St. Louis (+a CD ad)

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings all, 
  Just returned from the Mid West Regional at St. Louis.  Approx. 70 
attendees registered, and an impressive array of instructors.  Wim Blees can 
take credit for putting on a well run, seamless, three day, technical font of 
knowledge.  Three things stand out about the weekend, (obviously tempered by 
my involvement in, well, tempering.) 
   The first was the number of laymen involved; (actually, I suppose Sharon 
was a laywoman, but that just doesn't seem like a very graceful description 
of a non-professional female interested in piano technology). At the Saturday 
night banquet, she explained how she was just getting started, had tuned one 
piano, and was interested in pursuing this.  Naturally,  I attempted to 
explain that it DID require the ability to make a decision, and the technical 
background would be helpful, she tactfully explained back to me that she was 
an engineer at a national manfacturing facility and was presently in charge 
of a $6 million project,  (as Andy would say,"Now Barney, can you believe 
that that big ol' shoe  on my foot would actually fit in this mouth of 
mine......"?) 
     That she was interested in changing pursuits was encouraging.  She was 
not the only one, there were several new-comers, and I hope they all were 
able to absorb some of the technical flavor of what we do.  
   Secondly, we had a temperament pair of classes, and I got to see Skip 
Becker's illumination of the Pythagorean influences in our music and science, 
a welcome perspective on our harmonic underpinnings.  I carried on with my 
temperament revival and in doing so, was favored with the talents of two 
local pianists. Jennifer Lim and Annette Burkhart.  Annette had had her piano 
tuned to a Young about two weeks ago, and Jennifer had never touched a well 
tempered piano before that Friday.  They were both playing the recital that 
night.  
   I was using Jim Coleman's temperament, presenting it as a commercially 
viable starting part for departure from ET.  Annette, who had had some 
reservations about keeping the Young at home ultimately decided that she 
might keep it, or at least this Victorian style.  Her class pieces included a 
Gershwin piece in Db, which many of us agreed would have sounded better in 
ET, but everything else seemed to delight most ears.  Seemed like there may 
have been some ephiphanies out there.  
    The recital (still in the Coleman 11), went well, as Annette had selected 
works that sounded good on her Young.  Nothing startling out of this, but 
many in the audience said that the music seemed particularly clear and full.  
I was riveted by the Variations by Clara Schuman.  She and Dr. Lim played 
some four hand music and it seemed to have a lot of clarity and texture, as 
well.  I was down front, but others on the list might tell us what it was 
like elsewhere in the hall, or if they noticed any difference at all?
     Thirdly, this weekend was the first exposure for our newest CD.  It is 
"Six Degrees of Tonality"  in which Enid Katahn plays six pieces of music in 
six tunings.  I tried to make this project as comparative as possible, while 
still presenting a listenable CD.  To that end, we begin with meantone and 
end with Coleman, following a chronological thread in both composer and 
temperament.  
   After "Beethoven In The Temperaments",  I was often told that it would be 
nice to have a comparison, so we included one this time.  A Mozart piece on 
the CD is played in three tunings; Meantone, Well Temperament, and ET, one 
right after the other.  I will post the liner notes under a separate heading, 
lest we bog the bandwidth of the uninterested. 
    I know that there were several CD's sold to convention attendees that are 
members of this list.  So.......  I certainly invite any of those that 
purchased it to tell us what you think.  I won't be offended if there are 
detractions as I know none of these recordings will be perfect and I don't 
mind getting feedback before our next one! 
Regards, 
Ed  Foote
"Six Degrees" and "Beethoven In The Temperaments" can be ordered from me at: 
Precision Piano Works
1506 Cedar Lane 
Nashville, Tn. 37212
USA price is $17 each, or both for $30
Overseas, add $2 for one CD, or $3 for two.