Two-piano Numbers

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 47, 5 June 1931, Page 5

Two-piano Numbers

WHEN listeners hear two-piano items broadcast from 3YA on June 10, they will probably imagine two pianos standing side by side in a 3YA_ studio with Miss Maisie Ottey at one keypoard and Miss Merle Miller at the other. That is the usual way that twopiano items are played, but it is not the way to be followed at 3YA. Instead, Miss Miller and her piano will be in one studio and at the other end of the building, in a different studio, will be Miss Ottey, her fingers ‘"‘chasing the ivories’" on a studio grand. How is it that, out of sight of each | @ther, they work in unison? The exHlanation is that by the use of headphones, each knows exactly what the other is doing. The two artistes have been rehearsjing assiduously and the method of inter-communication has proved very satisfactory.. A microphone stands beside each piano so that. the playing of each performer and any comments she cares to make are conveyed in--‘Stantly to the other performer in the distant room. . This system of communication’ was devised to ayoid the necessity of hav ing both pianos in one studio for the playing of the items. As both studios are required for the presentation of a programme, the moving of a piano from one studio into another would be an operation which would not only be impracticable, but would probably upset ‘ the tuning of the instrument.