Chapter 218: Musical on and Off the Stage (4K6)

Arthur turned his head and saw Lionel and Mendelssohn standing behind him. He immediately picked up the white gloves placed next to the piano and greeted them with a smile.

"I didn't expect I was so lucky to meet you here, Lionel."

Lionel joked: "Although I may not really care about art collection, I really appreciate music. Not to mention that this concert gathered so many top pianists. If I miss such a grand event, I'm afraid I won't have the face to declare that I love music."

At this point, Lionel introduced Mendelssohn to Arthur: "This is Mr. Felix Mendelssohn, who is as young as you and has the same talent that ordinary people can't reach. I'm sure you must have heard the overture he composed for Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?"

Arthur dared to go to the Coburg Theater to try out the piano today, so he had naturally done a background check on the musicians who might be present.

But even if he didn't make any preparations, he was already familiar enough with the name Mendelssohn.

This most perfect master of musical form since Mozart is well-known in Britain today or in the future.

However, Lionel was so close to him, which was beyond Arthur's expectation. It can only be said that Rothschild's social circle is much larger than he expected.

Arthur extended his hand to Mendelssohn in a friendly manner, with the original intention of expressing goodwill, and also with a superstitious mentality of wanting to borrow some musical cells from this piano master.

However, Mendelssohn frowned, his eyes staring at Arthur's face, as if he was in a daze.

"Mr. Mendelssohn?"

It was not until Arthur reminded him that Mendelssohn realized his impoliteness. He apologized quickly, "I'm sorry, Mr. Hastings. I felt that your playing style seemed familiar from just now, but I couldn't explain it. You and Mr. Clementi both pursue difficult skills, but they are not exactly the same. I... I always feel that there is someone's shadow in you..."

At this point, Mendelssohn's mind flashed, and he said in surprise: "Liszt! Oh, I was wondering why it was so familiar? Your crazy energy is exactly the same as Liszt's style."

Arthur thought he had just quietly missed a piano piece, but who would have thought that this could be seen by an expert.

Fortunately, this "The Bells" was originally adapted by Liszt from Paganini. To put it bluntly, he and Liszt both made artistic processing based on the original work.

If you insist on investigating, at least he was one year earlier than Liszt, and Paganini's European tour concert will not visit Paris until next year.

Arthur said shamelessly: "I didn't expect you to have contacts with Mr. Liszt. Although I haven't heard Mr. Liszt play in person, I have heard that he came to London to play at the age of fourteen, which caused a sensation across the country and was received by the late King George IV.

Although I play so-so, it's still acceptable. But compared with you and Mr. Liszt, a musical prodigy who performed on stage at the age of nine, I am still far behind. When I was nine years old, I didn't even know what a piano was."

When Mendelssohn heard this, he thought he had accidentally touched Arthur's poor childhood memories, and he hurriedly comforted him.

"Mr. Hastings, a genius is a genius. It has nothing to do with how old you are when you start playing the piano. Have you forgotten Mr. Clementi's experience? He started learning piano at the age of 14 with the support of Sir Beckford, and did not have his first public performance until he was 23, but this did not prevent him from becoming a great monument in the history of piano.

You made your debut at the age of 20, and I believe your future development will definitely be quite smooth. You can write a piece like "The Bells" and play it so passionately. Maybe we will really gain a Paganini in the piano world."

Lionel also spoke at the right time to change the atmosphere. He smiled and asked: "Everyone says that Paganini made a deal with the devil so he could have such a pair of smart hands. Arthur, do you too?"

Arthur smiled and said: "Yes, at least this piece of "The Bells" is like this."

Everyone laughed when they heard it, and the red devil on the side also pushed his glasses with a sly smile: "Oh! My dear Arthur, look at these stupid humans! When you tell a lie, they believe it. When you tell the truth, they find it untrue. Tsk, tsk, tsk, thousands of years have passed, and humans are still like this. They only believe what they believe. "

Everyone chatted for a while, and soon, Mendelssohn, who felt itchy, suddenly stretched his arms and said, "I have played all morning today, and it is time to practice the piano. This is a good time to prepare for tomorrow's performance in advance."

