[CAUT] Agraffes and dampers

[David M. Porritt]

All this stuff in the name of progress!!  It's been a downhill slide since
old Bart put hammers on a harpsichord!  Hitting strings instead of plucking
them as God intended indeed!  What will they think of next!

 

dp

 

____________________

David M. Porritt, RPT

dporritt at smu.edu

  _____  

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeff
Tanner
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 1:27 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Agraffes and dampers

 

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
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=0

 

 

 

Jeff Tanner, RPT

Piano Technician

School of Music

University of South Carolina

Columbia, SC 29208

(803) 777-4392

 





 

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