Piano Lessons
Piano Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and moving chronicle of his fifty-second year - a year already filled with long, fast workdays and too little spare time - as he answers at last a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano. The twelve monthly chapters span from January - when after decades of growing affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in and buys a piano - through December, when as a surprise Christmas present for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering candlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts their favorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he's been struggling with in secret to get to this very moment. Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams interweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano. And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms and boogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with - and insights from - masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and Leon Fleisher ("I was a bit embarrassed," he writes; "telling Leon Fleisher about my ambitions for piano lessons is like telling Julia Child about plans to make toast in the morning") to Dr. John and Tori…
- Pages
- 264
