[CAUT] "All Steinway" Schools. The problem with...

Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu
Mon Nov 24 19:07:08 PST 2008


Hi Alan,
	Yes, you are right, I overstated my case a bit. Still, I prefer  
inconsistency with a number of gems to consistency with a kind of  
vanilla adequacy. Or, to put it a different way, I prefer a philosophy  
that involves the manufacture of individual musical instruments to one  
that tries to replicate the same qualities in each. Which, BTW, is a  
philosophy followed by many of the smaller manufacturers to one extent  
or other (the former, the individuality philosophy).
	But what I was trying to get at was the idea that there is a wide  
range of variety within any manufacturer's output, there are gems and  
dogs and in between, and which is which is often in the eye of the  
beholder. The differences within lines are quite significant, and what  
technicians do to them can accentuate or minimize those differences.  
In the end, the question of "One Brand Only" versus "Multiple Brands  
Only" isn't at all cut and dried. There is going to be variety whether  
we want it or not, at least to some extent. It's not just what is on  
the fallboard that determines this.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



On Nov 24, 2008, at 11:04 AM, reggaepass at aol.com wrote:

> Fred,
>
> I could not agree more with your point that the best piano is the  
> best maintained piano.  But is inconsistency from one make and model  
> synonymous with "variety"?  If there were variation, but all  
> iterations were actually wonderful in their own way (I mean really  
> and truly so, not just in the silver-tongued take of a smooth- 
> talking salesman), OK then.  But haven't you had the experience of  
> sitting before someone's brand new S&S which doesn't play or sound  
> well at all, and they are so proud of their acquisition as they ask  
> you, "What do you think?"
>
> Alan Eder

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