is not very
often that the public buys tickets to hear some unknown player perform a
tuning by Ed Sutton."
Actually, Ed, that
is exactly what they're doing every time. They just don't think about it
that way because you haven't let them know you exist. They don't
know who the player is, they've just read the opinionated reviews
(many of these "stars" are made by opinion writers who can't play
chopsticks). Or, more often,
the ticket buyers are season ticket holders and just go to
the concerts because it makes them look well to do in the eyes
of other people. These players don't become stars because of their
talent. There are tons of talented musicians in the world (I was
floored to find our outstanding faculty member actually paying the record
company for the privilege of making a record that the record company was going
to sell). The ones who become stars do so because they have
brilliant agents and marketing campaigns.
The
audiences don't know these musicians from Adam. But you prepare
the piano no matter who is playing it. They come to he
ar your work every
time. You are part of the TEAM that makes each concert possible. You
are a big part of why they buy tickets. When this concert is over, YOU
get called back before the performer does. Why should we should
think of ourselves as beneath the performer? Without us, the performers
can't do what they do. Without our expertise, no matter how much they
practice, they can't get to where they are unless we've done our work.
That's actually us making the music when they push those buttons.
I GUARANTEE YOU, if
you placed an ad in the program that says, "The performers can do what they do
because Ed does what he does" with a nice, professional picture, the
respect given you would be completely different. Can't you just imagine
hearing folks walking into the auditorium, and you might hear "I wonder
what tonight's pianist is going to be able to do with Ed's piano
tonight?"
We have got to have
more respect for and pride in what we do.
Jeff
----- Original
Message -----
From: Fred Sturm
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Thursday, August
20, 2009
7:58 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT]
CAF
On Aug 20, 2009, at 7:56 AM, Jeff Tanner
wrote:
Geesh,
Fred. Should we not look directly into their faces lest their countenance
blind us? Perhaps piano tuners should wear veils when we go
out in public.
Jeff
Actually, I think there is a middle ground. I call it
mutual respect. But I would also say the the piano technician is on the
lower side of the equation. We are support staff. We are definitely not the
star.
I don't tell the pianist how to play, or not play the
piano. The pianist doesn't tell me how to do my work. The pianist does point
out defects in the piano from his or her point of view, and it is my job to
address them the best I can. I do not point out defects in the pianist's
approach to the piano, whether or not I think they are present. I may try to
explain how the piano action functions in order to establish better
communication. Or not, depending on the person involved.
Regards,
Fred
=2
0 Sturm
University
of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu
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