[pianotech] Knowing good sound (was Upright Price)

[Paul Milesi]

Horace:  Thank you so much for this wonderfully eloquent and thoughtful
little piece.  I would love to read more from you!

Paul Milesi RPT
Washington DC
(202) 246-3136 Cell/Text
paul at pmpiano.com
http://www.pmpiano.com


> From: Horace Greeley <hgreeley at sonic.net>
> Reply-To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:03:45 -0800
> To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Knowing good  sound (was Upright Price)
> 
> 
> Hi, David,
> 
> Interesting that the thread is moving in this direction.
> 
> The whole concept of how our understanding and appreciation of piano
> sound has changed over the years was the topic of one of the classes
> I taught at the WESTPAC conference in March.11.  Having promised
> notes from those classes to a number of people, I have been trying to
> finish revising and updating them to post to this list before it's
> final demise...which appears to be fast upon us.
> 
> The subject is vast, having multiple layers that bridge generations
> of recording and "playback" technology, musicology, approaches to
> performance, and, importantly, human beings.  And, as with so many
> other subjects, any three or four people are going to have at least
> ten or twenty different perceptions.  It's very
> fascinating...certainly no one "right" answer, to be sure.
> 
> To be more on point to your last question:  I think that we're very
> much the poorer for the gradual homogenization of piano tone that has
> taken place over the last several decades.  On the other hand, to
> paraphrase your observations, the world has changed a great deal, too.
> 
> As I was reminded just today:  In terms of things (especially
> "Classical" things) struggling, I think it's important to remember
> that, writing in the mid-1950's, Arthur Loesser ("Men, Women, and
> Pianos: A Social History") noted that the piano is "cold-weather"
> entertainment.  That is, it was something to do when one really
> couldn't spend a good deal of time outside.  The relevance is that,
> over the last century, a number of other "cold-weather"
> entertainments have become important in various cultures.  While some
> of these are more ancient than others, more latter-day
> "entertainments" have been progressively more technologically
> enhanced...which is to say that, while the tune has remained largely
> the same, the variations have become potentially more complicated over time.
> 
> Thinking specifically of music, within just a couple of generations,
> we've moved from the hearing of music in performance as a real-time,
> live shared experience to where the hearing of music is something
> many people do solely within the privacy of their cranial
> cavity.  With a nod to Anna Russell, these cavities often appear to
> be places in which some folks have resonance where their brains ought
> to be.  One bit of fallout from that condition is that the "actual"
> sound of pianos in performance or recording is, in effect, no longer
> relevant.  Whatever the original instrument may/may not have sounded
> like, we can often only faintly imagine (the potential of vacuous
> space existing between our ears notwithstanding).
> 
> This isn't really a new topic.  I remember reading an essay by
> Nicholas Slonimsky some years ago that was published in an anthology
> of essays (which was published in 1957) about music (especially
> piano) performance.  In that article, he specifically noted the
> negative influence of the recording industry on music...writing that
> "it used to be" that artists would learn a more limited repertoire
> "to perfection", performing pieces with which they were really
> comfortable and over which they had good command; but that, with the
> advent of recordings, it seemed that "everyone had to record
> everything"...especially all the works of a given performer; and
> that, in the process the unique qualities which the artist brought to
> specific works became "lost in the forest of having to learn
> everything".  I had borrowed the anthology, and have looked for it
> for years so that I can get that story more accurately.  Perhaps
> someone on the list recognizes it and would let me know.
> 
> Being more realistic about the future, though, it's important to note
> that piano sales are effectively flat and have been for several
> years.  Many people who track these kinds of things think that piano
> sales track with those of larger furniture items.  I'm not sure
> that's accurate.  At this point, I think that pianos sales track more
> accurately with the sales of other kinds of media and related
