Fwd: Gloria Frawley Testamony

[pbailey]

So I should have just posted this to begin with; its what I really 
wanted to do anyway.

							Paul Bailey

Begin forwarded message:

> From: pbailey <pbailey@sbcglobal.net>
> Date: Wed Apr 24, 2002  08:11:25 PM US/Pacific
> To: Ed Foote <A440A@AOL.COM>
> Subject: Gloria Frawley Testamony
>
> Ed,     RE: your post on songwriters and temperaments,  I've still got 
> this in my 'old' computer.
> It was a 'handout' at a Tiim Farley class back in the '90's I 
> think....The reference to the piano
> professor is significant (I think) because wasn't he one of he 
> important teachers of the time?
> That is, if there is accuracy and meaning in this letter, then it 
> wasn't all that long ago, historically
> speaking, that somebody 'big' and 'mainstream' was harboring an 
> 'antique' tuning in his studio.
>
> To say nothing of the testament of a 'normal' client about her 
> life-long experience with music;
> is it reading too much into this to say that ET tuners separated her 
> from the experience of music
> for half her adult  life?
>
> And I think this is in answer to the question you pose at the end of 
> your post:
>
> 		''    The early years might have been well tempered for a lot 
> of people out
> 			there but we will never know unless we try the alternatives. ''
>
>
> 										P.B.
>
>
> =========================================================================
>
> 												April, 1993
>
> When I was a young piano student I was privileged to study with R. Ganz 
> in his studio at Chicago
> Musical College.  I must have been imprinted with some kind of 
> alternate temperament, possibly a
> meantone. There were two grand pianos in that studio and perhaps 
> because I was small and the
> bench was the right height, my lesson was always given on the same 
> piano. It was not tuned like
> the other one. Because I was 8 years old, Mr. Ganz would emphasize that 
> I was to LISTEN to what
> I was doing.  I am sure he was talking dynamics, but the imprinting in 
> the mind and psyche went
> beyond dynamics. The intervals of the sound became my standard of what 
> a piano should sound like.
>
> I used to complain at home that our piano was never in tune, even if it 
> sounded like all the others in the
> neighborhood. I was told in no uncertain terms that our piano was tuned 
> by the finest tuner on the North
> Shore.
>
> As I grew older and got used to hearing only equal temperament, it 
> seemed that my imagination had to
> work overtime to get from music what I wanted to hear. I convinced 
> myself that I was listening for something
> that was only in my child-mind; that those tones were only imaginings. 
> They didn't exist. It was as though my
> ears shut down.
>
> In recent years my piano was re-manufactured, and when it was returned 
> home I was aware that the tuning
> was different - just slightly. I thought that it perhaps it was an 
> inherent quality in the piano - a new depth. I
> complimented the technician about bringing out such beauty of tone. 
> Were my ears opening up a little?
>
> It was then that we started to explore other temperaments. I was always 
> reassured that if I didn't like it, it would
> be put back to what I wanted. We worked through Werckmeister, 
> Aaron-Neidhardt and then eased into a
> Modified Meantone. WOW! What a flood of music and memories came forth! 
> It took fifty years to open those
> old channels. My ears are now open once again. Was it early imprinting? 
> I cannot say, but I do know that
> my soul is laid bare in some of the older temperaments. Isn't this what 
> music is?
>
> I am convinced that we have been set back in our development as human 
> beings by turning away from what
> was there all along. Why do we always have to re-invent the wheel? We 
> are two or three generations removed
> from those liberating tunings. We no longer hear some of the glorious 
> music that is written for specific tunings.
> I am sure we would hear great new composers of music for THIS age if 
> artists were aware of what could be
> done with a variation in accepted intervals.
>
> Equal Temperament may have its place, but I find it very limiting. What 
> has the artist to sell? Flash, fire, technical
> skill and a sameness of interpretation. When did you last hear Chopin 
> played with delicacy? Brahms with intimacy?
> The list could go on and on. My ears ache with what I hear in most 
> concert halls. Noise - not music. We have accepted
> a physical performance and rarely are we moved to a deeper 
> understanding.
>
> I am grateful for the early exposure to a different temperament and 
> being told to LISTEN. I am further grateful to the
> technician who had the insight and courage to explore different 
> temperaments with me.
>
> 										Gloria Frawley
> 										Madison WI
>