mmm...PING! mmm...PING!
The events these days are coming up so fast, it's becoming a total blur...
One of the unique things about the Chippewa Falls piece is that it features crystal glasses -- they're played by rubbing the rim of the glass, and they're all tuned to the same note. My original intention was to have (almost) the entire ensemble playing these glasses at the end of the piece... but that may not be musically appropriate. I'm leaving it up to the directors in Chippewa Falls to do what they think works best, and I will be very curious to see what they decide.
But I wanted to tell you about the search for these "perfectly pitched" glasses, because I thought it was a pretty good story.
Nicki and I woke up early one Saturday morning, and set out, tuning fork in-hand, to find THE GLASSES. I was sure it was going to be difficult to find the exact pitch I wanted, seeing as all the glasses in our house had turned out to be a C#, or a quasi-E-flat... we figured this could take all day. We started our search at CB2 -- they sell everything from furniture to kitchenware. It wasn't the closest place to our house, and neither one of us had ever been in there before, but I just had this strong feeling that this was a good place to start the search. I walked in, turned immediately right, and saw a stack of these:
I have no idea why I gravitated to these glasses -- there were at least 9 other kinds nearby, but I immediately grabbed one of these. I had experimented at home, and discovered that the glasses resonate at the same pitch when rubbed or pinged, so I whacked my tuning fork, held it to my ear, hummed the note, and pinged the edge of the glass with my finger -- PING!
It was EXACTLY THE RIGHT PITCH!
I couldn't believe it -- the first glass I tried, in the first store that we went to... AND THEY WERE ON SALE!?! That's kismet!
The only question was, there were only about 12 on display, and I wanted enough for the entire band.
I walked up to the register, and nervously asked the cashier how many of these they had in the store. A quick check of the computer... they had 237 in the back, and 973 more at the warehouse. I laughed out loud at my great good luck. I told her I needed 80 of them -- box 'em up, I'll come back and pick them up tomorrow -- mission accomplished!
I came back the next day, found the same clerk. She'd already set the glasses aside in the back, and while she's ringing me up, I'm making small talk -- y'know, telling her what I'm buying so many glasses for... a manager overhears us and asks,
"Have you checked to make sure they're all the same pitch? They're hand-blown, you know."
I pull one out of the box, whack my tuning fork, hum the note, and ping the glass with my finger -- BONG.
Wrong note.
I mean it's NOT EVEN CLOSE.
This was not good.
I find a semi-quiet spot in the store (damn that techno-muzak!), and start pinging more of the glasses. Some are close, a few are dead-on, but most of them are WAY OFF. Clerks are bringing me shopping carts FULL of wine glasses, and I'm separating them into these three different piles with this elaborate ritual -- whack the tuning fork, hum the note (over the muzak), ping the glass... when I've gone through all 237 blue ones, I start trying the clear ones...
Other shoppers are walking by me, seeing literally HUNDREDS of wine glasses in shopping carts all around me, and I'm whacking and humming and pinging and whacking and humming and pinging and whacking and humming and pinging and they're trying not to stare at this long-haired man in a leather jacket and a bandana on his head who keeps whacking and humming and pinging all these glasses but to the ones who I DO catch staring at me I shout:
"Stick around -- I'm going to try out the couches next!"
After pinging literally hundreds of glasses -- every single one that was this size that they had in the store -- I found 33 that were on pitch, or just sharp (FYI: glasses go lower in pitch when you add liquid to them, but they don't go down very far). And I managed to only break 2 during the whole process. I thanked the manager and the clerks not only for their patience and assistance, but also for not letting me walk out the door with a bunch of un-tuned glasses!
And even though 33 glasses probably won't cover every member of the ensemble, that may still be overkill. I had dinner with Eric last night, and when I told him about the 33 glasses, he thought that might be louder than the entire band! As I said, I'm leaving it to the discretion of the conductors in Chippewa Falls. So we'll see how many they end up using...
