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Bruce Brubaker on all things piano

Overheard

June 13, 2012 by Bruce Brubaker

During some days in late summer, I practiced Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto. I’m sure the windows were open. My Juilliard piano teacher, Jacob Lateiner lived on 84th Street, just around the block. I mentioned I was learning Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto. “I know,” he said.

Pianists are prone to be overheard. The piano can be a loud instrument. Living in close proximity to others, in a New York City apartment, or a suburban house — practicing is not entirely private.

In music schools, players get used to hearing, or even being drowned out by other people’s sound waves, transmitted through practice-room walls and windows. Being overheard usually doesn’t cause inhibition in the practice room; you’re not playing a solo.

My new neighbor practices music by J. S. Bach, and reductions of Mozart’s operas. If I knew who it was as I passed him in the lobby — early 20s, guy, Gould afficianado — I’d like to offer some stern helpful advice. Don’t always stop when you play a wrong note! Please!

In his late life, Rudolf Firkusny was strongly discouraged from practicing by his new neighbor, an attorney. One summer, my épater-la-bourgeoisie neighbor advised me, “More Glass, less Gershwin.”

John Cage’s story might challenge any sense that a neutral context of silence is desirable or possible:

One day when the windows were open, Christian Wolff played one of his pieces at the piano. Sounds of traffic, boat horns, were heard not only during the silences in the music, but, being louder, were more easily heard than the piano sounds themselves. Afterward, someone asked Christian Wolff to play the piece again with the windows closed. Christian Wolff said he’d be glad to, but that it wasn’t really necessary, since the sounds of the environment were in no sense an interruption of those of the music.

One summer — windows open again — my neighbor screamed her opinions across the air shaft. I was practicing a lot of music by Schoenberg. She yelled, “Stop that terrible noise — people are trying to live!”

I can’t really blame her. I wouldn’t want to hear hours of piano practicing. Although as she rang my doorbell for several minutes at a time it was increasingly difficult to remain sympathetic.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Beethoven, Firkusny, Glass, Jacob, Jacob Lateiner, Juilliard, Juilliard School, Lateiner, New York City, overheard, Philip, piano practicing, practice room, practicing, Rudolf, Schoenberg, summer

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  1. SuiteLinks: June 16 « Piano Addict says:
    June 16, 2012 at 9:56 pm

    […] Being overheard […]

Bruce Brubaker

Recordings such as the new American piano music albums I make for ECM, InFiné, and Arabesque reach many listeners, and seem to break through some old divisions of high culture/pop, or art/entertainment. My fans are listening to Frank Ocean, Skrillex, Nicki Minaj — even the occasional Mozart track! Spotify, iTunes, Twitter, YouTube allow music lovers to discover music they could not have encountered so easily in the past. Live performances begin to reflect what’s happening online: this year I play at the International Piano Festival at La Roque d’Anthéron, traditional concert venues in Los Angeles, and Boston — as well as nightclubs in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Lyon, Geneva, and New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge. Read More…

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Music is changing. Society's changing. Pianists, and piano music, and piano playing are changing too. That's PianoMorphosis. But we're not only reacting... From the piano -- at the piano, around the piano -- we are agents of change. We affect … [Read More...]

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BB on the web

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“I Hear America: Gunther Schuller at 80” — notes and programs for concert series, New England Conservatory, Harvard University, Boston Symphony Orchestra

“A Conversation That Never Occurred About the Irene Diamond Concert,” Juilliard Journal

Bruce Brubaker plays music by Alvin Curran at (le) Poisson Rouge

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