Anatomy of a Recital, Part 2

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Music, Recital

 

Doing this in chronological order would be too easy. So I won’t.

I started thinking about this recital a while ago. In fact, I started thinking about it shortly after my last recital, a chamber music extravaganza, last April. To some people, that might seem like a lot of time to plan a recital. It’s really not. When I was doing piano stuff in high school, at the very end of my study, it was taking me months and months just to learn a piece. I think it took me almost a year to learn a complete Beethoven Sonata. So four months is pretty snappy.

This first thing I did was to secure my pianist, Michael Dauphinais. He’s ostensibly on faculty at my school, but he really isn’t utilized the way he should be. Why Michael? Because he’s easy to work with, professional, and a lovely, musical pianist. He played for me for my first doctoral recital and it was such a joy to work with him.

The second thing I did was try to find a date that worked for me, my committee of three, Michael and the school at three different halls in two venues. At previous institutions that I’ve attended, there was always a designated period for degree recitals and the faculty gave their availability to scheduling people. So I just go down to the scheduling people and I could pick from there (or, in the case of McGill, they told me when my recital was and that was that). But not here. Sigh. So I did a doodle poll with a bunch of times and places and between the bunch of us, we found a single date (out of about 10, whittled down to 4) which I then immediately booked with my committee, Michael and the venue.

Doodle is both annoying and awesome. Awesome, because you can ask a bunch of people about scheduling. Annoying, because people don’t get back to you all at once and you keep getting an email every time someone finally gets back to you. Kind of like Chinese water torture. And there’s almost always a lone holdout. But I digress.

Since I decided to use an off campus venue, I actually forgot to tell the school until the end of August. Oops. There was a form that everyone on my committee had to sign that approved the music I chose and the date and venue (again) and there was another card that just my supervising professor had to sign so that the school would even know the recital was happening. That was the one I forgot. It’s due 30 days before the recital. I think it waltzed in about 21 days before. They knew about the recital but this was just one of those crossing the “t’s” moments that I’m not always good at/don’t care to remember.

I also had to book the recital venue and I ended up choosing something off campus. Why? The two halls that are available at school don’t have great acoustics – one is too boomy and the other swallows you up (or me at least). The real kicker is that you have to pay for them and it’s not a minimal $25 fee or something. I’ve just gotta say – I really disagree with this. I have to present 4 recitals because of my degree. I have already paid fees and tuition because of my degree (ok, I’ve got scholarships, but there are always some little things that add up). I’m already charged an extra fee for lessons because of my degree. One would think they’d let you use the hall in the school that you’ve paid tuition and a pint of blood to attend for the recitals that you need to present BECAUSE OF THE DEGREE.

Anyhow, I chose an Episcopalian church used to having chamber music concerts and recitals. It’s fairly close to campus. They’ve got a nice Baldwin grand in there (never thought I’d say that about a Baldwin, but there’s a first time for everything) and the staff at Grace-St. Paul’s was lovely to work with.

Not too much visual clutter and the only thing I really needed to think about was where I was going to stand. I did my first recital for my DMA here, so it was almost comforting. That help, the comforting bit, when you’re under stress. I’d imagine these things get worse when you don’t know what you’re walking into. You control what you can and this was something over which I had a say. And there’s a built-in fence there in case anybody in the audience gets rowdy and rushes the stage.

Hey. It could happen!

Related articles

• Anatomy of a Recital, Part 1 (lifecomposing.wordpress.com)
• Recital Programme (lifecomposing.wordpress.com)

 

Neglected Public Pianos Rejoice!

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Music, Piano

For pretty much my entire natural life, I have been railing against the neglect of the public piano, i.e. any piano found in churches, synagogues, nursing homes or schools or anywhere else that doesn’t or won’t or can’t maintain their pianos properly. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but I’ve found there are usually two main reasons: money and thought.

Piano (Photo credit: esc861)

Money is a biggie. A lot of places don’t have the funds to maintain and tune a piano. Oftentimes, the piano itself was a donation. And more than anybody would like to admit, the piano that was donated was a cast-off and not purchased for the organization that it’s supposed to serve. This last little bit can mean that the piano is actually meant for the dump or needs so much restoration that it’s really not worth keeping (or restoring).

But let’s say that you’re an organization that has a pretty decent piano. And the money to maintain it. And you maybe tune that sucker about once every year or two. After being badgered by somebody like me. And instead of paying a highly trained piano technician, that lovely Mr. So-and-So who’s retired and loves to give back to the community did the tuning. Because he took a few classes at the local community college or watched some YouTube videos and has a couple of tools and no he’s not a professional, but how hard could it be? Really? Really?

Ok, so there was a bit of snark in that last little bit. But the fact is, if you have a musician that’s practiced and prepared come to your event and you present them with an instrument that’s wildly out of tune, it’s a major let-down. I don’t have perfect pitch, but I actually find it painful. And even the majority of my students, after a little bit of study, can hear the difference between a tuned piano and something that’s gone honky-tonk. I actually think a large chunk of the non-musician public can hear the difference, too, but simply can’t articulate it other than as “good” or “not good/weird”. As a horn player, it’s a nightmare. We spend a lot of time trying to get things in tune and then when you have to play with a piano that’s gone to pot, it makes riding the mechanical bull that is horn playing into riding a real-life bull. A really angry one.

The fact is, pianos need to be tuned fairly often. It keeps the piano sounding good, it’s a check-up of the mechanical parts and it keeps the wood happy. Often means more than once very few years. Probably a minimum of once a year for a privately owned piano and several times a year for a public one. And I’m not even talking about a piano that’s on the concert stage. That is a different thing altogether.

Enter Don Gilmore. He’s basically developed a self tuning piano system. It’s meant to be attached at the factory and works by sending an electrical current through the strings until each note is in tune. If it can be retrofitted to existing pianos, hopefully out of tune pianos will gradually fade away. And I can stop being a hater. It’s still in the prototype stage, but I hope Mr. Gilmore can find an investor, and soon.

Here’s a clip of what he’s got so far:

I don’t think this is a permanent solution or a replacement for a good piano technician. It’s also not a perfect solution because it also requires raising the temperature and the long-term effects on the soundboard (Wood) will be interesting to see. Every once in a while you’ll need human hands to check the mechanics, do an overall retuning and re-voice the piano as necessary. And I certainly wouldn’t suggest this for expensive pianos like the concert grands of Steinway or Bösendorfer. But it would be a way of taking some of the thought required to own a piano out of the equation and make the musicians that have to use those pianos much, much happier.  Did I mention we’d be much happier?

There’s a link the article in Gizmag here, if you want a few more details. Interested in donating a piano or wonder what happens to them when and if you do? Check the link below.

Related articles

• Where a Condemned Piano Can Win an Appeal (nytimes.com)