Hi Stéphane
This was a particularly succinct posting, many interesting and reflected
thoughts expressed. I agree in general with you ... criticisms shall we
say ? of the general concept of authorizations. Certification of some
skill set or another does indeed have built in weaknesses. My general
feelings however tell me that the alternative is in the end even worse.
One thing about even the most reasonable form of certification... it in
any case removes any form of excuse the certified individual has for not
doing a defensibly professionals job. As it is... pure and total slop,
if not down right fraudulence is from a legal standpoint ...well
perfectly acceptable to sharpen the point a bit. The buyer beware
market in the end becomes too complicated, too frustrating and in the
end by necessity will die upon its own unworkableness... tho to be sure
it will survive some time yet. At least that is my take. I base this on
the firm believe that in the end only honesty and a willingess to do
that little extra for what one is being paid for will in the end provide
any real and lasting form of <<profit>>... and that profit is not, and
can not be limited to a concept involving exclusively material gain.
All of which lies at the root of my present querrie It is bad enough me
thinks that one may be authorized in some skills set and not live up to
the requirements that authorization implies and imposes.... It is
entirely another thing to clearly misrepresent what authorization one
actually has.
We hear from time to time of folks who misuse the PTG logo and titles,
and rightly so we are alarmed and take issue. I am suprised sometimes
by the fact that there is often an uproar over certain apparent breaches
of this and similar relevant issues whilst the same collective we sits
by calmly and reacts with total complacency over blatant breaches of
patent laws in using trademarks one has no legal rights to use, using
other products names after severe modifications to these products... etc
and the like. I do not manage despite my best efforts to find any
semblance of coherency in the moralizations expressed. And this applies
to just about any branch, any grouping, any market. The written
<<rules>> seem to be a rouge for whatever foul play one can get away
with under guise... as long as one manages to remain under guise. All
is fair as long as one is not exposed as it were.... much in the same
sense you describe below.
I find it all... disappointing at best. In the end... all these
transgresions are motivated by some idea that one will gain some form of
fame, power, prestisje... what have you... and that is all so very much
an absurdly falsehood... an illusion. Playing honest will afford anyone
all the material needs and more one ever needs. The rest will dissapear
as quickly (if not quicker) then is appears in the first place...
because these things are built on false premises. To put it this way...
an individual who has to buy his friends will lose them at the first
hint his money has been used up.
Grin... I ramble as I sometimes do... btw... got your private epost a
bit back and simply have been swamped with work. The Bluthner project
goes well, and I will be stringing up in October. It has taken me very
much time because of the fact that I am not primarilly a rebuilder but
concentrate my efforts in concert prep and tunings around Norway, and
because I have used very much time trying to pump information from a
world of techs who are far less willing to share their knowledge then
many would have it apparent. Old world trade secrecy is alive and
well... and to my mind of thinking just as counter productive as it ever
was.
Cheers
RicB
Hi Ric, hi list.
Ric, as always, I like your view which is very pertinent to my eyes.
Just a few thoughts from poor me who has no (I mean really not one)
authorized qualification in any way, piano related or not. The
emphasis is
of course on the word authorized.
The concept of authorizing per se is not bad for me, in the way that it
gives to the authorized person well just that, authority to act in his
branche, that is controlled pertinence. Normally, one should trust the
authorized guy and be confident in the level of his skills.
Now what are skills ? Sorry to say, in my life, every authorizing
process I
encountered proved to be just (and no more than) favoring the skills
of the
pupils to please the "masters" who give the authorization, whatever this
involves. No doubt, of course, that some of the true skills are
implied,
but then again, what are the true skills ?
Can we talk about tradition ? Ow, wrong word in here. Anyway, even
out of
here, one must see that tradition is not anymore what it used to be,
that is
in the times when the words master and apprentice had their full
meaning.
So ok, let's forget about tradition, which is anyway like glue under our
feet.
Let's be more pragmatic. What is a good scale ? Reading this list,
none of
the scales from the past would succeed in authorizing their
finders. Many
will point out that those scales don't obey to what they think is a good
scale, that is mainly (so I suppose) one that makes all curves alla Dave
Roberts (with or without Sanderson's corrections) smooth. This
alone proves
that a part of the tradition that used to give different colours to
different registers disappeared. What didn't disappear is the gold
medal
for the guy who says that a good scale is etc. whatever if it
matches what
the master thinks.
What is a good rim ? Well any from 1850 uptill now seems to do well
enough,
so ...
What is a good pinblock ? Well any from ever seems to fail at some
point, so
...
When are you rim or pinblock bauer authorized ? Well depends on who
makes
the authorization and on how well he likes you.
What is a good voicing ? Well, for me, I have a few tests that I
try on the
pianos I voice. One of my favourite is just playing the "Adagio
cantabile"
from the "Grande sonate pathetique" Opus 13 of Beethoven, and see
how well I
succeed in having the melody sing clearly while the accompanying
stays on
the background forming a comfortable seat for the melody to sit in.
I know
that if this works well, many things in the repertoire will work
well, and
pianists will be happy. Now if I were a "master", I would not
authorize any
of my "apprentices" unless they are able to do this check, that is
play the
Adagio cantabile of Beethoven sonata op. 13 in a precise way enough
to get
clear conscience that the piano will work for fine playing. Is this
involved in the German klavierbaumeister process ? Don't know. But
I know
many authorized voicers are only after maximum power.
Now back on topic, the employment thing. Again in my life, what I
saw is
that authorization has proved to be most beneficial when applying
for a job
in an authorized structure. Everywhere else, competence and good
fame do
the trick.
Best regards.
Stéphane Collin.
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