Gennadi. I wonder if I have some sort of attraction to the piano.
Ansley. How do you mean?
Gennadi. I seem to have relationships with girls who are quite skilled at the piano.
Ansley. Katja plays the piano, doesn’t she?
Gennadi. Yes, and I would say she’s the best pianist I’ve dated.
Ansley. Really? What about the others?
Gennadi. The first and third piano girls were very good. You could tell that they loved playing the piano. The second was good too, and studied the piano at one of the best music schools in the country, but she really didn’t enjoy playing. The only reason why she played was because she had nothing else to do.
Ansley. At least it’s the piano. It beats studying something like math and hating it.
Gennadi. I hate math.
Ansley. I do too. It pisses me off.
Gennadi. But, there is a difference between Katja and the other piano girls.
Ansley. How’s that?
Gennadi. I told her about a theater that occasionally shows silent films during the week. Sometimes, in order to keep the viewing experience as genuine as possible, a pianist would accompany the film because that is what they would do back then. I went to see a restoration of a three hour D.W. Griffith film accompanied by a silent pianist. The pianist was one of four pianists that can do what he does in accompanying silent films. There was no sheet music. He has never even seen the film before. He just played to the film according to the mood of the scene. Three hours he did it for, and he was even sick when he was asked to play. He would improvise everything piano. It was really amazing.
Ansley. Sounds amazing.
Gennadi. When I told Katja about the silent pianist, she started to cry.
End. The Silent Pianist