"should I stay or should I go?"

[David Skolnik]

Hi Kent -

I don't think we disagree.  I credit my own early theatre-tuning experience 
with the my ability to through-tune, but I'm going for a little nuance 
here.  Let me say this.  As to how many of those same people would ever 
again be confronted with a piano tuner at work, why should you assume it to 
be so unlikely?  These were stage hands and such.  The next time, they 
might very likely remember...maybe it would take a few times.  That's a 
learning curve. As to the existential characteristics, I am trying to 
distinguish between those conditions which are mutable from those that are 
im-,  (pi).  I see no virtue in suffering in silence if, by speaking up, 
the situation can be altered, and I don't accept the idea that asking / 
demanding silence ought to be experienced as humiliating.

As for your recent experience, congratulations.  It would be interesting to 
hear the circumstances surrounding such a nightmare, but I think your story 
illuminates my point on multiple levels.  For example, what if some aspect 
of the tuning had, in fact, proved inadequate?  Maybe starting out good, 
but slipping.  How would you have felt if some critical attention had been 
brought to the piano, despite your heroic effort.  It certainly wouldn't be 
fair, but you might also attribute that to the tuners' existential dilemma. 
Why, in such a panic situation, was it impossible for the venue managers to 
control the conditions for you?  Why SHOULD such heroics be allowed to 
become the standard, as illustrated by the quote from Carol Beigel's 
post,  "Yeah, the real professionals can deal with anything".

Overall, a much wordier version of what David Love just posted.


David Skolnik


At 06:50 AM 11/12/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>On Nov 12, 2004, at 12:02 AM, David Skolnik wrote:
>
>>The point is, SOMEONE has to teach these people.  If I (or you) don't 
>>tell them, why SHOULD they know better?
>
>You are right. My position is indefensible. But it is my position, 
>nevertheless. I wonder how many of those people that you successfully 
>shooed away will ever be faced with the same situation again. Next time it 
>is likely to be different people making noise and needing to be educated. 
>This is the piano tuner's existential dilemma, as far as I can see. We can 
>suffer (the noise) in silence, or we can suffer the humiliation of having 
>to ask for quiet. Suffering in silence involves no break in tuning, and 
>doggedly continues the progress toward a finished tuning.
>
>Last weekend I tuned for Olga Kern, the Cliburn gold medalist. I had 
>prepared one piano in ideal conditions, but there was a last minute change 
>of pianos. I had half an hour to bring the other piano up to pitch and 
>tune it at the last minute while chaos reigned in the hall. Impossible. 
>But as far as they know, I did it, and the reviews of the concert were 
>raves. Maybe I was able to do that because of the experience I have tuning 
>in adverse conditions. ?
>
>Kent
>
>
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