WMV Music Web Log

Taking a break from grant writing to blog, finally.

Today's topic: out of tune pianos. What's odd is that I like them. It's a challenge to make music on one, plus it's more interesting, it wakes up my ears. Yesterday I played a reception in a retirement home on a Chickering with 2 stuck keys, a twang or two somewhere, generally way out of tune, and with a few real sour notes. I really got into it. I experimented with things I would never have done on a respectable instrument. A rather cultured looking elderly lady came up to me at one point and said, "I love your music, but I sure don't like that piano."

There is another thing about pianos - they are always a little out of tune, and that accounts for the richness of the overtones. Three strings are never going to be exactly in tune after 20 minutes of playing. It is embarrassing, but I dread the perfectly tuned piano that I encounter at the beginning of a concert. It is so loud! The strings all reinforce each other. And the sound is too pure.

Charles Ives and other composers liked out of tune pianos too - there have been attempts by composers to specify the out of tuneness, but that is such hard work. The piano is a pretty blunt instrument, intonation-wise; it is tempered, for goodness sake! Talk about an approximate solution. Every note is out of tune to begin with, except for the octaves and fifths. Amazing what our ears will do to accomodate that messiness.