Hi All -
Sorry for the delay, but its a crazy time of year.
We had "The Meeting" this past week. It was pretty anti-climatic. The had gotten a hold of Harvard's Piano Request form
that Mariana Quinn mentioned a couple of posts ago, and formatted their own based on that. We made a few edits. I've requested a copy once its complete - I'll share here when I get it.
I had given my boss, the head of the department, a few variations on policies used by various universities, including CAUT, Harvard, BYU, Ithaca, along with a copy of Richard Bunger's Well Prepared Piano and a VCR copy (and later a DVD copy) of Alan Eder's Non-Traditional Piano Use....... I gave him all of this a long time ago - maybe 10 years ago. Every once in a while, at meetings with me and my boss, I would refer to those policies, the DVD, and he would pull them off the shelf. A day or 2 before this week's meeting, he actually watched the DVD and read the Bunger book, and looked over the policy copies. He was astonished that there was so much information. !!!
I asked what the curriculum was that incorporated instructing students in safe non-traditional techniques. There is none. If a student (and these are primarily composers) wants to do some, it sounds like they are all very conservative about what techniques they incorporate, and the instructor oversees what they do. I suggested that they develop a little bit of this instruction into the curriculum. That went over like a lead balloon. Instructor kept saying that this kind of composing is very outdated, and that students are not really interested. Instructor kept saying that its the guests we have a problem with, not the students. I said, Well, if that's true, and students are not interested in these techniques, why did these guests get invited? It seems the grad student composers put this all together as a 2 day festival, with some 'fairly well known composer/artists/performers". One day was our students performing their compositions with/for these 'big name' artists, and the next day the guest artists would perform their own stuff.....which is where one of the guest artists took to the Steinway B plate with drumsticks.
SO, end result.....
1) My boss has finally read the material. Will he have others read it as suggested? Unknown.
2) They've drafted a much more comprehensive policy that any student or guest who is using a piano will have to sign, saying they assume responsibility for damage to piano. If they acknowledge that non-traditional techniques will be used, they are to describe it in writing and it will come to me.
3) Any hope of this becoming a part of the curriculum seems hopeless, but I will continue trying.
4) There was a bit of talk of using a Yamaha C3 (1970's version) just for prepared piano use. That would be better than the current Steinway B, but there is an issue with having to keep it in the hall all the time, cause there's no other place to keep it without hiring movers every time.
5) I do want to reiterate what I said at the outset, that 95% of the time, the prepared piano is well done, and no damage is done.
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Debbie Cyr
Brandeis University
508-202-2862
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-09-2018 11:55
From: Patrick Wingren
Subject: Prepared Piano..... again
Hi Debbie,
there's a lot of sound advice in this thread. I second what's been mentioned earlier: 1) designated piano, 2) making this the designated choice of the administration.
Point # 2 above goes directly towards maintenance costs.
What never should be allowed to happen is unmonitored (ab)use of a main concert grand. Just something as seemingly harmless as marking the strings for plucking with small bits of electrician's tape placed across the agraffes could be a potential disaster along the way. I got an emergency call for an unresponsive action just before a concert featuring a major pianist. The offender was a tiny bit of electrician's tape that had dropped into the action.
Original Message------
Hi All -
At Brandeis University, there's a large community of the music majors that do prepared piano. For the most part, they do well in not imparting damage to the pianos. Recently I've discovered that, when they've been "bowing" the piano, they are adding rosin to the bow strings. I immediately clamped down on that procedure, but the instructors, and my boss, have determined that they have to use the rosin in order to get the piano strings to vibrate. I guess that's what its for. But I'm concerned that the underside of the piano wire will get covered in rosin...and what about the copper wound strings? Does the rosin not get left behind on the piano strings?
Anyone else have issues with this?
We've got a huge meeting this week to hash this, as well as other prepared piano issues. Some of the 'new music' instructors/composers feel that students should "have at" the pianos....this is part of their educational learning/experience. !!!!! $$$$$
Last week they had a guest performer who took to the Steinway B (the one piano they are allowed to use for prepared piano) with drumsticks and beat the crap out of the struts. !!!!! $$$$$ Paint chips all over.....4 struts were dinged in the process. Needless to say, this would not have been allowed had we known, and someone has been put on notice for it. 2 pictures attached.
I'd appreciate your thoughts/experience with the use of rosin when bowing.
Thanks!
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Debbie Cyr
Framingham MA
508-202-2862
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