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Independence, MO —
It was Ted Stewart’s worst nightmare.
While playing the 9-foot Baldwin grand piano last month at William Chrisman High School for the vocal music department’s pops concert, the damper pedal on the archaic piano quit working early in the program.
“It just broke,” Stewart says of the foot pedal, which he says sustains the chords, allowing him to play a low note and keep it playing as he plays a melody note to get the full sound of it.
“Well, that just became impossible to do,” he says. “There was no sustain.”
Calling the mishap on the 1927 grand piano “exceedingly frustrating,” the accomplished pianist and organist didn’t panic. He patiently waited until there was a brief break in the program, then crawled under the majestic piano to see if straightening the pedal rod would do the trick.
But that wasn’t the problem. One look, and Stewart knew he didn’t have enough experience with pedal rods to know what he was looking for.
So what to do next?
“We will go with what we’ve got,” he thought, recalling the broken pedal was sort of the last straw. “It was a minor repair, but it disabled me in the concert.”
Knowing the show must go on, Stewart decided to play the grand piano as he would an organ – with his fingers down.
“I tried not to make it sound like a hymn coming out of an organ, but it kind of hinted that way,” he says, laughing, adding that his frustration level was pretty high that day. “It wasn’t what we wanted, but we made it through.”
The used instrument, which Stewart calls “the pinnacle of artistry,” has been part of Chrisman’s history for 50 years since being purchased in 1962.
“This is an artist’s piano and we weren’t getting artist quality,” he says, explaining that “unless this magnificent instrument is restored internally, it will not “behave the way a 9-foot concert grand should.”
Yes, the piano can be used once the pedal is repaired. But it would be just like it was, Stewart says, explaining that in the case of string quality, the hammers had shifted and weren’t hitting all the strings.
“Instead of hitting all three strings in a note, the hammers were striking either air or only one or two strings. So I was getting one-half to one-third the tone that a key could produce,” he explains.
It was Ted Stewart’s worst nightmare.
While playing the 9-foot Baldwin grand piano last month at William Chrisman High School for the vocal music department’s pops concert, the damper pedal on the archaic piano quit working early in the program.
“It just broke,” Stewart says of the foot pedal, which he says sustains the chords, allowing him to play a low note and keep it playing as he plays a melody note to get the full sound of it.
“Well, that just became impossible to do,” he says. “There was no sustain.”
Calling the mishap on the 1927 grand piano “exceedingly frustrating,” the accomplished pianist and organist didn’t panic. He patiently waited until there was a brief break in the program, then crawled under the majestic piano to see if straightening the pedal rod would do the trick.
But that wasn’t the problem. One look, and Stewart knew he didn’t have enough experience with pedal rods to know what he was looking for.
So what to do next?
“We will go with what we’ve got,” he thought, recalling the broken pedal was sort of the last straw. “It was a minor repair, but it disabled me in the concert.”
Knowing the show must go on, Stewart decided to play the grand piano as he would an organ – with his fingers down.
“I tried not to make it sound like a hymn coming out of an organ, but it kind of hinted that way,” he says, laughing, adding that his frustration level was pretty high that day. “It wasn’t what we wanted, but we made it through.”
The used instrument, which Stewart calls “the pinnacle of artistry,” has been part of Chrisman’s history for 50 years since being purchased in 1962.
“This is an artist’s piano and we weren’t getting artist quality,” he says, explaining that “unless this magnificent instrument is restored internally, it will not “behave the way a 9-foot concert grand should.”
Yes, the piano can be used once the pedal is repaired. But it would be just like it was, Stewart says, explaining that in the case of string quality, the hammers had shifted and weren’t hitting all the strings.
“Instead of hitting all three strings in a note, the hammers were striking either air or only one or two strings. So I was getting one-half to one-third the tone that a key could produce,” he explains.
Despite the fact the 75-year-old piano hasn’t had any major repairs since Chrisman acquired it, Stewart says the icon is “really not far from being in really good shape.”
Evelyn Fry Mesley, a 1962 Chrisman graduate, believes now is the time to get the jewel of the music department into tip-top playing shape. She is calling on all Chrisman alumni, as well as the community, to come to the aid of the aging piano with a donation.
As a senior, Mesley played the grand piano. However, she never gave it much thought until she heard about Ted Stewart crawling under the piano in an unsuccessful attempt to fix it.
“But when the pedal broke, I connected with the piano,” Evelyn says. “I knew it came my senior year. So when I realized the piano was in such bad shape, I tied in our 50th-year anniversary with 50 years of the piano being (at Chrisman), and I thought this was something maybe we could hook into our reunion and take it on as a project.” (The class of ‘62 will hold its 50-year reunion Oct. 5-7.)
Actively involved in raising funds to repair the piano is Chris Fullerton Jones, reunion chair and editor of the class newsletter, who believes there are people in the community willing to reach out and recognize the value of having a 9-foot Baldwin grand piano and want to see it preserved – not just as a piece of Chrisman history, but as a piece of community history.
“We want it to be an all-school thing,” Jones says. “Every class that came after us used the piano and knows the benefit of it.”
As of this writing, no restoration bid has been let. But Ron Patch, Chrisman choral director, believes all funds exceeding the cost of the project would be cosmetic to the grand, which Evelyn Mesley says is not in very good shape.
“We are not so worried about the outside of the piano,” she says, “because that is cosmetic. But the major concern for the musicians is the inside of the piano, because you are putting it back into an environment where it is going to get battered again.”
Stored backstage, Mesley says the piano has been battered, used as a stacking area, rammed into the wall and marred with scratches, dents and bumps.
Patch, who is beginning his 10th year as choral director, says Chrisman is one of the few schools with a 9-foot piano.
“It is unusual to find a 9-foot piano on the stage of any high school, so your concert pianists who come in and are practicing have the privilege of using a real quality instrument ... and experience that richness in tone.
“Unfortunately, the way the piano is right now, it is hard to sing under the piano,” he says. “I am not talking physically under the piano, but dynamically under the piano, because it is very rigid and crisp in the way it plays.
“So it is hard to sing really, really legato pianissimo-type of pieces with accompaniment and have it stay that way.”
Ted Stewart hopes there will be enough money raised to also repair the heavy piano bench, which he says rocks when you sit on it and makes you feel like you are going to fall off.
“It sure would be nice to have it repaired,” he says, as well as purchasing a new piano cover. “Our cover is shot, he says of the tattered one that now covers the large instrument.
The Independence School District Foundation is supporting the effort to raise funds to repair the grand piano. Make checks payable to ISD Foundation and put WCHS Grand Piano Repair Fund in the subject line. Mail to: ISD Foundation, 201 N. Forest Ave., Independence, Mo. 64050.
To make an online donation, contact the Independence School Foundation Office at 816-521-5300.
