31 Nancy B. Reich, Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman (Cornell University Press, 1985): 285.
32 Henry Handel Richardson, Myself When Young (W.W. Norton & Company, 1948): 117.
33 Henry Handel Richardson: 117.
34 D.H. Lawrence, ‘Nottingham and the Mining Countryside’, in Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence (Heinemann, 1936), pp. 133–40: 138.
35 There is a Google Group devoted to the attribution of this description.
36 George Holbert Tucker, Jane Austen the Woman: Some Biographical Insights (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995): 104.
37 Aaron Williamon, ‘Memorising Music’, pp. 113–26, in Musical performance: a guide to understanding, edited by John Rink (Cambridge University Press, 2002): 113.
38 Reich, Clara Schumann: 272.
39 Fred M. Hall, It’s About Time: The Dave Brubeck Story (University of Arkansas Press, 1996): 63.
40 In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation, edited by Bruno Nettle with Melinda Russell (Chicago University Press, 1998): 240.
41 Reich, Clara Schumann: 236 n. 66.
42 Czerny, Letters to a Young Lady: 74.
43 Nettle, In the Course of Performance: 255.
44 Letters dated 10 June and 22 June 1853, in Berthold Litzmann, Clara Schumann: An Artist’s Life Based on Material Found in Diaries and Letters, volume II (Litzmann Press, 2013): n.p.
45 Loesser, Men, Women and Pianos: 422.
46 See William Weber, The Great Transformation of Musical Taste: Concert Programming from Haydn to Brahms (Cambridge, 2008).
47 George Eliot, George Eliot’s Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals, edited by John Cross (1885; Cambridge University Press, 2010): 26.
48 Williamon, ‘Memorising Music’: 114.
49 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (Appleton, 1871): 272.
50 Charles Darwin: 272.
51 Loesser, Men, Women and Pianos: 335.
52 Parakilis, Piano Roles: pp. 127–28.
53 Ehrlich, The Piano: 97.
54 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Berrima.
55 Holly Brubach, ‘A Pianist for Whom Never Was Never an Option’, The New York Times, 10 June 2007.
56 E. Altenmüller and H.-C. Jabusch. ‘Focal Dystonia in Musicians: Phenomenology, Pathophysiology and Triggering Factors’, in European Journal of Neurology 2010, 17 (Suppl. 1), pp. 31–36: 33.
57 Schulz, Play It Again, Schroeder!: 69.
58 https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE01696b.htm
59 Reich, Clara Schumann: 265, n. 65.
60 Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2008): pp. 98–100.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book originated with my enduring love for the piano, which I thank my parents for cultivating. They encouraged my interest in music and bought me that upright Yamaha, which I now play with and for my daughter.
My aunt Charlotte Butler, now 94, has been a generous source of inspiration, documentation, anecdote and insight into her own childhood and the life of her mother Alice.
During the writing process, Ian Hicks buoyed my sometimes flagging spirits in New York with occasional long-distance calls from Hobart to ask after the book’s progress.
I’m very grateful to Geoff Dyer for selecting me to work with him at a residency at the remarkable Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2013—and for the tennis.
Old friends Daniela Fornasaro and Kelsey Bray provided details from adolescence that prodded my own memories or filled in details I had lost, while Derek Van Giesen sustained me at the Oneida with cocktails, meals, music and humour.
Madeleine Beckman, Lily Brett, Madonna Duffy and Jennifer Fleming provided constructive feedback in addition to friendship.
At Allen & Unwin, I was delighted to find a simpatico publisher in Jane Palfreyman. I am particularly indebted to Ali Lavau for an editorial report that helped me see how to get to where I wanted the manuscript to go. And my thanks to Siobhán Cantrill and Kate Goldsworthy for fine-tuning the instrument.
As my friend and mentor, Mary Folliet was unflagging in her support for this project from its earliest stages, and always knew the right questions to ask. Her understanding, encouragement and hospitality were invaluable to the development of this book.
I could not have written this book without the love of Nate Neal, who has been by my side almost as long as this manuscript.
Image of Dumbarton Road, Glasgow, reproduced with kind permission of Glasgow Life.
‘Late Autumn’ by V. Evstafieff showing Emma Darwin at the piano reproduced by courtesy of Historic England.
Extract from The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner published by Penguin Books. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd.
Extracts from Myself When Young by Henry Handel Richardson by arrangement with the Licensor, The Henry Handel Richardson Estate, c/- Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty Ltd.
A Captive Spirit by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated and edited by J. Marin King. Copyright © 1980 by J. Marin King. Reprinted by arrangement with The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc. www.overlookpress.com/ardis.html. All rights reserved.
Extracts from This Real Night by Rebecca West reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Rebecca West.
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