Wow! eBook
The Pianoforte Tuners' Association 1913-2013
Author(s): Mr Les Sherlock (Author)
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication Date: July 11, 2014
- Language: English
- Print length: 328 pages
- ISBN-10: 1499363907
- ISBN-13: 9781499363906
Book Description
This 219,733 word book is really three works in one. In the main section we are taken from the exciting beginning of the British Pianoforte Tuners’ Association, with their world-famous President who is revered, even today, by many music lovers every summer in the UK; through the very shaky times of World War Two; to the climax of their triumphant centenary celebration in 2013. After several appendices containing lists of PTA people, positions and events, we come to two more large sections. The first of these is Gill Green’s fascinating dissertation on the rise of professional piano tuning through the 18th and 19th centuries, setting the stage for the launch of the PTA. The second is the 1872 day-by-day diary of an Australian piano tuner, which not only reveals the problems faced by piano tuners of the time, but the kind of life experienced by the early pioneers who emigrated to the other side of the world. A book for everyone interested in the piano, this presents a unique insight in an aspect of the instrument not previously available.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Les Sherlock began formal training in piano tuning and reconditioning in 1962, for some years running the piano workshop for Chas Foulds & Son, Derby and finally spending two years full time on-the-road piano tuning for their clients. He moved to Dorset in 1973, acting as piano workshop foreman for Minns Music, which at the time was a large chain of piano shops in Southern England. After one year, needing more time for other activities than full-time employment would allow, he left there to become self-employed; among other things tuning for Bournemouth Symphony (BSO) and Bournemouth Sinfonietta Orchestras for 14 years, and for 16 years maintaining the personal piano of world-famous concert pianist Alfred Brendel and tuning for Music at Plush concerts, an annual season of summer concerts run by the Brendel family in Dorset. In 2012 he retired from concert piano tuning and presently undertakes domestic and school tunings on a part-time basis. In 1970 he became a Member of the Pianoforte Tuners’ Association (later becoming an Honorary Member), and was elected to the Executive Council in 1982, undertaking various responsibilities over the following 27 years, including President for five years between 1988 to 1993, editing PTA News (their 28-page bi-monthly PTA publication) for nine years, and an examiner for PTA Membership examinations. He also became a Member of the Institute of Musical Instrument Technology in 1977 and was made a Fellow of the Institute in 1989. For some years he was an examiner for the end-of-course AEWVH examinations for students who trained at the Royal National College for the Blind, and was the Secretary of the Examination Board for much of this time. In 2009, age 65, he retired from all formal PTA and AEWVH activity. He has published two Kindle books prior to the Kindle version of the PTA History: The Triple Whammy (a discussion on the creation/evolution debate) and Healing: The Birthright of the Christian (a look at Bible teaching on healing).
