On 3/3/04 6:35 AM, "James Ellis" <claviers@nxs.net> wrote: Jim, Horace, and Wim Agreed. UW designated a 9' and a 6' specifically for prepared performance. They were used in practice and in concert, which meant moving them into the concert hall when needed. It made everybody happy as the modifications could be left in the piano eliminating the long preparation for the practice and performance. The extended techniques interest comes and goes on a 3 to 5 year cycle. It depends upon your faculty and their interests, I have experienced many great performances at UW, Oberlin, etc. Boy sopranos singing into a piano with the dampers off the strings, jazz pianists drumming on the struts and picking the duplex scale, to golf balls bouncing off the strings. Cage, for one, seems to have stood the test of time, others have been acknowledge as a flash. We as technicians as in the perfect position to draw the line - not just in the sand. Put it in stone. Thou shalt not paint the bass strings...masking tape dampers,...beat the soundboard with beer cans filled with rocks...etc There are safe ways of marking dampers and identifying nodes. If your piano faculty looks the other way then subtly and not so subtly we, as technicians, must show the resultant damage. Because a composer writes a piece to burn a piano, doesn't mean it is OK with the fire marshall. Damage from unsanctioned, ill advised tinkering and how it applies to everyone must be put in the spotlight. Encouragement for productive innovation likewise deserves applause. If it sustains interest in the piano, can that be all bad?? Joel UW - retired -- Joel & Connie Jones 9 Springwood Circle Madison, WI 53717 608 - 833 - 1488 FAX 608 - 833 - 6724 > I appreciate the back-up support from Horace and Wim. Thanks, fellows. By > suggesting some hard and fast guidelines for those who do "prepared piano" > stuff, I was not implying that I go along with it. I don't. I think it is > a bunch of garbage. There are instruments that are designed to be plucked > and bowed, and others designed to be strummed, etc. The piano was not made > for that. By suggesting guidelines, I was just acknowledging that we are > going to have this stuff, whether we like it or not, so let's try to > protect the piano, as best we can. Even better, set aside an old junker > for this nonsense. "Prepared piano" is a misnomer if I ever saw it or > heard it. > > Fifty five years ago, UT had a piano professor who was a real teacher. He > taught the kids how to play the piano for real. On the same day he > retired, the UT music department featured one of those > out-in-never-never-land "concerts" where they did crazy things with the > piano - something that would NEVER have been done under that professor's > administration. > > Sincerely, Jim Ellis > > > _______________________________________________ > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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