violin thread

[Susan Kline]

At 03:57 PM 5/13/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Susan;
>  Keith wrote " Looks like you and Susan Kline have a struck a symbiotic
>chord with that violin thread."
>   Please Susan, please tell me that Keith is wrong with this statement, tell
>me that you are not (gulp) a manipulator of violins.  Please tell me that you
>are a Cello player, you know the heart of the symphony and the soul of the
>score,

I am not a manipulator of violins. I am a cello player, the heart of the
symphony and the soul of the score, and if you have the violins play alone
in rehearsal you will find I help keep them in time as well. [except Jim
Coleman!] <big grin> I also help them resolve their intonation arguments.
[except Jim Coleman !!!!!] <bigger grin>

>Just please don't tell me, and therefore us, that you are one of
>"those people".  The arch nemisis of the piano technician in concert
>sittings.  One of "those people" who torture us with comments like  "isn't
>that a little flat?",  or "isn't that a little sharp?" and then look down
>their noses at us when we say, oh so tactfully,
>perhaps you have your fingering slightly high or low, because this piano is
>at A440... hear the fork ?, see the lights ?, see the readout window ?  You
>know one of "those people" !
>Jim Bryant (FL)

I have never tortured a piano tuner yet! (Except maybe myself, by tackling
spinets full of mice, etc.)

>p.s. ... Does anyone else have trouble with violinists ?

I used to have trouble with them in school, when we were all young and
callow. (and with _violists_ [shudder]) It faded with the advance of
decorous age, till the last bit of it disappeared when I started the tuning
course. At that point, all the tuning students said, "She's a musician --
she must be right" and all the string players said, "She's a tuner -- she
must be right" ... It is _sheer_ coincidence that this fits in so well with
my present signature line. <wide grin>

I think one can overemphasize the awfulness of listening to out of tune
string playing. Chamber music is still my great joy, though the chances to
play with people who are _really_ in tune only arrive years apart, when they
arrive at all. One can still imagine the music as one plays it, the way one
would like to have it. Hearing how it is constructed, and making one's own
part congruent with that, is still very gratifying.

I hope I have put your mind at rest. Thanks for the opportunity to inflate
my cellist's ego!!

Regards,

Susan

Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"Agree with me now: it will save so much time."
			-- Ashleigh Brilliant