[CAUT] question for history buffs

[Ed Sutton]

They were only there once, stayed in an abandoned monastery, and were pretty well isolated from the population, due to fears of Chopin's illness. As I recall, Sand wrote that Chopin's Pleyel grand was shipped from Paris, overland by ox cart, then by ship to Majorca, then by cart over rocky roads to the monastery, and she said that when it was uncrated, it was still in tune! (See, Chopin's Funeral. My copy is out on loan)
Meanwhile there was an old birdcage upright in the monastery, on which he composeed while waiting for the grand. That piano is still in the monastery if I remember correctly. (I think I returned the monastery tour book to its owner....)

It does cause one to wonder, if Sand's story is true, what "in tune" meant to Chopin. Perhaps you can find some history books on the island.

Ed S. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Marcel Carey 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 7:36 AM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] question for history buffs


  Hi Wim


  I can't tell you right away, but I will be going to Majorca in 2 weeks on a bike tour. We are supposed to go and visit the house of the french writer George Sand where she and Chopin spent a few summers. I'll do my best to get to try the piano and will let you know when I come back. Not sure I can find who tuned the piano when they were there...unless he wrote his name on the plate ;-)


  Marcel Carey


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  To: caut at ptg.org
  From: tnrwim at aol.com
  Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 23:45:54 -0400
  Subject: [CAUT] question for history buffs


  Last night I saw "A Song To Remember", on AMC, the story of Frederick Chopin. According to Tom Osborne, a lot of liberties were taken with the movie, including that he never went on a concert tour at the end of his life. But the story does have him go to the island of Majorca, off the West Africa coast. When he gets to the villa, he gets to play on a nice Pleyel grand piano. Of course, in typical movie style, the piano is perfectly in tune, (if was that piano in the first place). But this is the question I want to ask.

  Back in teh 1800's, Majorca probably wasn't exactly a place where a piano tuner could make a living. So did Chopin tune his own pianos, or did Pleyel send a piano tuner along with the piano to the island? 

  Wim 

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