Word: pianos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Despite the love and respect for music for which the University is renowned, the college is now suffering from a disgraceful shortage of pianos. The ratio of musicians to instruments is so great--few Houses now have more than one practice piano--that aspiring musicians battle for practice hours days in advance. Precious artistic energy is wasted on manipulating schedules, and outwitting rivals. Physical strength, rather than potential talent, often determines the allotment of time. In the musical life of the Houses, where harmony and cooperation should prevail, discord now reigns...
...discussions of the relative merits of the Houses continues, and the orchestration of spring returns to Cambridge, more pianos should be purchased for the Houses. The importance of the piano in relation to the broader pursuit of learning is well recognized. Indeed, as Logan Pearshall Smith (1865-1946) wrote shortly before his death: "The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection even though it consists in nothing more than in the pounding of an old piano is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star...
...says of himself. "I'd have him back, but he's too expensive." Week after week, he repeats the same business: lobbing a cigarette butt into the air like a grenade, then holding his ears as if waiting for the explosion; or stumbling drunkenly over to the piano to croon a few bars like "It's June in January/ 'cause I'm in Australia...
Music provides the Schmidts with still another form of diversion. Maarten plays the violin, Corrie the piano, and both are fond of chamber music. Visiting astronomers and relatives are often pressed into chamber music recitals at the Schmidt home. "If I play," admits Schmidt, "it has to be in an intimate circle. Only my best friends can really stand...
Weaver is a sybaritic, wholly citified man who loves Broadway plays, savors his stereophonic collection of Liszt and Chopin piano concertos, relishes Italian food (favorite is shrimp marinara), sips twelve-year-old bourbon when he works at home at night. He dresses in banker-conservative clothing, favors dark suits and dark Homburgs at the office, a plum-colored smoking jacket and black leather slippers at home. When he became HHFA director, Weaver promptly moved into an urban-renewed Washington apartment ("I wanted to put my money where my mouth was"), but within a year put his money into more luxurious...