information for a dissertation

Charles E Faulk cfaulk2@juno.com
Thu, 14 Feb 2002 12:08:58 -0600


Laurie,

I hope you don't mind a bit of a rant on the subject, but I wish that the
future John Cages, Henry Cowells, and George Crumbs of this world would
stay out of the insides of pianos. And if they have to, restrict their
efforts only to Aeolian spinets.

We have a Crumb afficianado here at Kansas State who loves to place these
little circular  colored tabs to the dampers when plucking around on the
strings. She used to place them right on the strings, but I convinced her
to stop thankfully. Now the Steinway D has technicolor, polka dot
dampers. Every now and then I take a razor knife and carefully pry them
off the moldings only to find another round of dots there the next week.
Fortunately this practice is not marring or destructive, just annoying.

Thank goodness no one has installed glass rods and wood screws on the
strings ... yet. Cage is currently out of vogue for the time being. RIP.

I'll let others chime in on the subject. 

Regards,

Charles Faulk RPT
Manhattan, KS

On Thu, 14 Feb 2002 08:16:48 EST LHudicek@AOL.COM writes:
> Hello Piano Technicians,
> 
> I am a pianist writing a dissertation on prepared piano and playing 
> on the 
> inside of the piano and was wondering if I could get some thoughts 
> from some 
> of you on the subject, good AND bad!  My goal is to write a document 
> that 
> helps pianists who are starting this music for the first time.  
> Hopefully, it 
> will help them, also, to not damage the instrument at all.
> 
> Any strong feelings?  
> 
> Have you ever seen any damage from this type of music? (i.e. damage 
> to the 
> strings, dampers, soundboard, etc?)
> 
> Thank you!
> Laurie Hudicek
> lhudicek@aol.com
> 
> 
> 

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