One of the unique things about the Chippewa Falls piece is that it features crystal glasses -- they're played by rubbing the rim of the glass, and they're all tuned to the same note. My original intention was to have (almost) the entire ensemble playing these glasses at the end of the piece... but that may not be musically appropriate. I'm leaving it up to the directors in Chippewa Falls to do what they think works best, and I will be very curious to see what they decide.
But I wanted to tell you about the search for these "perfectly pitched" glasses, because I thought it was a pretty good story.
Nicki and I woke up early one Saturday morning, and set out, tuning fork in-hand, to find THE GLASSES. I was sure it was going to be difficult to find the exact pitch I wanted, seeing as all the glasses in our house had turned out to be a C#, or a quasi-E-flat... we figured this could take all day. We started our search at CB2 -- they sell everything from furniture to kitchenware. It wasn't the closest place to our house, and neither one of us had ever been in there before, but I just had this strong feeling that this was a good place to start the search. I walked in, turned immediately right, and saw a stack of these:
I have no idea why I gravitated to these glasses -- there were at least 9 other kinds nearby, but I immediately grabbed one of these. I had experimented at home, and discovered that the glasses resonate at the same pitch when rubbed or pinged, so I whacked my tuning fork, held it to my ear, hummed the note, and pinged the edge of the glass with my finger -- PING!It was EXACTLY THE RIGHT PITCH!
I couldn't believe it -- the first glass I tried, in the first store that we went to... AND THEY WERE ON SALE!?! That's kismet!
The only question was, there were only about 12 on display, and I wanted enough for the entire band.
I walked up to the register, and nervously asked the cashier how many of these they had in the store. A quick check of the computer... they had 237 in the back, and 973 more at the warehouse. I laughed out loud at my great good luck. I told her I needed 80 of them -- box 'em up, I'll come back and pick them up tomorrow -- mission accomplished!
I came back the next day, found the same clerk. She'd already set the glasses aside in the back, and while she's ringing me up, I'm making small talk -- y'know, telling her what I'm buying so many glasses for... a manager overhears us and asks,
"Have you checked to make sure they're all the same pitch? They're hand-blown, you know."
I pull one out of the box, whack my tuning fork, hum the note, and ping the glass with my finger -- BONG.
Wrong note.
I mean it's NOT EVEN CLOSE.
This was not good.
I find a semi-quiet spot in the store (damn that techno-muzak!), and start pinging more of the glasses. Some are close, a few are dead-on, but most of them are WAY OFF. Clerks are bringing me shopping carts FULL of wine glasses, and I'm separating them into these three different piles with this elaborate ritual -- whack the tuning fork, hum the note (over the muzak), ping the glass... when I've gone through all 237 blue ones, I start trying the clear ones...
Other shoppers are walking by me, seeing literally HUNDREDS of wine glasses in shopping carts all around me, and I'm whacking and humming and pinging and whacking and humming and pinging and whacking and humming and pinging and they're trying not to stare at this long-haired man in a leather jacket and a bandana on his head who keeps whacking and humming and pinging all these glasses but to the ones who I DO catch staring at me I shout:
"Stick around -- I'm going to try out the couches next!"
After pinging literally hundreds of glasses -- every single one that was this size that they had in the store -- I found 33 that were on pitch, or just sharp (FYI: glasses go lower in pitch when you add liquid to them, but they don't go down very far). And I managed to only break 2 during the whole process. I thanked the manager and the clerks not only for their patience and assistance, but also for not letting me walk out the door with a bunch of un-tuned glasses!
And even though 33 glasses probably won't cover every member of the ensemble, that may still be overkill. I had dinner with Eric last night, and when I told him about the 33 glasses, he thought that might be louder than the entire band! As I said, I'm leaving it to the discretion of the conductors in Chippewa Falls. So we'll see how many they end up using...
5 Comments:
What a great story!
note to self: on wedding registry, make sure to have all glasses pitched the same.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Thats amazing, and good thing the sales people thought of that! (Great story!)
I can't wait to hear this on Saturday!! I'm so very happy that you will be able to join us for the premiere!! I know you'll have a fantastic time!
Please let me know if there is ANYTHING you need before, during or after your stay
My friend who works for Estee Lauder Corporate plans on using this story as an example of great customer service in her next department meeting.
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