It sank in a couple of weeks ago how little time I have left in Boston. The exam schedule at school has been hectic, and because the tuning exam and the technical exam are both individual, not done as a class, it essentially meant that we didn’t have access to either the shop or the main examination piano during class time for about two weeks while people were taking their tests. The work and practice for the exams took priority, and when I was in on a recent Saturday, I finished up and was thinking about how much I’m going to miss the place. I decided to stay out of the T as long as I could, so I walked down to the waterfront…
past the King’s Chapel graveyard…
…the Bell plaque
…over to the Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, then down to the Commons and the Boston Public Gardens. It was Saturday, and a nice day, and the place was very much alive – people out enjoying the street performers, tourists trying to decide which restaurant in the North End they were going to try, and locals just soaking up Boston…
…and getting married!
Back in the North End, Cicconi & Sons Construction Co. was on its annual spring mission to tear up Salem Street. The timing was such that it looked as if the concrete saws and jackhammers were going to be directly under the window where our main exam piano is during the height of our tuning exams. Fortunately, only two people were affected, and both passed, but it was a little nerve-wracking to walk up the street in the morning and try to second-guess where they were going to be on the day of your exam.
The tuning exam was completely aural – no electronic tuning devices allowed. For me, things went well until I got up into the top octave and was tuning unisons. By the time I got there, everything just sounded like hard felt banging on wood, but evidently that’s not uncommon, and the rest of my exam went well enough that I got a decent grade.
The tech test was interesting. We had to restring all three strings for one note, which ensured that we could tie hitch pin loops and also get the right number of coils on a tuning pin. We also had to splice a base string, repair a broken key, rebush a grand hammer, replace an upright hammer shank, and then regulate a grand action model and an upright action model. I only drew blood twice, which apparently is pretty good.
Loops
Coils
Splice
These are action models similar to what we regulated…
Because the school is going to be in new digs next fall, rather than move them, they’re sacrificing some of the piano-shaped objects up in SpinetLand. The destruction was going on during some of the tech tests, which just made things more interesting. But here’s what a pile of spinet looks like…
On Tuesday the school had a reception for everyone at a bar nearby an exhibition of furniture and jewelry that had been done by NBSS students. The furniture showed especially well in the place. At the school, you see a coffee table made by one of the students with a $4000 price tag, and you think “Man that’s a lot of money for a coffee table”. But you put that same table in the lobby of a financial building with marble floors and walls and twelve-foot windows and a fountain, and you think “Wow! That table is gorgeous! And only $4000!” Context is all.
After my tech exam (which went well), I had to finish the regulation on my Steinway M (which also went well), and at the end of the day, hopped the train to Fenway and took in my last Red Sox game for this trip. Fenway is great. You go there and eat $5 hot dogs and watch other people drink $9 beer (!) and watch some baseball with 37000 people who are all in a good mood. What a place!
It was a sloooww game – we finally left just before 10:00, they were just starting the bottom of the 6th, and it was beginning to rain. The Sox lost 12-3. The Bruins lost their game too, and it was pouring rain – all in all, not a great day in the city.
The next morning on the way in to school…
So. This week, Monday is Memorial Day, Tuesday is exam review, Wednesday is the final written exam , Thursday is a visit to an organ factory and the class picnic in Rockport, and Friday is graduation!
And here we are.
Some corrections: In the last blog, I referred to Matt Oneman, whose name is Matt Onegman (Sorry, Matt!) Also, the rim shown being bent in the Mason factory is for a BB, not a CC.
timinboston 