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To Hear Ourselves As Others Hear Us The Endangered Piano Technician, by James Boyk
Scientific American , December, 1995, page 100.
Reprinted in , May-June, 1996.
As a pianist, I have a recurring nightmare that the piano will disappear as a concert instrument, not because people won't want to hear it or play it, nor because fine pianos won't be built, but because good concert piano technicians are vanishing.
Technicians repair and adjust the mechanism of the piano, with its roughly 2,000 moving, vibrating or adjustable parts. A concert technician does all this, plus tuning, under performance-day pressure, while being supportive of the artist. This medley of abilities requires complete mastery and a special temperament, a combination that is increasingly rare.
On tour, we pianists take potluck in technicians, but when I am home I am lucky enough to have the services of Kenyon Brown. For 25 years, he was the Steinway concert technician here in Los Angeles, responsible for pianos used by artists from Elton John to Arthur Rubinstein, in venues ranging from concert halls to recording studios to the Hollywood Bowl. The great Rubinstein, who played all sorts of pianos in his career of 80- plus years, called Brown one of the five or six best technicians in the world.
Brown sees to it that the key mechanism, or "action," follows the subtlest volume changes and the fastest repeated notes, that the hammers create a rich and clear tone, that the pedals respond delicately and work silently, and that the tuning is beautiful and stable. He also repairs broken strings, tightens loose bearings, and eliminates buzzes. | |
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