Piano Society Book Club

You are funny, Andreas. I bet you spend more time looking for just the right smiley than on actually typing out your comments! haha ( I do too - LOL) (I'm too lazy right now put one up right this second).

Ok - Chapter 17:

That poor piano! My goodness, I can’t believe how terrible Jos behaved!

I can relate to Anna paying him anyway just so that he would leave and to prevent something else bad from happening. My tuner has never done anything wrong to me or to my piano. He is a very nice and normal guy. But when I think about it, he comes to my home when I am by myself. If he were to become ‘weird’, I would pay him so he would leave right away too.

And what do you guys think about Anna and Thad talking about how they can ‘escape’ into a different place in their minds when they play music. That’s exactly how it is with me. I am most of the time making up a story in my mind when I play. It’s not always good to do that though, because often times I get to the end of a piece without realizing I just played the whole thing. I really should have been working on some technical issue and instead just wasted all that time with my fantasizing! So then I have to back to the beginning…

What say you both?

 

O.k., chapter 17 was a sad one somehow. It´s really sad, that Luc seems to be an alcoholic and at the end it isn´t clear, if he had replaced also the broken string in Annas Bechstein. It´s just clear, that he has retuned the piano and that he has done this properly now.
I had good luck until now, because never a string break down in any of my pianos until today. (O.k. anytime there will be the first time, I think.) But I knew, that a new string has to be retuned several times, until it sounds correctly.

I seldom can be absent, if I play piano, Monica. I´m mostly very concentrated. In the case it´s a piece I know well and if I´m not concentrated I can play it through while thinking on other things, f.ex. what happened in my school-lessons or similar. If it´s a new piece (or a more complicated one), I´m not able to play it properly through, if I´m not truely concentrated.

 

It's not Luc that is the alcoholic, but the piano tuner, Jos.

I have never broken a string, either. I have never even seen a broken string.

But Andreas, are you saying that you broke a string today? How did that happen? What were you playing? Did it make a loud noise when it broke? Did it shoot out of the piano? Did you jump?

 

Pianolady wrote:

That´s what I meant, when I told you, that I´m an absent-minded professor sometimes. :roll: I´ve read so much literature (because of my profession of a German-teacher), that in moments, I´m tired and not more so concentrated, it easily happens to me, that I change names of the figures of the novel. Of course, I knew, that´s Jos.

I have seen some during my life, but fortunately on other pianos than mine.

No Monica, that´s also fortunately a missunderstanding. May be I didn´t express me correctly. I have never broken a string, not today either. I just think: anytime always could be the first time, so it´s possibel (and probable), that it´ll happen to me and to most pianists one day. (Especially to such wild players like me. :wink: :lol: )

 

Chapters 18 and 19 are short, so here is my summary on both.

Chap. 18 – Thad is finally getting his pedal brace. And what quirky behavior from that locksmith. It does seem like a complicated relationship between the business owners in that little neighborhood. I think that is kind of neat, though; like a sort of ‘you rub my back, and I’ll rub yours’ kind of way. And weren’t you excited to know about the new Erard coming in? And especially if Luc was actually going to receive it?

Chap. 19 – Never mind the Erard, now we have what could actually be Beethoven’s piano! Wow! I would love to have seen that. And now we clearly know why Beethoven seemed to easily smash pianos – they did not have the metal frame yet.

 

Hi MOnica,
this weekend I had only time for the first half of chapter 18. I think, I need a little break now, because at this time I have very much to do for my job.

 

No problem, Andreas. Whenever you feel like posting something is fine. Nathan has probably read the whole book by now, and I am just sort of following you guys. So we will all just go with the flow.
(that means to take it day to day)

 

Yeah - poor Beethoven. At least Liszt was around when the piano he needed came to be.

And Nathan, was it that the Mozart pieces you were playing felt like 'small' pieces and therefore you weren't interested in playing them, or were you playing on a different instrument?

A piano black market - hmmm. Wouldn't surprise me. There are piano collectors who probably get into some shady dealings to get the piano they want.

 

haha - well, I just inhaled a plate of spaghetti because I was starving.

I'm ready to read chapter 20, just kind of waiting. I'll do it later today.

And all those books sound great! I think I've read Jack Higgins before but I can't remember what. But that "Fingers" book sounds like something right up my alley. Reminds me of another book I read a couple years ago about a woman whose body is taken over by Franz Schubert. She can suddenly play piano like an expert, stuns the teachers of Juilliard and then Schubert leads her to his 'Unfinished Symphony'.

So let's go for Fingers next. Maybe we can round up some more members too?

Ok, I'm going to look up that word now after I finish up doing a new member.

 

aha ha ha - very funny. You both better watch it, or I'll give you a Chinese foot massage. (they hurt!):lol:

And that word, feuchtwanger. I thought it was a kind of sausage, but it looks like it's a person, right? I only briefly glanced at some articles. Not sure where it says anything about mastering technical difficulties.

 

I haven´t still read chapter 20, but I think, I´ll find some time at the weekend. (I have read ch. 18 now and will start tomorrow with ch. 19.)
Lion Feuchtwanger (1884-1958) was a famous german author, well known for his historical novel like f.ex. "Jud süß", "Die hässliche Herzogin Margarete Maultasch" and the "Josephus-Trilogie". So, a bit another "thing" as a sausage, alas! :lol: Or may be you mean Wilhelm Furtwängler, which was a famous conductor?
Don´t know, if that helps you.

 

Ah, o.k., the pianist with his method of a physiological, psychological cure at the piano...Didn´t come on this thought first... :roll:

 

I just finished reading chapter 20 and found it very interesting! It hit on a couple points I am currently dealing with. The first is what Feuchtwanger teaches. I’ve heard others talk about that same philosophy about staying in a relaxed position, striking the note, and then going back to a centered repose. My own teacher has tried to get me to that too, because much of my tendonitis problem stems from remaining tense all the time when I play.

I’m working on a piece with a difficult LH fast ascending arpeggio and when I do actually remember to relax, it goes better. However, I can’t relax too much or it doesn’t go at all. For me, I have to tell my brain to relax and don’t get so nervous about that arpeggio coming up. But when I actually start on it, I have to play really hard and forcefully to get it to go to the top.

The other point I found interesting is when he admonished the young student when she didn’t want to take a repeat. I liked when Feuchtwanger said, "A repeat is never the same." Made me think of that Bach Aria in which you can play the ornaments differently in the repeats. Remember talking about that, Andreas? I was thinking of not doing a repeat in the same piece I’m working on that I mentioned up above, but now I think I will.