not perfect?

Don pianotuna@accesscomm.ca
Fri, 18 Oct 2002 19:03:37 -0600


Hi Antares,

What I mean is the following.

A. Every time we move one string even a little there are consequences. If
we increase tension or decrease it then the pitch of the nearby (and
sometimes not so nearby) strings will change. Not much, but a small amount.

B. When the beating on a unison *stops* the note is functionally in tune.
It is not "perfectly" in tune. We do wander around within this area of no
beating looking for a "sweet spot". Of course the very act of doing so
affects the other strings.

C. Assuming concert level skills and zero time constraints and zero budget
retraints we spend several hours in a totally humidity and temperature
controlled concert hall with near perfect accoustics. Then the barometric
pressure changes...and the partial pressure of the soundboard allows
moisture to escape or to enter. Bingo the piano is every so slightly out of
tune.

So I say that we can not attain perfection, but that we should strive to
acheive it using *all* the resources we have at our disposal. I think what
we are doing transcends any spoken language--but perhaps poetry can
approach the meaning--one art form being used to describe another.

DILEMMA TWO

The unison is near.

At night it rumages,
tickle-footed over my sleeping ears.

In the dark, sometimes I feel alien
fur brush, flexed claws drag,
hunched body tensed to spring, 
stalking me, fangs dripping

The unison is near,
yet never close enough.

 

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T. Tuner for the Center of
the Arts

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