Happy 200th Birthday, Chopin!

Portrait of Chopin by Eugène Delacroix
Today marks Chopin's 200th birthday. I celebrate his birth; he was a great artist who fully deserve my admiration.

A Century-Old Chickering Upright

While web surfing, I spent today eyeing this old relic for sale: an upright piano. It was made in 1885 by famed Chickering & Sons (serial #71147).

Adorned with traceries and beautifully crafted in rosewood, it reticently echoes a romance, perhaps, of La Belle Époque. I particularly like its fallboard letterings.

They just don't make them like they used to.

A Century-Old Knabe Piano Ad.

I recently purchased a very old opera booklet from the Bostonians Opera that dates back to 1889.

The most interesting part about it is that it contains a Knabe advertisement on the back, as shown above, with a beautiful piano etching done by Allen Eng. and a reproduction of a recommendation letter by Hans von Bulow.

When I first purchased it, I did not know that the letter was printed on the back of the advertisement page. After spending some time deciphering his handwriting, I was able to read its content. It reads:

"The Knabe pianos which I did not know before have been chosen for any present concert tour in the United States by my Impresario and accepted by me on the recommendation of my friend Bechstein acquainted with their merits. Had I known these pianos as now I do I would have chosen them by myself as their sound and touch are more sympathetic to my ears and hands than all others of the country.

New York 6th April 1889

Dr. Hans von Bulow

To the William Knabe and Co."


This letter and an advertisement were created about a century from today.
The proud grand piano shown is no longer for sale, nor does its maker exist.

Time is a cruel thief.

Saint-Saëns and the Knabe Piano

Camille Saint-Saëns, Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Yesterday I found the following journal article published in December 29th, 1906 by The Music Trade Review (MTR):

"Never before has dignified advertising played such a prominent role in the marketing of the piano and in this the year of 1906 must be set down as unique.

There has perhaps never been a more satisfactory tour than the one which was closed on Thursday when Saint-Saëns, the most distinguished composer of the day, left for his home in Paris. This tour was only one of the gigantic strides made by Wm. Knabe & Co., and will go far toward the artistic exploitation of a piano which is able to stand upon its own merits and to substantiate the most extravagant statements that can be made in its behalf. The letter of Dr. Saint-Saëns is one of those rare tributes to the Knabe piano which is priceless because it carries the true expression not only of one who understands every grade and quality of tone, but whose entire life has been one of frankness and sincerity almost to the point of rudeness."


Camille Saint-Saëns, born in Paris on October 9, 1835, was a musical prodigy who gave a public performance when he was only five years of age. He is best remembered for his musical suite The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnaval des Animaux).

Coincidentally, Saint-Saëns visited the United States for the first time in 1906. The article above implies that Saint-Saëns, even then a greatly respected and discerning European composer and pianist, gave a recommendation letter to Wm. Knabe & Co.

Yet in 1908, just two years after the article's publication, Wm. Knabe & Co. and Chickering & Sons were dissolved and incorporated into American Piano Co., marking the demise of these venerated century-old piano makers. Perhaps the general taste of music and the status of piano were changing; however, I wonder how the demise occurred in such a short span of time.

The article's extravagant language is quite amusing. It somehow reminds me of the Hindenburg disaster broadcast.


Reference: Edward Lyman Bill, "In the Musical World." The Music Trade Review 43.26 (1906): 16

Nara's Historic Grand Piano

Nara Women's University (奈良女子大学), Nara
(By OhMyDeer, Wikipedia)

University's Yamaha Grand Piano (Serial #1749; 1909)




In 1909, just one year after its founding, this ornate Yamaha grand piano was bought by Nara Women's University (then called Nara Joshi Koto Shihan Gakko; 奈良女子高等師範学校) for its use. After many years of use and the World War II, the piano was locked away and forgotten in a storage building for decades until it was discovered in June, 2005.

Nippon Gakki Company (日本楽器製造株式会社; now called Yamaha Corporation) was founded by Torakusu Yamaha (山葉寅楠) in 1887, and it produced its first grand piano in 1902. The grand piano in Nara Women's University was made just seven years after the company's first production.

The piano itself has 85 keys, which is less than 88 keys that the modern grand pianos have. According to historic records the piano was purchased by a man named Fumi Rokurou Naitou (内藤文六郎), who paid 1000 yen, which was an extraordinary sum at the time. (For a comparison, a new government official (college graduate) then received 55 yen per month)

Having seen so many mechanical and plastic looking Yamaha pianos, I feel rather amazed that Yamaha produced such a beautiful piano back in 1909.

Tartini and the Devil's Trill

The Lucifer of Liège (Le génie du mal) by Guillaume Geefs; Picture by Luc Viatour







The Devil's Trill Sonata (Il Trillo Del Diavolo), also known as the Violin Sonata in G minor, is a composition for solo violin by an Italian composer and violinist named Giuseppe Tartini (1692~1770), who was said to be inspired to write it after he met the Devil in his dream.

