Richard Church et al. in At home in Battersea - 1900

from Over the bridge : an essay in autobiography, pages 107–108:

 Then one day a gaunt young man with long hair and a nervous cough came to tune the piano...  

Jack and I were vastly interested.  We stood side by side watching him that Saturday morning…

During a pause, after the tuning was done, [Jack] produced the Beethoven sonata, and asked the tuner to give him an inkling how it should be attacked.

The result was like that of opening a weir.  The thin, bow-backed figure of the piano-tuner shook with latent energy.  He tossed his hair back, cracked his bony knuckles, and began to play the …   more >>

cite as

Richard Church, Over the bridge : an essay in autobiography (London, 1956), p. 107–108. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1443127633751 accessed: 7 December, 2024

location of experience: At home in Battersea

Listeners

Richard Church
editor, Civil service, Novelist, Poet […]
1893-1972
Jack Church
1888-

Listening to

hide composers
Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 1
written by Beethoven

Experience Information

Date/Time 1900
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, in private, indoors

Notes

Richard Church, the author, was aged seven at the time; his brother Jack was twelve. Jack had previously found the music of the Beethoven Sonata and tried, unsuccessfully, to play it himself.


Originally submitted by lcc5 on Thu, 24 Sep 2015 21:47:14 +0100
Approved on Wed, 09 Mar 2016 16:18:17 +0000