Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10
MEN WHO TUNE PIANOS

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An old time Washington piano tuner, stili
in active harness. was telling ssrne curious
things about his business the other day.
piano tuners are for the most part grad
uated from the great piano factories he
said while the piano tuner b required
to know every part In the make-up of q
piano, he is not necessarily piano re-
pairer. Nor can the average regular piano
repairer tune a piano. There are hun
dreds OF expert repairers of pianos who
wouldn't be able to tune an instrument they
had overiiauled to save their lives. Perhaps
more than the man Of any other profession,
the piano tuner is born. not made. His
acute sense Of the vibrations of sound is
given to him at his birth. and the man not
so endowed can never become piano tuner.
When you discover that your growing boy
is unable to whistle Yankee Doodle with
out working In dozen or so of narrowing
false notes you would be simply wasting
your money If you set him to learn the
violin or the piano or any other musical
instrument, for. his ear not being true, he
could not master an instrument in thou
sand years. When, as a young man, was
employed in one of the big plano factories,
/ knew scores of men who could finish al
most every part of q superb piano bit In
whose ears the sounding of the ninth note
for an octave would have awakened no dis
tarbance whatever, SO dormant was their
musical sense.
1T is not in the slightest degree necessary
that piano tuner should be a performer,
or even a moderately good player. As
matter of fact, the majority of piano tuners
are very Indifferent players, and they rarely
play at all beyond making a, few runs Tor
the testing of instruments they have tuned
or are about to tune. Most tuners nave
simply one rapid, comprehensive piece, tax
ing In the entire keyboard for this purpose,
ana IL I had a dollar for each time We
v<lox ,nI <,,s1, - |. fec rttv %
to announce my retirement tomorrow morn
ing. 1 am most Indifferent piano player
T don't suppose I've played five different
pieces In as many years-and yet raise
note struck on a piano takes away ap-
petite. Like any other piano tuner who
understands his business and whose ear has
been made abnormalIy acute by practice
and training, I can detect falseness OF a.
tenth of tone in piano note even if I
pass a house In which the instruments Is
being played, and / never have such an
experience that l don't feel like going into
the house to set the thing right. Most
plano tuners have to run away from the
barrel organs and street pianos, their false
ness and diseord are generally SO nerve
racking.
Some of the piano tuners of Washington.
work on their own hook, but the majority
of them are, attached to the piano estab-
GShments and get pretty fair salaries. lt
costs from S1.5o to s1o to have piano
tuned, the average being about So for a bit
of careful, patustaking work. FOE a.
laborious and exhausting task OF tuning
such as getting an Instrument into shape
for a great performer, tuners get good
sized fees. On one of the occasions when
Paderewski visited Washington tuned the
instrument upon which he performed IL
took me just six hours, and did the work
under the constant supervision OF PadereW-
ski himself He was pretty fussy over the
Job at first but, after hating me several
times. he finally concluded, suppose. that
knew my business pretty We'll and let
a1ia ha trqV 20 ms
/ got through was pretty comfortable one.
"a number of years ago, when Hans Won
Bulow visited Washington, tuned the IN
strument upon which he played He
wouldn't allow the instrument to be tuned
in the warehouse, one of his whims being
that even a. short removal of piano KNOCKS
it all out Of tune. So L tuned 1t upon the
platform upon which he was to perform.
He stood over me all the time, letting out
agonized whoops and German cuss words,
until I couldn't help but laugh in, his face
Finally, when I had the piano almost tuned,
he gave few more shr1ekS, ana, graphing
my wrench began doing the job all over
again. l let him go ahead, and inside of
three minutes he had the piano so hope
lessly out of tune that 1t took me three
hours to get 1t into shape again. Herr Won
Bulow had to pay double for his little ex-
hibition Of temper.
"If I had kept and converted INTO money
all of the articles of value that I've found
in pianos that I've tuned since I've been
in the business, 1t would make very neat
sum to fall back upon In my old age. rms
is especially true with reference 10 grand
uianos In the homes of the wealthy, Ar
tfcIes of jewelry most commonly get into,
the interior of pianos. A rev years ago
was summoned to tune triangular piano
In the residence of wealthy Fes sas1 n.
family here, and on making a preliminary
run over the keys l instantly detected an
odd jangiing in the upper register rms
tanglfng, It seems, had also been detected
by the young women of the family VINO
ba Instrument. but none or
them had taken the trouble to lnveslgaIe
the cause of the unusual sound IL clan
take me long to pick out very oeautltui
and extremely valuable diamond bracelet
from beneath the strings. A servant OF
that household was even then languishing
In tail on the charge OF having stolen tnat
bracelet. The servant was free Within an
hour after my visit to that residence, ana
taken back In his old employ.
ssWhen bangle bracelets were fashionable
T used to often find between the piano
strings and sometimes even underhsarh ths
kevbeard small coins and medals that had
been lost from the bracelets A FAMOUS
Chicago woman eminent In society IN TINS
country and abroad, suffered such loss
while visiting at the home OF washington
60 noilv some wears ago. 1t was small gold
Eonan coin. with the head Of Domitian.
Immensely valuable from the nunismaue
point of view, but of many times greater
vaI,re to the Chicago woman because II mad
heen given to her by Carmen sylvia, the
Roumantau queen. She had lost IT from
her gold bangle bracelet of antique coins
I found the coin underneath the Keyboard
of the grand piano In the house at which
She had been visiting here, several months
after she had missed 1t. When the coin
Iras restored to her the lady, who was then
~ Snscag o sent me a most heartfelt letter
OF thanks and a substantial check. The
Ietter Contained an intinlation that | might
do pretty we'll as piano tuner In chicago,
which didn't stir me to any very WILD deplfs
Of enthusiasm, however, for I'd been In Chi
eago once.
When the Thirst Craze Comes.