The college where I work has one particular artist who performs a recital
every year in the school chapel. The piano is about three feet from the
first row, and the chapel is usually packed. He requires that I remain on
hand through intermission and usually asks me to "touch up" the piano. In
this particular situation, I feel that my working on the tuning is more for
his peace of mind, and for show rather then for my getting much accomplished.
It is simply not the setting for doing any fine tuning. People come up to
me, often with their kids so that they can see what I'm doing. ("Whatcha
doin? Tunin it up?", they ask) The audience is talking so loudly that I
can't really hear anything anyway. (Yeah, yeah, I know...it WOULD be a good
place to have a SAT) And the artist isn't going to want me out there too
long. (I think that if I stay too long, the audience might start to assume
something is wrong even when they wouldn't have noticed by only listening.)
There _was_ one occasion where a string broke in the high treble while I was
tuning before the concert. It was noticably flat by intermission, and I was
glad to have the opportunity to fix it.
Maybe if the instrument was on a stage, or behind a curtain things would be
different.
Gordon Large
Mt. Vernon, ME
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