Guinivere and Beethoven

My dog Guinivere slept or dozed through up to eleven hours a day of my playing the piano, as well as several hours a day of students. I never really wondered if she enjoyed music or not, or whether she even listened, until a student began work on Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, the last movement.

Guinivere had never heard the Waldstein, neither on recording nor in person - I had never studied it. One Saturday morning, one of my proteges came in and played the last movement for me, almost up to tempo and with much feeling. At some point, I noticed that Guinivere was sitting up instead of lying down. Then I noticed that she was facing the piano, and seemed to be listening intently. In fact, she was totally absorbed in the music, her body completely alert, head erect, ears up and back. She sat there, motionless for quite some time ... until she realized that I was watching her. Once she was aware of my gaze, she pretended that nothing was happening, and very slowly, nonchalantly stretched out on the rug in her usual eyes closed position. Pretending to be asleep.

I mentioned this to my student, and thought nothing more about it. I love Beethoven, why shouldn't a Labrador Retriever?

The following year some new neighbors moved in next-door. They had a powerful, fine stereo system, and on some hot summer days they took it onto their porch. One day, late summer, I looked out my kitchen window into the garden - and there was Guinivere, in the corner of the garden nearest our neighbor's porch. That itself was unusual. What was more unusual was that she was sitting up, facing their porch and obviously listening intently to their stereo; I had never seen her do that before. Her attention was entirely fixed on the music, in fact when I went into the garden she didn't even notice me. I stood there for some time; Guinivere didn't move until the piece ended. It was Beethoven's " Emperor Concerto " , his fifth piano concerto, a piece that Guinivere had heard many times. I was puzzled, so I asked my neighbors what recording they had just played. They said " The Emperor Concerto by Beethoven ". I said, " Who was the pianist? " They said, " Claudio Arrau. " The mystery was solved. Guinivere was used to Artur Rubinstein.

Of course, I have many more stories of Guinivere and music. However, I thought I might share someone else's story about this dog Guinivere. My friend Eleanor once took Guinivere on a car trip. She and Guinivere were in the backseat, the driver and his wife in the front seat. The car had a beautiful stereo system, and a classical tape was playing opera full volume. At one point the friend's wife turned to Eleanor and said, " You know, it almost looks as though that dog is listening to the music. " Eleanor replied, " She is listening to the music. She's used to the very best. "

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