Forms of Musical Thinking

"I went upstairs to my room, but I was not alone there. I could hear someone mellifluously playing Schumann. No doubt it happens at times that people, even those whom we love best, become permeated with the gloom or irritation that emanates from us. There is however an inanimate object which is capable of a power of exasperation to which no human being will ever attain: to wit, a piano”. We do not know what music Marcel Proust (a true music enthusiast and connoisseur) was thinking of when he wrote these words. He was probably dwelling on his favorite composers, such as Beethoven, Wagner, Schumann, Debussy, Fauré or Franck. We cannot know. We can, however, share his point of view and we can also share Proust’s stance regarding the piano. Its chameleonic ability to shake one up and calm one down, to excite and sooth, remains unmatched and unmatchable. It is like the painter’s palette, where all the colours available have their place and can be combined with one other in the most creative fashion.