[CAUT] John Cage, "The Earth Shall Bear Again"

[Jeff Tanner]

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Thanks again for your comments, Fred.  More below:


On Oct 20, 2005, at 3:13 PM, Fred Sturm wrote:

> The woolen material is that stuff that used to be used for weather  
> stripping: about 1/8" thick  by about 3/4" wide I'm thinking, that  
> grey stuff with threads of other colors, made from used fibers.  
> It's fairly course, so muting felt is not a great substitute. Maybe  
> some of that dense, hard understring felt or the like. I agree with  
> you in being frustrated by his lack of detail in saying "screw,"  
> "bolt," etc.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the material you're referring  
to.  I'll figure this part out, though.

> Sometimes you have to use your best guess. Eg, "bamboo" would have  
> to be of a size to actually fit between  the strings specified.

I'm just curious as to whether he might have been referring to a  
"solid" piece, like a chopstick, a hollow piece, like towards the top  
of the bamboo plant, or perhaps a "slice" of the larger end that  
would wedge in there.  Each option could create a different effect.   
This piece is to be wedged between the strings of two notes in the  
bass, actually connecting them to the soundboard.  But here, it  
doesn't give a distance from the damper or bridge.  It just says  
"LARGE PIECE of BAMBOO".

> Plastic would be something available in the 40's (or 30's to 50's,  
> or whenever the piece was composed) - meaning probably something  
> hard. I don't think there were any soft plastics readily available  
> then (I could well be wrong).

The copyright is 1960, so a number of possibilities exist, such as  
drink straw, etc.  It actually has to be threaded or woven between  
the lowest three strings, (over A & B, and under Bb).  I don't like  
the sound of this for the sake of the dampers, unless we're talking  
about a pliable piece of material here (like a drink straw)

> The up side to this is that a very, very good argument can be made  
> for the position that a D (or other concert size) is not  
> appropriate for this kind of music - it doesn't meet the needs of  
> the performer or fulfill the intent of the composer.

I'm thinking that even perhaps performance notes, to explain EXACTLY  
why we brought in a Steinway L for the performance.

> This is the kind of argument that resonates with the general  
> faculty, more than the "pianos should only be played using the  
> keys" or "keep those durned screws out of my piano" type argument.
>
>>
>> Is there enough scale difference between an O and an L to make his  
>> measurements incorrect for an L?
>> Jeff
>>
>
> An L would be better than a D, for sure.

Logistics and how receptive everyone involved is to the idea of going  
to the hassle of moving an L into the hall will be the determining  
factor.

> It would depend how precisely you were measuring. In the end, you  
> would adjust the precise position by experiment anyway, shifting a  
> wee bit in each direction and listening. (What exactly are you  
> listening for? That's a good question <g>. Whatever sounds "best" -  
> maybe most pronounced). If your student has an L available for  
> practice purposes (or at least for experiment), the sounds could be  
> used as a basis for deciding where to place things in a D.

We can do that.  We have an L in one practice room and a D in  
another.  MY CONCERN is that these practice pianos are used by ALL  
the piano majors, and if she's going in there, preparing this piano  
herself, with screws, plastic, bamboo, etc., several times a week,  
we're talking about hastening string corrosion from fingers  
constantly on the strings, damper damage, etc.  Everything we're  
imploring pianists to not do, she's going to be doing.

THAT is my argument for "pianos should only be played using the  
keys".  It's not my "ignorant, unwilling to hear something different,  
conservative, bullheaded, closed minded"" musical taste.   
Promise :-)  (some of this stuff actually sounded pretty good as  
background accompaniment when Barnaby Jones was breaking into  
someone's filing cabinet.)

Thanks Fred!
Jeff
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