Les Noces - a few observations

[David Skolnik]

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The primary subject of this thread has been the best method for matching 
tunings in multiple piano situations.  While interesting and thought 
provoking, it does not quite relate directly to "Les Noces" (The Wedding) . 
According to Grove's:

>The original version of The Wedding, essentially completed in 1917, was 
>scored for a large mixed band of about 40, with only a small string group, 
>much wind, and a battery of      percussion and twangy plucked and struck 
>strings, including cimbalom  (ds) (an instrument Stravinsky became 
>obsessed with after hearing and buying one in Geneva in 1915), harps, 
>piano and harpsichord.

And:

>In February 1921 the Pleyel piano company gave him a studio in their Paris 
>factory in the rue Rochechouart, and here he worked on the pianola part of 
>The Wedding, for a time even envisaging rewriting the entire score for 
>four pianolas.

And:
>Meanwhile, The Wedding had itself at last reached the stage in Paris in 
>May 1923 in a form which also seemed curiously to co-opt this most 
>ethnically Russian of all his works into a neo-classical sound-world, with 
>its four pianos (actually two double pianos in the first production)...

I guess I would make two points:

1) The original orchestration, including cimbalom, suggests to me that he 
did not want pianos perfectly in tune

2) Given the date of composition and the likelihood of numerous 
performances (recordings?) with 4 pianos before ETD, there would have been 
comparable aural solutions to the problem.


Wed, 6 Mar 2002
>I agree with the majority of replies so far.  I do not tune pianos 
>together.  I tune each piano to it's own stretch.  Of course they will not 
>be exactly the same stretch numbers but they will be very close and sound 
>very good together.  In my opinion, the very minor differences will give 
>each instrument it's own voice, so to speak. Imagine trying to get four 
>singers to sound exactly the same.  I believe that the differences in 
>characters also give the music a more three dimensional sound as well.  In 
>other words, they don't sound like one big piano but four separate voices, 
>each with their own particular character.  Imagine how sterile it would 
>sound if you got the four singers to sound exactly the same.
>
>-Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T.

During the Christmas season, WKCR in New York City (Columbia University 
station) had a Bach Festival.  One recording they played was of a number of 
chorales,  performed with a single soloist on each part.  It was thoroughly 
unfulfilling.

At 02:01 PM 03/06/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Eric
>
>And, again, I forgot who said it, but I agree that perhaps Stravinsky 
>wanted all four of the pianos to sound slightly different, to give them 
>each their own character.
>
>Wim



Under these circumstances, I would probably go with David Millers's 
suggestions:

>  Just do a good, stable tuning and get a cup of coffee!


For unparalleled fun though, next time someone should try one tuner per 
piano, maybe even with a conductor!


David Skolnik
Columbia University, NY


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