This is an splendid tribute to a place in time and music--wonderfully written and evocative of much more than the place. Your musical drive, the many small obstacles that are overcome as you strive to decode a work, your comfort in making music, and the fears that attend it. It's all there.
I recently visited the US library here in Berlin, which has a piano—so much nostalgia. It was relatively in tune, but after growing accustomed to the controlled volume of an electric piano at home, the physical loudness felt intense. It reminded me of a bunker in Tokyo where I once rented a grand piano alongside a tiny bed. I spent a week there recording an album. These magical spaces—so fleeting, so unsustainable. Berlin is losing so many of them, and with that, so much of its charm. Thank you for sharing this obituary.
This is an splendid tribute to a place in time and music--wonderfully written and evocative of much more than the place. Your musical drive, the many small obstacles that are overcome as you strive to decode a work, your comfort in making music, and the fears that attend it. It's all there.
I recently visited the US library here in Berlin, which has a piano—so much nostalgia. It was relatively in tune, but after growing accustomed to the controlled volume of an electric piano at home, the physical loudness felt intense. It reminded me of a bunker in Tokyo where I once rented a grand piano alongside a tiny bed. I spent a week there recording an album. These magical spaces—so fleeting, so unsustainable. Berlin is losing so many of them, and with that, so much of its charm. Thank you for sharing this obituary.