According to the interview accounts by a French astronomer and writer Jérôme Lalande, Tartini dreamed in 1713 that the Devil stood next to his bed and tried to possess his soul by making a compact. To challange the Devil, Tartini handed out his violin to the Devil and asked him to play it. Surprisingly, the Devil immediately played an exquisitely beautiful and ethereal music with such a great skill that Tartini listened with utter astonishment and shock.

When he woke up, Tartini instantly began to write down the Devil's Trill Sonata from his dream, trying to recapture the Devil's music. However, despite the sonata's reception and success, Tartini lamented that his music was very inferior to what he had heard.

He even writes, "The sonata I composed at that time was certainly my best, and I still call it the Devil’s Sonata, but this composition is so far beneath the one I heard in my dream, that I would have broken my violin and given up music altogether, had I been able to live without it."

The sonata itself is infamous for its technical difficulty.

Although the sonata is called the Devil's Sonata, it is very beautiful. I can only imagine the real music behind Tartini's dream and inspiration...

D'espairsRay: Redeemer

Aa... Screaming out your brief existence... to where? To heaven?

The recent music by D'espairsRay is too optimistic. But still... I adore its spirit.

The uncertain and intangible future awaits, while the familiar past is simply fading away.

Callous.

I wish to get a Flying V. Someday. Sigh.

Today is Chopin's Birthday!

Today is Chopin's Birthday. :)

Chopin was born in March 1st, 1810, at the Chopin family's house (pictured above), Zelazowa Wola, Poland. He is now 199 years old.

His music constitutes almost all of pieces that I play on the piano. I do not know how he managed to compose such a beautiful and sensible music in his short lifetime...

Prague, Antonín Dvořák, and Piano

(By peragro, Flickr ID)

Prague's Astronomical Clock
(By wwwleraar, Flickr ID)


Charles Bridge
(By rodliam, Flickr ID)

The Museum of Antonín Dvořák:
A historic Baroque house by an architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer

Dvořák's Bosendorfer grand piano
(Last two pictures by Hung Chieh Tsai)



Antonín Dvořák is one of my favorite Romantic composers. His music has a lively spirit and simple yet beautiful melody, which I love and admire. The piece introduced here is Dvořák's Slavonic Dance No. 1.

Prague, today the capital of Czech Republic, is a beautifully-preserved historic city. The oldest parts of Prague's famous astronomical clock were made in 1410, and Prague's beautiful Charles Bridge, which is lined with sculptures, was finished in the 15th century. The Gothic cathedral shown in the first picture is St. Vitus Cathedral, which was completed in 1929, almost 600 years after its first stone was laid in 1344.

Dvořák was born near this city, and was buried here also. Thus not surprisingly, a museum dedicated to the composer, the Antonín Dvořák Museum, is in Prague. This museum, founded in 1932, is housed in a beautiful 18th-century Baroque house by an architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer.

A Bosendorfer grand piano (made in 1879; pictured above), owned and used by Dvořák, is currently housed in this museum.

Great composers perhaps need a great setting.

One Movie I Would Like to Watch: Secret

This Taiwanese movie, Secret, (or The Secret That Cannot Be Told), describes a very beautiful love story between two piano-majoring students. It was released in 2007.

Of course, I did not watch it, so I really cannot assess this film, but this movie received very good reviews and rewards by the East Asian public.

The female main character in this movie, Lu Xiaoyu, actually from the 1970s, travels through time to present and meets Ye Xianglun, her eventual lover. The secret that cannot be told is this time gap.

An antique grand piano in this movie is also the part of this secret. The piano is a "time machine" that connects Ye Xianglun and Lu Xiaoyu, but unfortunately it also is located in the school's old music room that is scheduled to be torn down on Ye Xianglun's class graduation day. If the piano disappears, then so does the connection between Lu Xiaoyu and Ye Xianglun.

(The time travel scene can be watched by clicking the video above)

So the story unfolds... And I wish I could watch it. :)

Franz Liszt's Two Chickerings

First and third Picture by J.P. Dalbera; second by ChihPing



These two beautiful pianos are grand pianos owned and used by Franz Liszt, and are currently housed in the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest, Hungary. The pianos themselves were made by Chickering & Sons, the oldest piano manufacturer in the United States (Jonas Chickering started his company in 1823).

The first grand piano (serial #30,540; first two photos) was made in 1867. At the Paris Exposition of 1867, this same piano was so impressive in its sound and craftsmanship that it won the Imperial Cross of the Legion of Honor (La Légion d'honneur). After this exposition, it was given as a present to Franz Liszt, who even then was a famed and widely-celebrated Romantic virtuoso pianist and a composer.

The second grand piano (serial #50,080; third photo) was made in 1879 especially for Franz Liszt. The actual recording of this piano can be seen by clicking the Youtube video.

The artistry expressed on the cabinets of these pianos is just breathtaking.

I wish I can play one of these pianos.

Capsule!

Yes, definitely one of my favorite song by capsule. :)

"Capsule" is the name of Japan's Electro music group formed by a producer named Yasutaka Nakata and vocalist Toshiko Koshijima.

They produced very unique and charmingly witty albums, but their music can be utterly "meaningless." :D