> devices.  The sales of DVDs and CDs, for example, have plummeted in
> the last few years.  Importantly, this drop in sales has not been
> countered by an growth in streaming media...the Netflix nonsense
> notwithstanding.  Where is the money going?  Just as importantly,
> where is the time going that might otherwise have been spent doing
> things like practicing the piano, watching movies, or listening to
> CDs?  I suspect that, at least in the SF Bay Area, at least part of
> that time is going into online gaming (by people of all ages and
> persuasions).  While not at all conclusive, I asked about that during
> some consulting I was doing with several (smaller) ISPs in various
> geographic areas.  Each of them reported that they had been
> increasing their overall capacity (to provide faster and higher
> capacity Internet access) more quickly than they had planned; and
> that the rates at which they have had to expand those services cannot
> be accounted for by people simply doing streaming audio or video
> (Netflix, etc).  Rather, their internal statistics support the idea
> that, other than clearly business-related traffic, Internet-based
> gaming is what it is driving the demand.  Although I suspect that
> this is going to vary widely by geographic location, I also suspect
> that what is happening in more populated areas will be followed elsewhere.
> 
> Back to the piano, though, highly recommended reading is:  Craig
> Roell, "The Piano in America: 1890 - 1940", which is readily
> available from places like:  www.abebooks.com .  In concert with the
> Loesser book mentioned above, Roell's treatment of the subject (which
> ends just before WWII) lays a foundation which makes understanding
> how things have evolved since 1940 much more accessible.  At the end
> of the day, we are (perhaps at best) curators in a museum...a museum
> which has decreasing funding, shorter hours, and fewer visitors every
> year.  In many ways, we are the sole support of that museum, and our
> ability to keep it open (even for our own amusement) is predicated on
> our willingness to adapt our skill-sets to provide support for the
> piano sound du Jour as it changes and is changed by contemporary
> performance and recording practice.  It really should not be much of
> a surprise that this is exactly what those who have come before us
> have had to do, as well.
> 
> More later on this...hopefully before the electrons stop flowing from
> this address.
> 
> Kind regards.
> 
> Horace
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> At 10:12 AM 11/30/2011, you wrote:
>> I've given this a new title as it may be going off-topic a bit from
>> Upright Price.
>> 
>> Xeno, these are interesting thoguhts you express.  I've talked about this
>> q bit recently with people of my generation and bit younger.  HiFi used to
>> be a Big Thing.  When we were young, we saved up and bought our first
>> "proper" HiFi, and took care to position the speakers nicely, and to sit
>> at the apex of the sound so as to get the proper stereo effect.  The cost
>> of an LP vinyl record was relatively high in relation to a week's wages,
>> so they were things to treasure.  Turntables were (and still are, in a
>> niche market) esoteric things, to be properly balanced and set up.
>> 
>> Over the last few years, I often observed two students sharing one each of
>> a pair of earphones, to listen to a song.  They often have docking
>> stations at home, of course. But just as often they are content to listen
>> through tinny PC speakers.  The concept of HiFi as a "thing" to be
>> enjoyed, has greatly receded.
>> 
>> Where does all this leave recorded piano sound?  I don't know.  The idea
>> of promoting listening to live music is good.  But, esopecially for
>> "serious" music, it's a small market.  And the recorded music industry,
>> especially for "Classical" is struggling.
>> 
>> On the other hand, of course, it is much easier than ever before to MAKE
>> a high-quality recording (in terms of recording quality anyway).
>> 
>> What do others think, about appreciation of piano sound?
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> David
>> www.davidboyce.co.uk
>> 
>>> Most people don't know what a good piano sounds like.  More and more
>>> people out there have never heard a good piano, live, in person.  Put
>>> that together with the rise of Craigs List, and that aged piano sound
>>> is becoming the new standard.  There's also the change over all in
>>> hi-fi sound: people don't go for big speakers anymore, they listen to
>>> music on their tinny little computer speakers, or their phone device.
>>> The MP3 format also reflects this mass acceptance of lower quality
>>> sound.
> 
>