Description
One winter night just outside of Berlin, Nadia Beard experienced a strange, exhilarating longing for something she had not realized she'd missed: playing the piano. Having trained seriously to become a pianist but stymied by stage fright, Beard had abandoned music and chosen to become a writer ten years earlier. But that night, she resolved to return to her beloved childhood instrument as an amateur.
The Melody of Things recounts Beard’s journey to relearn the piano and study at the renowned Tbilisi Conservatoire in formerly Soviet Georgia. From her warm and demanding relationship with her piano teacher to her assiduous attempts to overcome performance anxiety, Beard charts the pleasures, frustrations, and revelations of rededicating herself to what was long at the core of her life. As she experiences the joys and possibilities of discipline, and the power of doing something she loves, Beard blends her knowledge of étude and sonata with deep reflections on memory, ambition, and the story of the region where she rediscovers her talent. Having abandoned any professional ambitions, Beard finds that studying and performing as an amateur is an art unto itself.
The Melody of Things reminds us that the word “amateur” comes from the Latin amare, meaning, of course, “to love.” A unique combination of memoir, music, and political history, Beard’s story is a gem about falling in love for a second time—with an instrument that came to reshape and reinhabit her life.