Piano out of tune on recording

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 2/23/00 9:01:55 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
kswafford@earthlink.net writes:

<< You are right, of course. But there is no end to the recorded history of 
 untuned pianos.
 
 I just typed out some examples I have heard of bad pianos on recordings, 
 but I hit the delete button. The magic is in the musician, after all.  >>

I'm glad you didn't give us a list.  It would have become as bad of a spiral 
as some of these "how bad was it" substandard rebuilding threads.  I do think 
it is good however that we recognize that there is quite a bit of room for 
improvement over what was done in the past.

After reading what some people have said and staunchly maintained, one might 
come to the conclusion that the art of piano tuning was perfected in the 
early 20th Century.  There is nothing more to learn, no need or reason to 
improve anything.  Certainly, however, the art of tuning took a new direction 
and beginning around 1980 with the PTG Standardized Tuning Exam and the 
development of sophisticated Electronic Tuning Devices (ETD).

I never got a chance to tune for Bill Evans but I did meet him once when he 
played at The Lighthouse, a Jazz club in Hermosa Beach (near Los Angeles), 
California when I was about 21.  I had supper with him and his group that 
night.  He had a very ordinary and casual personality even though he 
obviously was a genius at the piano.

I only wish that I could have the opportunity to tune and prepare a piano for 
him today if for no other reason than to demonstrate and disprove the notion 
that his music "requires" Equal Temperament (ET) as some people on this List 
insisted to me in the past.  I think the complex chords that he played 
require precision in order to reveal the beauty of their texture, not the 
neutralizing effect of ET.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin