Psychic Piano Playing

According to the Professor, his family tree is less a mighty oak and more an etiolated shrub. Nonetheless, there are one or two names which are consequential. Of these, the most celebrated in artistic circles must be Blaize Bailey and, although the Professor is often circumspect on the subject of his relatives and ancestors, his affection for this celebrated performer is poignant to behold.

One afternoon recently while we were beavering away in the Percival Perrin Memorial Library and Trug Museum, he offered the following insight into this remarkable woman:

“Ah, dear Auntie Blaize. She was always an inspiration to me. She eschewed the prosaic display of keyboard virtuosity. She renounced humdrum, fashionable stage performances. Sitting some distance from the piano, she would invite the audience to join her in lengthy recitals of Psychic Piano Playing. Those attuned to the 'ethereal dimension' would hear the sublime music, while others would attain a rare inner sense of peace or, in more traditional environs, demand their money back.” 

Becoming disillusioned with conventional, mundane concerts, she undertook a tour of the country on a bicycle appearing unannounced in fields, on hillsides and at historic sites with her piano. Exactly how she was able to transport a large piano to these locations remains a mystery, although the Professor insists it was “either magic or an optical illusion”.

Her eventual disappearance, often linked by so-called journalists to lights seen in the night sky above Stowupland, has become the “stuff of legend”. The Professor insists, however, that she simply cycled away with an offensively rich viscount and settled on a diminutive island off the coast of Porthzennor Cove. The island has, allegedly, disappeared beneath the waves, but to this day locals report never hearing the sound of psychic piano drifting across the waves, unless in the appropriate elevated state of mind.