This is a memoir covering a specific undertaking during a 5 or so year period in the author’s life.  Knize, who lives in Missoula, MT, did not have a mid-life crisis at 43; she had a mid-life epiphany.  She decides to take up again playing the piano, which she had abandoned many years earlier.  She finds a sensitive teacher who specializes in adult students and makes good progress, but she tires of the difficulties of practicing in the music school’s practice rooms, especially during the winter.  So she decides to buy a piano, a modest used upright, initially setting her budget at $3000.

She quickly perceives, however, that the sound of such an instrument will not satisfy her, and slowly increases her budget as she visits stores near home and increasingly further afield.  She also rapidly discovers that finding a piano is not as simple as finding a car, for example; it is more “like dating” [p. 195].  She discovers the Piano World forum online, and posts there seeking advice, eventually getting to know (and later actually meeting) several other members.  She ultimately ends up in a NY City showroom where she falls in love at 1st touch with a Grotrian[-Steinweg*] model 192 Cabinet grand priced at $32,000:

“…at the touch of the keys, I am swept away by powerful waves of sound–rich, dark, and warm, with singing overtones.  The middle section is smoky and mysterious, as if rising form the larynx of a great contralto.  The treble is bell-like and sparkling; it hangs in the air, full of color, a shimmering northern lights.  I am amazed at the immense pleasure I feel at the responsiveness of the keys, as if an unseen hand lay under them, guiding me to music.  A soul seems to reside in the belly of this piano, and it reaches out to touch mine, igniting a spark of desire within me that quickly catches fire.  This disembodied being is sultry and seductive, as if Marlene Deitrich reincarnated as the soul of this piano, and is using my hands to belt out a torch song.  If only I could play this piano every day, I think, I could be the pianist I have always dreamed of becoming.” [p. 84]

Thus begins her obsession.  She refers to the instrument as Marlene, buys it by refinancing the house, and remodels the living room to accommodate it, but when it is delivered, the sound is dead and dull, the magic gone:

“…owning [a piano] is like marriage.  After perhaps months or even years of trying out many new and used pianos–the courtship–you finally find ‘the one,’ your perfect piano.  You buy her–a pretty voice, with just the right sort of musical intelligence–and you have her delivered–the wedding.  After a brief honeymoon, you find that your piano is far from perfect.   She has bad hair and bad breath days.  She has mornings when her voice is shrill and cutting and evenings when she hisses, ‘Not tonight dear.’  Her unisons are out.  Her hammers are dry.   You wonder whatever happened to the beautiful bride you brought home, the dream you fell for and believed you would possess forever.” [p. 195]

She then seeks to get it restored.  Thus begins the odyssey referred to in the sub-title.  It lasts more 3 years.  She has technicians, tuners, and voicers come to her home to work on the instrument.  She learns that a piano is not stable for very long.  She gets new hammers installed.  She travels all over, to shops that rebuild in NYC and elsewhere, to the store where she purchased it to try new Grotrians fresh from the factory, eventually to the factory itself in Braunschweig, Germany, to the forest where the trees that become soundboards grow, to the sawmill where they are cut.  She learns everything there is to know about piano building and meets someone involved in every step of the process, whose portraits she paints in words, and to whom she becomes connected, attached.

She also seeks to find out why this sound grabbed her but another does not, to understand how music resonates in the body, the mind, and the soul, and why they respond as they do.  She analyzes and interrogates herself, and seeks out and meets people who reveal their beliefs on this subject, including a violin maker in Mittenwald, Germany, to whom she says: “I want to understand how a tree becomes an instrument, how the soul of a tree becomes the soul of an instrument, and why it affects us so.” [p. 337]

She is tenacious and persistent, but not aggressive or demanding in pursuing her insatiable curiosity and need to know every detail about the building of a piano, and in particular of her Marlene.  Every step of the way, she encounters communication problems caused by knowledge and occasionally by language barriers, but is determined and successful in overcoming them.

If music resonates with your soul, you need to take this fascinating journey with Knize.  You will be enraptured, enthralled, caught up with her in her journey thanks to her captivating, musical style.  She seems to be speaking directly to, confiding in, and revealing her soul to you.  It is to provide a taste of this that I have given some lengthy quotes.  You will enjoy the trip, and enrich your understanding and your life for having gone on it with her.

*’weg’ = ‘way’ in German.  The company was founded by Georg Friedrich Karl Grotrian and Heinrich Steinweg.  They built their 1st piano in 1835 using a design by Grotrian.  Heinrich turned his share over to 1 of his sons, Carl Friedrich Theodor in 1849 and emigrated to the US with the other 2 sons, becoming Henry Steinway, and founding Steinway & Sons in NYC in 1853. Although the firm’s pianos sold in the US are no different from those sold elsewhere, they may not carry the ‘-Steinweg’ on their fallboards subsequent to a 1977court decision.  Grotrian-Steinwegs were the pianos of choice of Clara Schumann.

A good basic book about pianos is: John-Paul Williams, The Piano; An Inspirational Guide to the Piano and its Place in History, New York: Billboard Books, An imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications, © 2002, Pp. 160, $29.95.  It is both a coffee-table type book with copious photographs and illustrations and a well-organized reference guide that covers all aspects of the piano, including selection, care, maintenance (tuning, regulation, voicing), reconditioning, and restoration.

© 2009 Marvin J. Ward