[CAUT] Rzewski forearm smash

[Paul T Williams]

I don't pound hard at all when I tune.  It's not ffff, but mearly an mf to 
f.  There's no reason to pound on the piano at all.  I've used the forearm 
smash, but conservatively.  Sure with the pedal down, this will expose 
your tuning mistakes, but that's all you need. Then you set the pin 
correctly, and your good to go.  Now hundreds, if not thousand or 2 of 
important concert tunings, and never a complaint yet! ( oh yeah, just one, 
but he was a major DIVA!)

When Steve Brady demonstrates this technique, he doesn't get on top of the 
piano and smashes it!!!  He pushes the damper pedal down, and "smashes" it 
at about forte or maybe FF.  No pounding is ever needed.  It's just not 
good for the piano or your ego.

Best,
Paul




From:
Zeno Wood <zeno.wood at gmail.com>
To:
caut at ptg.org
Date:
12/16/2010 04:04 PM
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] Rzewski forearm smash



Agreed.  It's a diagnostic tool, and I like the definition you added 
there, of pounding the tuning out, not in.

That said, my original post was more a comment on the physicality of 
Rzewski's piano works.

-Zeno W


This appears to be a variant of the way too common misinterpretation of 
"pounding". Jim's description seems to be of the most common. It's not a 
tuning technique, or shouldn't be. It's a test of the tuning technique 
that got you to this test. I almost said something about it a few days ago 
when someone mentioned pounding a tuning in. That's exactly the wrong 
approach. You don't pound a tuning in. Any pounding done is an attempt to 
knock the tuning out, to find out how you did. It's a small flash of light 
into a big dark place, that might just tell you something important. The 
"smash" doesn't stabilize a piano, it's just a committee test blow after 
the fact. It also won't destabilize pitch any more than a test blow does, 
and won't cause a note to go out of tune the next time it's played any 
more than will a test blow. It's a diagnostic tool that, like a test blow, 
is one of the very very few indicators we have of how close we got to 
equalizing segment tensions during the tunings.

Ron N



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