Perfect tuning

[Horace Greeley]

=F6sten,

At 10:10 PM 2/7/97 +0100, you wrote:

>
>Horace, am I right in thinking that what you mean is not simply the
>questions of studying the literature before tuning, but that you would like
>to see a more subjective approach to the art of piano work as a whole?
>

It is an aspect of the art of music, as music expresses the life-journey of
the individual/society.

It is also a highly technical craft, which requires its practitioners to
continue to grow in their overall understanding of it in its many facets.

The question, as always, is one of balance.  Will the center hold?  In this
case, that means finding the (relative) stasus between appropriate level of
reductive involvement (e.g., the nuts and bolts) within the context of the
art of music.

In more person terms, it has never been really important to me that a
pianist say "Oh, Horace did such a wonderful job on that piano!".  It _is_
important to me that the piano be so transparent, which is to say, is not
in the way, that the performer is unaware of its limitations.  This
judgment takes many forms, including things like mms and grams, and stuff
like that.  It also includes things like "Does the leading tone make sense
in this context without being too obnoxious in another?"

In that sense, you are right.  Any art is a question of subjective
judgment.  The greater the range and domain of knowledge and experience of
the (in this case) the listener/technician/etc, the more important (for me)
the question of does something make artistic sense become.

This is entirely too Cartesian for a Friday evening.

It is to me as if it is time for a nice glass of wine and some dinner.

Have a good weekend!

Best.

Horace


Horace Greeley

"People forget that it is the little acts of every day that make or=20
	unmake character."

		 - Oscar Wilde

Stanford University
email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 415.725.9062
LiNCS help line: 415.725.4627