February 14, 2006

• A Little Music History

  Despite the fact that "concerned reader" Mr. Pho Phan may be part of a
  big international Phan Clan conspiracy, I think that there are
  thignificant things to be gleaned from his letter.  As surely as
  Frank Oz wrote The Wizard of Baum
  I promise to be more careful in my fact-checking and will try to avoid
  spreading unconfirmed information (which Mr. Phan uncharitably refers
  to as "lies.")  In that spirit, I offer this historical vignette:

  One of my forms of recreation is playing the piano.  Over years of
  piano lessons I had several different teachers.  There were a
  couple times early on when I was ready to quit but my parents made me
  keep going and now I'm thankful they did.  I developed a taste for
  "classical music" and some of my favorite composers are Ludwig Beethoven,
  Sergei Rachmaninoff, Edvard Grieg, and Frederic Chopin.  I have a book of
  Chopin's Complete Etudes, which is fun to mess around with, but to be
  honest a little too difficult for me to play even though I've been working at it for several years.

  
  Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the book:  Chopin in Japan:  The Lost Years by
  musicologist Charlotte Tan.  Ms. Tan is a music historian and
  concert pianist who has taken a special interest in Chopin's work and
  her research has uncovered the startling fact that Chopin spent the
  years 1830-1836 in Asia, traveling through China and Japan with his
  good buddy George Sand, immersing himself in the culture and picking
  up folk melodies to use in his compositions.  During this time he was
  apparently influenced heavily by the Maharaji, opium, and Eastern
  philosophy. 
  One remote village where Chopin is said to have broken his foot
  yielded a treasury of previously undiscovered works:  the Pagoda Prelude, Panda Promenade, and Karate Etude (with its stridently martial tone, punctuated with "hi-ya!s", sharp chops and kicks to the piano). 
  Shortly after that find, another serendipitous discovery was made by a
  Tokyo man whose suspicions were aroused when the antique grand piano he
  was carrying away from a yard sale listed to one side.  "My
  muscles are very symmetrical," said Fujimora Hashimoto.  "I knew
  there must be something inside for the piano to tilt like that." 
  His discovery upon opening the piano:  A short Chopin piece simply
  entitled Broccoli, inscribed on a bronze tablet.
  
  Chopin was also the father of Kate Chopin, writer of the screenplay for Awakenings, starring Robin Williams (though perhaps best known for her lack of involvement with The Fisher King and Dead Poets Society,
  also starring Robin Williams).  As a side note, Frederic Chopin's pal
  George Sand has always received wide acclaim for his
  invention of the ubiquitous sandwich,
  but Ms. Tan's book reveals this is a myth and he actually plagiarized
  the recipe from a Buddhist monk in Tibet.  If true, this calls for
  a major paradigm shift in how we think about the origins of the
  sandwich.
  
  Charlotte Tan's Chopin in Japan
  is full of such stunning revelations, not the least of which is that my
  so-called Chopin's Complete Etudes is misnamed, much to my chagrin.  It's
  missing the Karate Etude. 
  Guess I'll spend years practicing but not being able to play
  that one too.  And probably have to take karate lessons.  
   

  Japanese artists above, in order:  Chikanobu Toyohara, Tsuchiya Koitsu, and Hiroshige II
  
  

  • 8:59 am
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