Unexpectedly, before he went on stage, Arthur called him behind him: "Mr. Mendelssohn, I think you'd better wait a moment. When I tried the piano just now, some of the pitches seemed to be wrong."

"Is there a problem?" Mendelssohn was skeptical: "But... when I heard you play just now, everything seemed perfect. This piano is specially shipped from Mr. Clementi's piano shop. Even if the guys there are not careful, the theater staff should not be so careless. "

Arthur just laughed when he heard Mendelssohn's doubt: "You came late just now, and you were standing far away, so you may not hear clearly. But it's no big deal. I have notified the theater staff to change a piano. Calculating the time, people should be here soon."

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, he saw the curtain of the theater being lifted, and several staff members were blushing and carrying a heavy piano from the backstage to the front hall.

As they moved, they couldn't help but curse: "No, pianos shouldn't be this heavy, right?"

"Is there something stuffed in here?"

"Damn, this one feels almost twice as heavy as most pianos."

Behind the staff was the embarrassed Wheatstone, who apologized with an embarrassed face: "Thank you for your hard work, this piano is an improved version of our Wheatstone Musical Instruments Store, and it may be a little heavier."

Arthur found Wheatstone's arrival and hurriedly said goodbye to Lionel and others. Then he walked up quickly and asked Wheatstone in a low voice: "Are you sure you didn't bring the wrong piano? This is the piano I used before, which can be connected to a phonograph with a long rod to record songs?"

Wheatstone was sweating profusely. After all, he was not like Arthur. The honest Wheatstone was really doing this kind of thing for the first time.

"Arthur, isn't this a bad idea?"

Arthur just lit his pipe and exhaled smoke: "If you think it's not good, you can send the sales profits directly to the pianists who participated in the recording today after the record is released. In addition, you don't think about it carefully. These people are all top stars in the British music circle. Those old-school musicians are usually very conservative. If you don't use this method, you probably won't be able to record their records in your life."

Whitstone wanted to say more, but Arthur took out a document from the inner pocket of his tuxedo and threw it into his hand before he could open his mouth.

Whitstone looked down and was immediately dizzy with excitement.

On the document were only a few ordinary words-"Patent Authorization Document of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland"

"Oh! My God! No, Mr. Hastings! No, it's Arthur, my dear friend Arthur! You really solved my urgent problem." Arthur looked at Whiston, who was so excited that he wanted to punch him twice, and just shook his head: "Everyone has a price, but Mr. Whiston, please don't show your price too low. You claim to be afraid of socializing, but if you continue to be like this, I will start to be afraid of you." Whiston grinned and stroked his stomach to calm down: "Yes, Arthur, you are right. I should be more decent, but I am so happy about this. How did you get this done in a week?" "How did you get it done?" Arthur patted the piano beside him: "It's like this, it's not very good to use . So, do you still have any objections to burning records? "

"This..."

Whitstone struggled for a long time, but when Arthur put his hand on the patent document, he suddenly shuddered as if he was electrocuted: "No objection, I have no objection at all. And I will pay their profit share on time after the record is published as you said."

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help but smile. He leaned against the piano with his arms around his chest: "Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Porter, etc., these top British pianists should all come to audition this afternoon and evening. How much do you think so many records from top masters should be worth?"

"Uh..."

Whitstone frowned slightly and thought about it for a long time. Just when he wanted to give a specific number, Arthur suddenly spoke again.

"This concert gathers so many celebrities and musicians, it is almost inevitable to cause a sensation. If you launch a collection of musicians' performances at this time, how much income will it bring you?"

When Whitstone heard this, his breathing almost stopped. He seemed to see God opening his trouser pockets and stuffing money into them.

Arthur said again: "So many people have bought records, so they must buy a machine that can play it, right? And you are the only workshop in London that can make phonographs. If other workshops want to imitate, it just so happens that you have the patent documents..."

When Whiston heard this, he panted rapidly. He stretched out his hand to interrupt Arthur's speech and said: "Arthur, you are my close friend. Just tell me what I can do for you."

Arthur smiled slightly and said: "It's nothing big. I just think that phonographs are good and should be enough for ordinary leisure and entertainment, but for some more secretive special work, phonographs not only have poor sound reception, but also are too eye-catching in size.

