[CAUT] Agraffes and dampers

[Jeff Tanner]

I'm sorry.  I must disagree to some point.

Performers seem to be of the opinion that the composers of this music  
are more the authority of piano design than are manufacturers and  
technicians.

Fuddy-duddie or not, there must be some education that much of this  
stuff is quite damaging to the piano.  Some of it doesn't even make  
sense - like using a wedge mute for single unisons -- even the  
largest ones just fall through to the soundboard.  I don't care how  
much some of you respect some of the composers or how "cool" some of  
that music sounds, it is my opinion that those who compose this type  
of stuff are guilty of negligent vandalism, if there is such a  
thing.  When some music departments require some form of this stuff  
for composition students to graduate, so that framming on a $100,000  
piano with a beer can is all one can come up with to meet the  
requirement, there are serious problems with this form of composition.

Jeff


On May 15, 2007, at 11:55 AM, reggaepass at aol.com wrote:

> Hi List,
>
>  David has made a crucial point about how we are perceived within  
> the environment in which we work, and how that impacts how  
> respected we are (or are not). Taking an, "Ours not to reason why;  
> ours but to do or die" attitude (at least publicly), helps keep us  
> from eroding our own credibility.
>
> Alan Eder
>
>  P. S. David, thanks for the endorsement of our video. It IS in the  
> libraries of many schools of music across the land and, apparently,  
> has helped facilitate the dialogue that must take place between  
> pianists and technicians about specific pieces and techniques.  You  
> check is in the mail!
>
> ae
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dporritt at mail.smu.edu
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Sent: Tue, 15 May 2007 8:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Agraffes and dampers
>
> Paul:
>
>
>
>  Get Alan Eder’s video of how to prepare a piano. It’s good,  
> comprehensive and should be in every university’s library.  We have  
> a resident ensemble that only does contemporary music and naturally  
> they prepare pianos a lot.  I’ve never had any real damage in the  
> 21 years I’ve been here.  This can be done carefully, without  
> damage and expands the range of piano music.  When we disparage  
> this it makes us sound like fuddy-duddies who are out of touch with  
> life in the 21st century.
>
>
>
> dp
>
>
>
> David M. Porritt
>
> dporritt at smu.edu
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________ 
> __
> AOL now offers free email to everyone.  Find out more about what's  
> free from AOL at AOL.com.
> =0
>



Jeff Tanner, RPT
Piano Technician
School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803) 777-4392



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070515/2169aa7f/attachment.html