GG the Technician

[Alun Severn <alun@ukiah.demon.co.uk>]

My thanks again to all those who responded recently to my queries about the
piano sound/tone/quirks on the 2 & 3 Part Inventions. I had asked whether
that tone could *really* be accidental. Had I then read this extract from
Friedrich's book, I think I would have known that it could't *possibly* be
an accident....

        Friedrich is writing of GG's soundtrack for the film
        of Tim Findley's novel THE WARS:

>>>>>   "Performance by now was only the beginning of a Gould
        creation....Of that Strauss "Klavierstuck" that he had used
        in the opening sequence of the film, he wrote to the engineer:
        'Both segments of the Strauss should be dubbed again and/or
        run straight from the master during the mix...If you do
        choose to go with the master for the mix, it will
        involve the all-important pitch alteration (Studer 500
        to 504) which occurs at the end of bar 18, immediately
        before a cut to bar 47; otherwise expressed, it occurs
        1 minute, 51 seconds into the opening segment. The other
        general comment about the Strauss is that, in the Soundmix
        Theatre, at least, it seemed decidely bass-oriented. I recall
        that during, during the dubbing session at my studio, I urged
        Kevin {Doyle, a sound engineer] to effect a steeper bass cut
        in order to compensate for the characteristics of the dubber
        itself....'  That one specimen of engineering instructions
>>>>>   continues for seven single-spaced pages."

        -- Otto Friedrich, GG: A Life & Variations, pp.270

Accidents?

Best,  Alun

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| ...[it is my] sober conviction that no piano need feel duty-bound   |
|          to always sound like a piano.       - Glenn Gould
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