WMV Music Web Log
Musical musings by Carl and guestsTuesday, February 22, 2005
Hi, Carl!
I enjoyed reading your Feb. 19 piece about out-of-tune pianos. A lot of us piano plunkers probably grew up with one, which may be why many of us have accomodating ears. You would love the one I gave to my first daughter a couple of years ago when she moved into her first house. It has a couple of stuck keys and a sweet-and-sour quality that adds the just the right touch to Christmas carols, cowboy songs and home-grown renditions of Jerry Lee Lewis tunes. I don't know for sure, but I can imagine that each home piano (the real ones, not electronic) has a character, a soul of its own. So we should be happy to have pianists that can tolerate and even enjoy such pianos, and even get creative with the idiosyncrasies of the particular instrument they happen to be given to play. We should also applaud listeners who are willing to experience the sounds that may come out of an unfussed-over piano.
Such a light-hearted, free-spirited, even creative attitude may encourage more folks with beloved, if somewhat eccentric-sounding pianos to participate in the WMV salons! Some pianos are just plain hard to tune! That is, some old characters refuse to conform to the tempered approximation/compromise of a "well-tuned" state of being. After all, the most expressive music, including the new atonal compositions, may have arisen through the struggle of a composer to get the most out of a favorite, if frustrating old piano.
Wishing for you to keep having fun at the keyboard,
Mike
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