audience throws off pitch OT

[Nichols]

At 08:32 PM 3/25/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>Sorry, Guy, I wasn't curious enough to check.  Now I would be!  The truth
>is, after I turned off the lights I didn't bother to service the piano that
>morning.  I thought (right or wrong) it wasn't worth my time.  I had 89
>other instruments to look after--and there was always someone waiting......
>
>The conditions in that hall were good--after the thermostat was fixed.   I
>heard from the faculty that it had been bad for years.  I started sweetly
>squeaking at the physical plant staff the moment I got hired.  ;-)  After it
>was corrected, there was never a problem with the tuning wandering during a
>performance.
>
>Barbara Richmond
>
>PS Someday maybe I'll tell you about my adventures in educating the educated
>at a university.  :-)


Educating the (over) educated is sooo much fun. I'll relate a story from NMSU:
    There's a relatively new building across the parking lot upwind from 
the main recital hall. After it was completed, I noticed a really annoying 
loud continuous hum from somewhere in the area of this new building. 
Dissonant, like a flatted ninth, sorta, with just a touch of variance in 
one or both of the fundamentals. The partials were.... cosmic. Sounds like 
ventilation-type equipment, set to cause nervous breakdown. Big steel stage 
doors face this noise, and the noise is barely detectable in the hall. Only 
when, for example .... tuning. And.... the recording engineer picked it up 
once when the wind was just right and he had nine mics on stage.
   So.... haul educated types of varying caste levels out the back and 
say.... "Listen!"  "Oh yeah", they say. I'll call someone. Months go by. I 
call a few, also. Physical plant types. Customers in high places. Honestly, 
if a prison facility had this backround noise, human rights groups would 
complain.
   Out of the blue, just last week, I'm tuning for the visiting artist. 
Fellow in blue walks in and starts looking around. On stage. When I asked 
him wazzup he informs me he's the new "temp" 
architect/construction/engineer-type guy, hoping his job is made permanent. 
Took him out back and he seemed to know exactly what was causing the 
problem and how to fix it. We shall see.
   Moral of the story could have something to do with blue collar types, 
but I'm really more reminded of the hound dog on the porch, whimpering. 
When the visitor asked the bubba why his dog was whining, he was informed 
that the nail stickin' up outta the porch was annoyin' the hound. Just... 
not enough. Coulda been a real smart dog, y'know.....

Later,
Guy