Here we go again. There really is no end to the stupidity of some people,
From the Sydney Morning Herald, Letters, April 15th:
“Piano choice off key
XXXX, (Letters, April 14) have you actually heard classical music played on the Stuart piano? The new Stuart design has a completely different sound entirely inappropriate for classical music. It might have a cleaner, clearer sound but it lacks the complex mixture of harmonics of the Steinway and most other grand pianos. The Stuart sounds much like an electronic piano, which is fine for much modern music such as ragtime but leaves my teeth grinding when listening to classical music. The Stuart is a new and different instrument with a new and different sound, which is not necessarily better for all types of music.”
What a load of utter and complete crap.
I have responded as follows:
“Piano choice ‘in’ key
XXXX, (Letters, April 15) have YOU actually heard (and, furthermore, even played) classical music on the Stuart piano? Your views on the ‘inappropriateness’ of this piano for classical music are totally subjective, groundless and inaccurate. The piano, in fact, has been championed by many fine musicians both here and overseas for its ‘clearer, cleaner sound’, which is not only a major advance over the ‘Steinway and most other grand pianos’ but is patently a huge improvement over the thick dull sound common in the average acoustic piano.
Your amazing description of ragtime as ‘modern’ music (Scott Joplin lived from 1868 to 1917) gives the lie to your pretence of being anything other than just another hysterical and ill-informed musical illiterate.”
Boy, did I enjoy that, or what …
Of course, this letter wasn't printed ...
Neither was this much more skillfully written letter by the eminent Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi, who very kindly gave me permission to include the text in this blog, and I quote:
“XXXX's letter regarding the Stuart piano left me a little confused - I dare say a few other musicians might be in the same boat. I have played approximately 10 of the Stuart Pianos, including
recordings on two of them. To lump them all together in the same category is at best spurious, because they vary greatly.
To compare their sound to electronic music - and then to associate electronic music with 'modern' music such as ragtime (the precursor to jazz in late 19th Century America) is similarly inscrutable.
I would encourage XXXX to listen to the instrument at NSW Government House, which is a perfect piano for Romantic music. I would also recommend a number of others as having precisely the opposite qualities as argued in the letter, such as the Stuart Piano performed on Gerard Willems' internationally acclaimed Beethoven CDs.”
You can’t argue against that in any way.
It really strikes home that the mind is not in the shape it used to be when it stubbornly refuses to remember pieces of music that in bygone days would have been etched in stone somewhere inside without any effort. No matter how I try with some pieces, it just doesn’t work. I panic.
I suppose that like most things that don’t come naturally any more, there are two options. Firstly, accept it and secondly, do something about it. Retrain the memory.
The problem is that some new pieces I can remember and some I can’t, and I don’t know why this should be the case. Its not complexity so much, or technical difficulty. I never really had a technique for memorising – it just happened as part of the process of learning a piece of music.
I’m beginning to believe that one of the major contributors is discipline – in the sense of playing the notes exactly and ‘tightly’. Virtually all of my work as a church musician, whether on a keyboard or organ, is improvised in one way or another. Its perfectly natural for me to do this and I’ve been doing it for many years, even if there are occasions when I think I’ve rediscovered the Lost Chord. I suspect that that has worked against my ability to memorise – my brain is being lazy and shortcutting the path to what is left of my long term memory.
I’m not sure if there is a cure.