So, I have a more preliminary idea. I wonder if you are interested in participating? By the way, out of our friendship, I can tell you a little bit of news, that is, this project comes from a government organization whose name is not easy to mention."

Whitstone's eyes lit up when he heard this.

The project came from a government organization, and this sentence alone was fatally attractive to Wheatstone, who came from a businessman background.

Because this often represents a stable large-volume purchase scale and guaranteed payment delivery. Even if the project can attract enough attention, a large amount of scientific research funds can be obtained. Babbage's Difference Engine, which cost more than 10,000 pounds, is a typical case.

With the support of the British pound, in Wheatstone's eyes, even Arthur, who had always been disgusting to him, immediately became handsome.

Wheatstone suppressed his ecstasy and asked in a low voice: "May I be lucky enough to know... no, am I lucky enough to be able to participate in this project?"

Seeing that he had been dazzled by money, Arthur boldly proposed the research project that LPS wanted to launch, which actually did not have a penny of office funds.

"Mr. Wheatstone, you have done a lot of research on acoustics. Now we have figured out that the principle of sound is vibration. Then maybe we should consider connecting this with electromagnetism. I heard that you recently I often go to Mr. Faraday to discuss electromagnetic issues. Is this the case? "

Wheatstone nodded and said: "Mr. Faraday treated me very well. With his help, I got a foothold in electromagnetism."

Arthur smiled and said: "That's easy. Now that you have entered the door, you must know Mr. Faraday's electromagnetic induction experiment that shocked everyone this year, right?"

"Of course. The electromagnetic induction experiment proved that electricity and magnetism can be converted into each other. This is the most important scientific discovery this year. But..."

Wheatstone scratched his head: "But what does this have to do with acoustics?"

Arthur said: "As we all know, if you wind a copper wire around an ordinary sewing needle, and the copper wire is energized, the needle will become a magnetic needle. Then, if a steel wire is slowly passed through, the current will change. What interesting changes will happen to the coil?”

When Wheatstone heard this, the hairs on his body stood up: "If you do this, as the intensity of the current changes, several small magnets with different strengths will be formed on this steel wire. If we can make this By linking these changes with the vibration changes of the sound, the storage of the sound can be achieved.”

Arthur smiled and nodded: "Fortunately, electric current is much more sensitive than a mechanized gramophone. Therefore, it must be very suitable for recording people's voices."

Wheatstone took a deep breath: "Arthur..."

"What's wrong?"

Wheatstone swallowed hard and said: "How did you come up with these things? If you can come up with such a genius idea, you can do it alone! If you have this, the gramophone will probably be destroyed. There is no way to fight back.”

Arthur gently shook his finger: "No, Mr. Wheatstone, I don't have as good skills as you, nor do I have the thinking of a serious engineer. All I have are worthless ideas.

And the most important thing is that this technology cannot be used for profit. It must be controlled within a certain range to exert its maximum power. Therefore, you can rest assured that the gramophone market will not be affected.

After all, even from a cost perspective, just because it does not require electricity, the winding mechanical phonograph is already more suitable for this era than the thing I mentioned. "

At this point, Arthur paused suddenly. He looked at Wheatstone with a smile: "So, when do you think I can get the sample?"

Wheatstone took a deep breath, patted his chest and assured: "Although this thing sounds quite difficult, at least the direction is clear. I have no obstacles in terms of acoustics and manual production. As for electromagnetism, I can only make a few more trips to the Royal Society to find Mr. Faraday. As long as the principle is smooth, it will only take a month at most and two or three weeks at least."

"Two or three weeks?"

Arthur couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when he heard this. It seemed that even if Wheatstone was asked to work overtime, he did have his limit. At least during the London meeting, he couldn't hope to do anything through the tape recorder.

Wheatstone did not see Arthur's disappointment. He said happily: "Arthur, go back and ask the department that cannot be named to prepare the money. Sooner or later, I will be able to put this kind of directional thing into use." Get it out.”

When Arthur heard this, he just pursed his lips with a subtle expression. He nodded and said, "Okay, I will definitely do it next time."