Drop (& more)

[Richard Brekne]

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Isaac OLEG wrote:

> Hello David, Suzan,
>
> > At 09:57 AM 11/6/2002 -0700, David wrote:
> > >I agree, Susan; I'm struck by an openness about some European
> technicians around tone being affected by things we don't normally
> acknowledge; this is a form of perception, of "magical realism" I
> admire and subscribe to.
>
> Really I am not persuaded this is part of the usual technician
> education there, I'd say that the ones which are really interested in
> those tone matters are obliged to dig in these relations, I've met a
> very few of them actually and they all have worked on concert pianos
> at a moment or another. (most have work or train in factories too)
>

I think, Susan and Issac, that there is no real difference in the numbers
of "magical realists" (to use your term)  in Europe compared to America.
There are perhaps fundemental differences in the degree of conservatism or
willingness to experiment between our two continents, but what you point
to here, and what perhaps Issac and Andre' so well exemplify is really
something quite different.

On the one hand we have many who see only regulation specifications,
mathematical models, scientifics this and thats, rational descriptions or
explanations of piano acoustics and functions. The language they speak
reflects their particular viewpoint, for not to say paradigm. For these it
is nearly impossible to accept the existance, likelihood,  or possibility
of any posit of truth unless it can be thus explained. Far too often this
breed makes the mistake of assuming that if something can not be explained
by such means or methods, then it is either somehow false or meaningless
or otherwise not worth further inquiry.

On the other hand you have many who approach our work from an entirely
different perspective, one that rests far more purely on the exact same
artistic experience that pianists themselves rely on. The "magical
realism" they purvey is really nothing more then a wholly different set of
concepts and terms to describe them... a different vocabulary so to speak.
Curiously enough these same have just as serious a weekness as our more
rationally bound sorts. For these, it is the acceptance that science and
rational can actually show clearly errors in sensed perceptions that is
impossible.

Both sorts clearly have their strengths as well, and are founded in that
same reality their perceptions of things allows for. For the sensualist,
the acceptance of "facts" like  << sound and timbre being directly
affected by hardness of the front felt punchings >> or that << the voice
of the piano is sensed as easily at the fingers as at ears. >> is as
natural and "of course-ish" as could possibly be. These are much more
willing to think for example in terms of aged wood, or varnish qualities.
For the rationalist of course one runs into difficulties very quickly
thinking along these lines,  yet that same resistance to this kind of
"knowledge" leads them to wonderous discovery and invention of their own.

For my own part I dispute that either sort is in any way inherently better
then others, or that their choice of perspectives are founded in any
significant way by whether they had factory training or not, or whether
they come from this place or not, or any of the rest of that. Nor is it in
my experience that either of these are more or less represented as concert
level technicians. In the end, what governs ones success thus is whether
or not one is a master, in ones own fashion, of this trade. If there is a
type of technician that fits that particular bill, I would think it would
have to be a person who was able to transcend to some significant degree
the tendancies towards prejudice that so easily dominant our own
perceptions, and our own judgements. A person who can get past his / her
own vocabulary and perceptions, a person who can succeed in seeing the
truth in anothers form of expression, however radically different  then
ones own.

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html


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