I'm a frayed knot

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

Firstly I'd like to thank the Chaplin of Stowe School on a visit elsewhere for cracking a joke to which he expected no-one to laugh, just to break the ice, and then proceed irrelevantly to the joke. He's obviously a scale model enthusiast*, and in character of scale models the joke bears greater wisdom than was apparent.

One of my sons relates how an eccentric maths beak was relating to his class the advantages of hyperbolic rather than parabolic mirrors. A member of the class asked "Sir, how is this relevant to the Curriculum?". "It isn't", he replied, "so if you don't want to know, you can walk out". At least half the class did.

There seems to be a sad gulf between those who send their children to school to learn to pass exams, and those who send their children to school to be educated, and those children who likewise go to school with those intentions of their parents consciously or subsconsciously engrained. Those who merely pass exams come out of schools, strings of them, only fit for parcel tying job fodder.

There were three pieces of string in a pub who were very thirsty for a good pint. The first piece of string went up to the bar to order drinks but the barman turned him away telling him that the bar did not serve pieces of string. Annoyed, the second piece of string went up to the bar and indignantly demanded to be served. The barman calmly turned him away pointing to a notice "Management regrest that pieces of string are not served here."

The third piece of string took his lower fibres and wildly frayed them out, then tying the rest of him into an unrecognisable knot. He went up to the bar to be served and the barman said to him "But you're a piece of string aren't you?". Not taking this for an answer the string replied "No. Sorry - I'm a frayed knot".

The charming truth of this story is that people who learn how to pass exams may do very well in getting jobs, but that depends on the bar man. The people who can manage to transform themselves into something beyond their own string of qualifications will pass exams that others won't be able to pass and get to places they'd never imagine.

So it is with organs and organists. If we can transform our instrument into something so very exciting that people have to sit up and take notice, then the future of organ preservation and pipe organ building crafts will be assured. Strings of ordinary instruments and ordinary musicians don't excite and they don't jump the bar.

It's for this reason that I urge anyone near enough to a recital by Jeremy Filsell
http://www.organrecitals.com/1/recitals.php?organist=jerfil
next month to move heaven and earth to go to hear him. His enthusiasm and sheer joy of playing is so unbounding that no-one can go away from one of his recitals without knowing that the Organ is the King of Instruments. He's a great inspiration.

It's also for this reason that I have urged anyone making an organ simulation with Hauptwerk and loudspeakers to make their instruments astoundingly superb and not simply settle for standard hi-fi systems that you can go and hear at home.** I annoyed people on the Hauptwerk forum because I didn't give an answer as to what to do to achieve that and instead laid out pointers to thought.

There is no _one_ answer to how to tie a piece of string, but the Frayed Knot thought very hard about it, and thinking can be very painful, as is the physical process of dissection of ones strands into many fibres and contorting oneself into a tight knot. When one does so, extraordinary ideas are squeezed out like drops of water from a damp string :)

I'f you've come from elsewhere, welcome to the land of the Frayed Knot and the superlative focussing powers of Hyperbolic mirrors.

Best wishes

David P.


*Scale model enthusiasts may find more Stoic jokes:
http://www.scale-models.co.uk/jokes/2728-three-pieces-string.html

**Sometimes I suspect that I'm not unique in wondering whether people are so used to hearing music through their hi-fi systems that they no longer know what a real instrument sounds like. I have half a feeling that modern pianos of brands starting with the letters Y, S or B are liked by people because they think they  sound like what a piano should sound like based upon what they hear through their speakers. You might enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9vbJxPhN3Y in contrast

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

I suspect that your right - at least for many people - when you say that they're too used to the sound of speakers rather than real instruments.

Regarding pianos, I have little time for the "Y" brand - I find the tone too hard - but then, they're intended to be like that to cut through other instruments in pop music and the like.  My personal favourites are the Bossendorfer Imperial Grand - the one with the extra notes at the bass end, and Bluthner with the aliquot strings and musical tone.

Every Blessing

Tony

[KB7DQH]

Cassegrain reflector systems (whether RF or Light) employ a hyperbolic curve near the focal point of the parabola to direct the energy into the center of the parabolic surface and through a hole there...

Otherwise it WON'T WORK ;D

Eric
KB7DQH

[NonPlayingAnorak]

I have half a feeling that modern pianos of brands starting with the letters Y, S or B are liked by people because they think they  sound like what a piano should sound like based upon what they hear through their speakers. You might enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9vbJxPhN3Y in contrast

Y, S or B? Yamaha, Steinway and... Bösendorfer? And no, my own personal liking for the last of those is not based on what I hear through speakers. I am fortunate enough to have heard dozens of pianos spanning the thick end of 250 years, live, in the wood (and, in more modern cases, metal). I find modern Yamahas to be serviceable, but not inspirational. Many modern Steinways are tuned sharp to concert pitch and also have an intolerably bright, brassy tone, which makes the bottom end horribly thin. They also don't sustain well. Bösendorfers, on the other hand, are rich and well-balanced, and sustain really well (the 5ft 10 example, dating from 1917, that I have here, is by every reasonable yardstick a much better piano than a much larger Steinway Model D). A very impulsive Danish pupil of my mother's encountered it and went straight out and bought a brand-new Model 290, the Imperial (to which Tony refers) - he's quite obscenely wealthy. Since then, he has (sadly) sold said piano and bought a Fazioli (which is good, but not a Bösendorfer) - but he actually made a profit on the Imperial and then went and installed a rather fine Hauptwerk toaster for home use (and he is now being taught on that, with a long-term view to getting him into a church position).

Incidentally, David, that Schumann was quite beautiful... it's a lovely piano. Who made it? Who played it (in that video)?

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

The Schumann - it's on a Bechstein of the mid 1890s - and the pianist is Adolfo Barabino.

Best wishes

David P

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Ah right. Nice pianos, those old Bechsteins. I treasure my box set of Flanders and Swann CDs... Donald Swann was a hugely underrated pianist, and he always used an old Edwardian Bechstein.

Incidentally, this is the old Broadwood family home, in Capel, between Dorking and Horsham:
http://www.tree-ring.co.uk/images/Temple%20Elfande.JPG

Originally owned by the Knights Templar, later the Knights Hospitaller. The present house is mid-16th century... came up for sale a couple of years ago. Oh, if only...