Enjoy the following post by pharmacist, mystery writer, friend Don Weiss.
I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving with those you love! Pam
I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving with those you love! Pam
The Gift
Today, with your indulgence, I would like to wax
philosophic. When you’re in your sixties, I believe it’s your God given
right—so here goes.
Even in my state of hiatus from labor (sounds better than
being out of work) I have many blessings to be thankful for. I have a wonderful
wife, two terrific step-children and a lovely daughter-in-law. With the
exception of a few age-related problems, my heath is good and I’ve been given
the ability to play the piano. Nothing beats sitting down at my 102-year-old
Steinway grand and that feeling of peace and contentment that washes over me
when I play something by Chopin or Debussy.
Have you ever considered the miracle that is the piano? In
the hands of an artist it is capable of producing a wide variety of tones and
sound with such nuance and finesse. The debt I owe to my teachers, Tanya
Royshteyn (who gave me the fundamentals), and Judith Burganger (who gave me the
music), cannot be re-paid.
The ancestor of the piano was an instrument called the
Pantalon; an invention by a man called Pantaleon Hebenstreit from Leipzig . It was
essentially a hammered dulcimer with a double sound board. It was six feet long
and had 200 strings arranged as singles, pairs and triplets. It was capable of
a full chromatic scale and had over five octaves, and most important of all, it
could produce loud and soft tones unlike the organ or the harpsichord. The
father of the modern piano was the Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori, who
developed the precursor to the modern hammer mechanism found in every piano.
It was Mozart who adopted the piano as an instrument for
performance, and the German manufacturer, Steinway, who made it accessible to
everyone. Modern artists like Artur Rubenstein, Claudio Arau, Vladislav Richter
and Vladamir Horowitz brought it to
life. The great black pianists like Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, James P.
Johnson, Scot Joplin and Eubie Blake took it to an entirely new level with
Ragtime and Jazz.
I can trace my own instrument to the day it left the
Steinway factory in New York ,
and in its 102 year old life, I’m only its third owner. The molds used to form
the case are still in use at Steinway and the metal plate was forged in
Steinway’s own foundry. The ebony keys are original. Most of the action is
original as are all of the hinges, and pedals. The heart of the instrument, the
sound board, was in perfect shape when I found it.
Osteo-arthritis in my little fingers prevents me from
playing powerful octaves or performing great leaps like I used to or tackling
more demanding works, but I still play slower, quieter, pieces with the same
satisfaction and pleasure. It’s seen me through a whole host of dark days.
That’s what I call a blessing.
