“I just had a broken string - the high A,” Davenport said, as he eyed the whirling circle. He was preparing the piano for an episode of “The Simpsons.” A small orchestra would record 40 bits of music - cues - to a videotape of the show. The piano sat in a forest of music stands, microphones and guitar racks, above an undergrowth of floor cables.ĭavenport focused on the spinning disc, a CyberTuner feature. He opened his computer on the rib cage of a 1928 Steinway. On a recent night, he took his laptop to Fox Studios in Century City, where he tunes in a hangar-sized scoring stage. Davenport, 55, has a geeky enthusiasm for the mathematics of music algorithms interest him almost as much as rhythms. “The folks who aren’t using it aren’t necessarily the best tuners,” he said in a deep voice that fits his bearish frame. He said that electronic tuning cuts wear and tear on the ear, saving it for the finer adjustments, and that his customers appreciate the precision. The Brentwood resident ventured into tuning after earning a music degree at Occidental College and teaching junior high school. “It’s just so absurd to say that, because you’re using a machine, you’re not tuning aurally,” he said. He described gizmos such as Accu-Tuner, and software packages like CyberTuner, as aids for the ear, not substitutes. “We feel you do not train your ear well enough because you’re relying on the machine.” “We don’t use electronic tuners here and we don’t advise any of our technicians to use them,” said Ron Coners, chief concert technician for Steinway in New York. That view prevails at some prestigious music academies, including the Juilliard School, as well as at Steinway & Sons. “You don’t really have to pay attention to what you’re doing. “When you start using a machine, you are allowed to become kind of lazy,” he added. It’s all about the ear, Elliot said later. After tearing into a Mozart concerto, Goode complimented Elliott. The impish-faced pianist wanted another rehearsal before that night’s performance.Įlliott hurriedly collected his tools and retreated backstage. Goode appeared from the gloom just as Elliott finished. Elliott jabbed one hammer with a needle - “sugar-coating” it - to render the string less strident. They bounced on the Swedish-steel strings like woodpeckers peppering bark. “Richard Goode is a very sensitive player,” Elliott said as he tinkered with the Steinway’s felt hammers. Household pianos typically are tuned once a year. It took him an hour to sweeten the Steinway. He drifted into the craft after studying piano. “Tuning is creative.”Įlliott has tuned the Music Center’s pianos for 17 years. “A machine is very rigid,” said the Pasadena resident. “Maybe they never really learned to tune by ear.” He said no computer can “hear” the subtle tonal differences between two pianos, or along the multi-string unisons within a single instrument.Įlliott also said the gadgets can’t “stretch the octaves,” making the bass flatter and treble sharper - to suit a performer’s taste. “There are a lot of people who use electronic tuners,” said Elliott, a soft-spoken 51-year-old with clipped, graying hair. The B flat reverberated like a pipe banging in a storm drain, only purer. His task was to improve the “feel” of the piano for soloist Richard Goode.Įlliott tugged his tuning hammer - a misnamed wrench - this way and that on the pin of a B-flat string, adjusting it by hair-widths, while pounding the key. None requires batteries.Įlliott stood over a nine-foot Steinway on the darkened stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. His tools are sleeved in a handyman’s roll pouch. Elliott simply tilts his head toward the strings and listens.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |