Questions from SCI AM essay

[Peter A. Donovan]

As a new subscriber to this list, and having browsed the archives a
bit, I'd like to throw out some questions about the future of piano
playing.

The recent essay in the December SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN has been noticed
here, but its substance has not been discussed.  In "The Endangered
Piano Technician" James Boyk, pianist in residence at California
Institute of Technology, laments the scarcity of qualified
technicians, and the substantial threat that this poses to the future
of piano playing.  "Because of the lack of well-trained technicians,
owners may never know the pleasure of playing a piano that is in good
shape."

Causes?  "This medley of abilities requires complete mastery and a
special temperament, a combination that is increasingly rare."  Boyk
also points to the fewer training opportunities; the "four programs
remaining in the U.S. . . graduate only about 30 students a year."
Apprenticeship, he says, "seems almost dead."

Boyk offers no solutions.  What's the PTG plan for the future?  Does
anyone know how the various age groups are represented in the ranks of
technicians?  What do the demographics of technicians show us about
the future of piano playing?

What about the pianos themselves?  Is the overall condition of
American pianos improving or deteriorating?  Is this a symptom or a
cause?

I am a part-time piano teacher in a small rural county, with an MM in
piano performance, and tune and maintain my own piano and those of my
students.  (Two of my beginning students have synthesizers.)  In
tuning I am mostly self-taught.  If I didn't tune and do some basic
repair on these old uprights, nobody would.

The conditions I see and deal with are an economy and society that are
not likely to support a major investment in pianos or piano teaching
anytime in the near future.  (It is certainly noticeable that almost
all contributors to this list work for colleges and universities.)
Since the end of the postwar boom around 1975, very few new pianos
have come into this county.

Peter Donovan
Wallowa County, Oregon

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