[CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation

wimblees at aol.com wimblees at aol.com
Mon Feb 2 19:49:22 PST 2009


-----Original Message-----
From: reggaepass at aol.com
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:08 pm
Subject: [CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation


List, 



This past summer I had a long meeting with my dean. ?We covered everything from what I like and don't like about working here (all matters large and small) to additional funding for the piano shop and the prospects for enhanced compensation for yours truly. ?He responded well to many of my suggestions along these lines. ?One was that the piano shop start being reimbursed for any unusual tunings. ?Until now, this has meant alternative, modern tunings (anywhere on the spectrum from simply tuning one piano down 50 cents for quarter tone music to realizing original tuning systems). ?This service had been freely provided as an indulgence to the students and faculty, creating more of a burden for me without any extra compensation--the bad scenario articulated by Jeff Tanner. ?My dean has since agreed to compensation for the piano shop in exchange for any unusual tuning work. ?Here is how we have structured the procedure: Someone requests a non-ET/440 tuning; I make a binding estimate for how much time it should take; we multiply that times a wholesale private rate (i. e., less than I would charge someone?privately, but more than what my salaried rate at the school comes out to per hour); they determine if/how it will be paid for, and we go from there. ?It turns out that the composition department, for example, has funds for "programming" which can be used for paying for alternate tunings. ?This has been a positive development in that i t is a source of income for the shop while also serving as a, er, "consciousness raiser" for those who dabble in alternate tunings as part of their work.







Alan Eder




Alan

I don't understand why you feel the piano shop?needs to be reimbursed for unusual tunings. It would seem to me that is akin to bank executives wanting to get a bonus for the work they are doing in the first place. If you?are employed full time by the school, then all work you do for the school, regardless of what it is, is part of your "job". One of the job descriptions at many schools is working evenings and weekends, for which most of us usually get extra time off during the week. But why the extra pay for doing unusual tunings? Do you also?get paid extra for weighing keys, or other "unusual" action work? 

I'm not faulting you for asking for, and getting the extra money. Hey,if the dean is willing, why not?But I don't understand the reasoning behind asking for it in the first place. 

Wim
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