Prepared Piano

[k.swafford@genie.geis.com]

     I find it very amusing that any music by George Crumb is now
being described as "popular."  Twenty years ago I was the first
pianist to perform any of Crumb's music at the University of Kansas;
I didn't encounter any resistance, but the music made some people very
uncomfortable.
     Perhaps I've missed this, but what is a proper method for marking
a string node for inside-the-piano playing?  As I recall, David Burge,
the Eastman pianist who was one of the first champions of George
Crumb's music used chalk, working it into the windings.  I used small
pieces of colored plastic tape.  Neither are 100% removable.
     A couple years ago at UMKC, masking tape was used to mark a node
-- without permission of the piano technicians.  The student pianist
slung the masking tape across BOTH strings of the unisons, and did not
remove the tape after the performance.  That same piano was then used
hours later to accompany a solo intsrumentalist, with the masking tape
adding some interesting unintended effects.  The pianist, a faculty
accompanist, was NOT amused.  But when we tried to complain to the
faculty conductor responsible for performing the piece that used the
marked nodes, we were not really able to get him to acknowledge the
seriousness of what had happened.
     And speaking of performers not understanding the seriousness of
what they are doing, I witnessed David Burge remove the plate
crosspiece from a Steinway D so he could better get at the mid-range
strings in performing George Crumb's music.  I STILL can't believe
that he used to do that on a regular basis.  I heard him rather
vigorously defend the practice.
                                             Kent Swafford