detuning

[Mark Graham]

I mentioned before that John Corigliano was coming to our school for a
week of coaching students and faculty leading up to a weekend's worth of
performances of his pieces. He turned out to be congenial and great with
people. His music is interesting and not garbage. One piece,
"Chiaroscuro", was for two pianos, one at pitch and one tuned 1/4 step
flat.

We used our 2 D's. The one was amazingly resistant to pitch-lowering. I
tuned it twice before the public rehearsal, once a few days before, and
once that morning. Mr. Corigliano told the audience it was clear the tuner
had used a machine in the middle because it was dead on, but towards the
ends the tuner's perfect pitch took over because the notes tended towards
A-440 pitch. This was funny, because I tune by ear, which those in
attendance know, and I got kicked out of the hall before I could do the
ends of the piano, so they were higher. It wasn't until the third and
final tuning the day of the recital that the piano was finally solid, and
now it's taking me that long to get it back to pitch again.

By the way, it was a great piece, taking full advantage of the tuning, and
with lots of musical and staging interest -- the performers eventually
switch places. Page turners stayed put.

Mark Graham
Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
Berea, Ohio