Picture this: batons of ivory and ebony; iron wire of different thicknesses; hammers to tap them, make a soundboard resonate. Arranged inside mahogany from Spain they became a gift to a German genius. It travelled seven months: first by sea from London to Trieste, then to Vienna over land.
But imagine this: three tiny bones were fusing – stapes to incus onto malleus – distorting signals to the brain: bass was blurred, treble quivered as if from far away. Meanwhile inside the stricken head sausen und brausen: whoosh and roar. The composer beat so hard upon the keys that ‘broken strings were mixed up like a thorn bush in a gale’.
Piano-maker André Stein learned of Beethoven’s distress, formed a cardboard horn, covered it in beaten zinc. With its dome above the music stand, it narrowed to the piano’s length: sonorities were captured, amplified. Outpourings hadn’t faltered with the inability to hear but, for a while, despair was modified.
The quotation in stanza 3 is attributed to Johann Andreas Stumpff, a Viennese piano maker.
Biography: Gill Learner’s poetry has been published in a wide range of magazines, won or been placed in numerous competitions, and appeared in quite a few anthologies, e.g. from The Emma Press (https://theemmapress.com), Grey Hen Press (http://www.greyhenpress.com) and Two Rivers Press (http://tworiverspress.com). Her first collection, The Agister’s Experiment (2011), her second, Chill Factor (2016), and her third Change (Autumn 2021) are all from Two Rivers Press; the first two have received positive reviews. More can be found on her web pages at: www.poetrypf.co.uk/gilllearnerpage.shtml.