Pianotech

Attached is an image of the vagrant I had to overcome in order to access the piano shop at CalArts at 4 o'clock this past Sunday morning. I don't usually tune this early on any day of the week, and especially not on a Sunday. However, that evening there was a minimalist piano mega-show. It featured pieces for 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 pianists, including a piece for three Clavinovas, and another for three toy pianos.

What with the infamous Santa Ana winds we have been experiencing in Southern California of late, responsible for fanning our many wildfires with their high speeds and single digit RH%, pianos have not been holding pitch. One piano dropped three cents in the low tenor from one day to the next!

So, the only way to hope that all six of these pianos would be even close to in tune with each other for the playing of Steve Reich's "Six Pianos" was to tune them all the day of the concert, and before rehearsals began in the early afternoon.

If you would like to experience this minimalistic tour de force, the webcast has been archived online. Go to calarts.edu, search for ROD webcast, and select "Piano Department Concert" from Sunday, December 10th, 2017.

Also attached is an image of the concert poster.

Alan

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Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
------------------------------

Some very interesting stuff there. Phillip Glass just eludes me, but I like Steve Reich a lot, and the piece for six pianos, right after the intermission was really quite enjoyable. Can't imagine the concentration it must take to actually play it. But, yow! It was the Tristan Perich toy piano piece that starts at about 29:30 that just blew me away. It was just too wonderful for words. Thank you for posting this.

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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-11-2017 20:25
From: Alan Eder
Subject: Six Pianos!

Attached is an image of the vagrant I had to overcome in order to access the piano shop at CalArts at 4 o'clock this past Sunday morning. I don't usually tune this early on any day of the week, and especially not on a Sunday. However, that evening there was a minimalist piano mega-show. It featured pieces for 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 pianists, including a piece for three Clavinovas, and another for three toy pianos.

What with the infamous Santa Ana winds we have been experiencing in Southern California of late, responsible for fanning our many wildfires with their high speeds and single digit RH%, pianos have not been holding pitch. One piano dropped three cents in the low tenor from one day to the next!

So, the only way to hope that all six of these pianos would be even close to in tune with each other for the playing of Steve Reich's "Six Pianos" was to tune them all the day of the concert, and before rehearsals began in the early afternoon.

If you would like to experience this minimalistic tour de force, the webcast has been archived online. Go to calarts.edu, search for ROD webcast, and select "Piano Department Concert" from Sunday, December 10th, 2017.

Also attached is an image of the concert poster.

Alan

------------------------------
Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
------------------------------

Thank YOU for your kind words, Geoff! I will pass your post along to the piano department (who invited me to their end of the semester party yesterday evening at which they bestowed upon me a bottle of MacCallums 12 year old scotch: Nectar of the Gods!!). The concept for doing a concert with 1, 2, 3, 4 .5 & 6 pianists, the great programming, and placing the four pianos for the Feldman in the corners of the room and the six for the Reich in the center of the hall (so the audience could roam around them) was all the brain child of department head Vicki Ray.

We played most of the webcast during the party, but not the Perich piece (or the Feldman, which is , "Just not party music!"). Live, in the hall, the recorded sound in the Perich dominated the sound of the toy pianos. Don't know if the mix of live and pre-recorded sound was any better on the live recording.

Alan

------------------------------
Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-13-2017 02:37
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: Six Pianos!

Some very interesting stuff there. Phillip Glass just eludes me, but I like Steve Reich a lot, and the piece for six pianos, right after the intermission was really quite enjoyable. Can't imagine the concentration it must take to actually play it. But, yow! It was the Tristan Perich toy piano piece that starts at about 29:30 that just blew me away. It was just too wonderful for words. Thank you for posting this.

------------------------------
Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-11-2017 20:25
From: Alan Eder
Subject: Six Pianos!

Attached is an image of the vagrant I had to overcome in order to access the piano shop at CalArts at 4 o'clock this past Sunday morning. I don't usually tune this early on any day of the week, and especially not on a Sunday. However, that evening there was a minimalist piano mega-show. It featured pieces for 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 pianists, including a piece for three Clavinovas, and another for three toy pianos.

What with the infamous Santa Ana winds we have been experiencing in Southern California of late, responsible for fanning our many wildfires with their high speeds and single digit RH%, pianos have not been holding pitch. One piano dropped three cents in the low tenor from one day to the next!

So, the only way to hope that all six of these pianos would be even close to in tune with each other for the playing of Steve Reich's "Six Pianos" was to tune them all the day of the concert, and before rehearsals began in the early afternoon.

If you would like to experience this minimalistic tour de force, the webcast has been archived online. Go to calarts.edu, search for ROD webcast, and select "Piano Department Concert" from Sunday, December 10th, 2017.

Also attached is an image of the concert poster.

Alan

------------------------------
Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
------------------------------

…make that "Macallans." Sheesh… One more strike against me getting into heaven...

Alan

------------------------------
Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-13-2017 07:37
From: Alan Eder
Subject: Six Pianos!

Thank YOU for your kind words, Geoff! I will pass your post along to the piano department (who invited me to their end of the semester party yesterday evening at which they bestowed upon me a bottle of MacCallums 12 year old scotch: Nectar of the Gods!!). The concept for doing a concert with 1, 2, 3, 4 .5 & 6 pianists, the great programming, and placing the four pianos for the Feldman in the corners of the room and the six for the Reich in the center of the hall (so the audience could roam around them) was all the brain child of department head Vicki Ray.

We played most of the webcast during the party, but not the Perich piece (or the Feldman, which is , "Just not party music!"). Live, in the hall, the recorded sound in the Perich dominated the sound of the toy pianos. Don't know if the mix of live and pre-recorded sound was any better on the live recording.

Alan

------------------------------
Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483

Original Message:
Sent: 12-13-2017 02:37
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: Six Pianos!

Some very interesting stuff there. Phillip Glass just eludes me, but I like Steve Reich a lot, and the piece for six pianos, right after the intermission was really quite enjoyable. Can't imagine the concentration it must take to actually play it. But, yow! It was the Tristan Perich toy piano piece that starts at about 29:30 that just blew me away. It was just too wonderful for words. Thank you for posting this.

------------------------------
Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA

Original Message:
Sent: 12-11-2017 20:25
From: Alan Eder
Subject: Six Pianos!

Attached is an image of the vagrant I had to overcome in order to access the piano shop at CalArts at 4 o'clock this past Sunday morning. I don't usually tune this early on any day of the week, and especially not on a Sunday. However, that evening there was a minimalist piano mega-show. It featured pieces for 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 pianists, including a piece for three Clavinovas, and another for three toy pianos.

What with the infamous Santa Ana winds we have been experiencing in Southern California of late, responsible for fanning our many wildfires with their high speeds and single digit RH%, pianos have not been holding pitch. One piano dropped three cents in the low tenor from one day to the next!

So, the only way to hope that all six of these pianos would be even close to in tune with each other for the playing of Steve Reich's "Six Pianos" was to tune them all the day of the concert, and before rehearsals began in the early afternoon.

If you would like to experience this minimalistic tour de force, the webcast has been archived online. Go to calarts.edu, search for ROD webcast, and select "Piano Department Concert" from Sunday, December 10th, 2017.

Also attached is an image of the concert poster.

Alan

------------------------------
Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
------------------------------