## Chapter 218: Music on Stage and Off (4K6)
Arthur turned his head to see Lionel and Felix Mendelssohn standing behind him. He picked up the white gloves lying beside the piano and greeted them with a smile.
“I didn’t expect to be so lucky to see you here, Lionel.”
Lionel quipped, “While I may not be truly passionate about art collecting, I genuinely appreciate music. Especially in a concert like this, gathering so many top-notch pianists. If I missed an event of this caliber, I wouldn’t even have the face to claim I love music.”
Lionel then introduced Mendelssohn to Arthur. “This is Mr. Felix Mendelssohn, just as young as you, and possesses the same talent that surpasses ordinary people. You must have heard the overture he composed for Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’?”
Arthur had naturally done his research on the musicians who might be present before daring to try out the piano at the Coburg Theatre today.
Even if he hadn’t prepared, he already knew the name Mendelssohn well.
This master of form, considered the most perfect since Mozart, was renowned both in present-day Britain and in the future.
But it was unexpected to see Lionel on such close terms with him. It seemed the Rothschilds had a wider social circle than Arthur had imagined.
Arthur extended his hand to Mendelssohn in a friendly gesture, both out of goodwill and a superstitious belief that he might borrow some musical talent from the piano master.
However, Mendelssohn frowned, his eyes fixed on Arthur’s face, as if lost in thought.
“Mr. Mendelssohn?”
It was only after Arthur’s reminder that Mendelssohn realized his discourtesy. He hastily apologized, “Excuse me, Mr. Hastings, I’ve felt a familiar sensation in your playing style since the beginning, but I can’t quite explain it. You and Mr. Clementi both pursue high-level virtuosity, but not entirely the same. I… I feel like there’s someone’s shadow in you…”
As he spoke, a flash of inspiration struck Mendelssohn. He exclaimed with surprise, “Liszt! That’s it, I knew it sounded familiar! That wild energy of yours is almost identical to Liszt’s style.”
Arthur had thought he was discreetly sneaking in a piano piece, but he didn’t expect to be caught by a professional.
But fortunately, this “The Bell” was originally an adaptation of Paganini by Liszt. To put it plainly, both he and Liszt were artistically processing the original work.
If you really want to get down to it, at least he was a year ahead of Liszt. Paganini’s European concert tour wouldn’t reach Paris until next year.
Arthur brazenly said, “I didn’t know you knew Mr. Liszt. Although I’ve never heard him play in person, I’ve heard about his performance in London at the age of fourteen, which caused a nationwide sensation and even earned him an audience with the late King George IV.
While I play passably, it’s still far behind a musical prodigy like you and Mr. Liszt, who performed at the age of nine. At the age of nine, I didn’t even know what a piano was.”
Hearing this, Mendelssohn thought he had accidentally touched upon Arthur’s impoverished childhood memories and quickly comforted him.
“Mr. Hastings, genius is genius, it doesn’t matter how old you started playing the piano. Have you forgotten Mr. Clementi’s story? He didn’t start learning the piano until he was fourteen, thanks to the sponsorship of Sir Beckford. He didn’t have his first public performance until he was twenty-three, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a monumental figure in piano history.
You debuted at the age of twenty, I believe your future development will also be very smooth. To be able to write a piece like “The Bell” and play it with such passion, perhaps we will truly witness the arrival of a Paganini of the piano.”
Lionel also timely stepped in to change the atmosphere. He asked with a smile, “Everyone says Paganini made a deal with the devil to have such nimble fingers. Arthur, did you too?”
Arthur smiled slightly, “That’s right, at least for this piece “The Bell.”
Everyone laughed, the Red Devil also pushed his glasses with a mischievous grin, “Oh! My dear Arthur, look at these foolish humans! When you lie, they believe you. When you tell the truth, they find it false. Tsk tsk tsk, it’s been thousands of years, and humans are still the same, they only believe what they want to believe.”
After some more pleasantries, Mendelssohn, feeling the itch to play, suddenly stretched his arms and said, “We’ve been playing all morning, it’s time to practice. It’s a good time to get a head start on tomorrow’s performance.”
Before he could get on stage, Arthur stopped him, “Mr. Mendelssohn, I think you’d better wait a moment. When I was trying out the piano, some of the notes seemed off.”
“Off?” Mendelssohn was doubtful. “But… when I heard you play, it seemed perfect. This piano was specially shipped from Mr. Clementi’s piano shop, even if the guys there made a mistake, the theatre staff shouldn’t have been so careless.”
Hearing Mendelssohn’s doubts, Arthur just chuckled, “You came late and stood far away, so you might not have heard clearly. But it’s no big deal, I’ve already informed the theatre staff to change the piano. They should be here soon.”
As Arthur finished speaking, he saw the theatre curtains being lifted. Several staff members, flushed with embarrassment, were carefully carrying a heavy piano from backstage to the front hall.
As they carried it, they couldn’t help but grumble, “No, the piano doesn’t usually weigh this much, does it?”
“Is there something stuffed inside?”
“Damn it, this one feels almost twice as heavy as most pianos.”
Following behind the staff was a flustered Wheatstone, who apologized profusely, “Sorry to trouble you all, this piano is an improved model from our Wheatstone Instruments, it might be a little heavier.”
Arthur noticed Wheatstone’s arrival and quickly bid farewell to Lionel and the others, then hurried forward, leaning towards Wheatstone and whispering, “Are you sure you didn’t bring the wrong piano? This is the one I used before, the one that can be connected to the phonograph with a long rod to record songs?”
Wheatstone was sweating profusely, after all, unlike Arthur, he was truly doing something like this for the first time.
“Arthur, are we doing the right thing?”
Arthur just lit his pipe and blew out a cloud of smoke, “If you think it’s not good, you can send the sales profits directly to the pianists who participated in the recording after the record is released. Besides, you should think about it, these are all the top players in the British music scene, those old-school musicians are usually very conservative. If you don’t use this method, you’ll probably never be able to record their records in your lifetime.”
Wheatstone was about to say something, but before he could open his mouth, Arthur took a document from the inner pocket of his tailcoat and threw it at him.
Wheatstone lowered his head and took a look, and instantly felt dizzy with excitement.
The document only had a few unremarkable words – “Patent Authorization Document of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.”
“Oh! My God! No, Mr. Hastings! No, Arthur, my dear friend Arthur! You’ve truly saved my bacon.”
Arthur looked at Wheatstone’s excited expression, which made him feel like punching him twice, and just shook his head, “Everyone has a price, but Mr. Wheatstone, please don’t make your price seem too cheap. You claim to be afraid of social interaction, but if you keep this up, I’ll start to fear you.”
Arthur looked at Wheatstone’s excited expression, which made him feel like punching him twice, and just shook his head, “Everyone has a price, but Mr. Wheatstone, please don’t make your price seem too cheap. You claim to be afraid of social interaction, but if you keep this up, I’ll start to fear you.”
Wheatstone grinned and stroked his belly to calm down, “Yes, Arthur, you’re right. I should act more decent, but I’m just so excited about this. How did you manage to get this done in a week?”
“How did I get it done?” Arthur patted the piano next to him, “Just like this, using not-so-good methods. So, do you still have any objections to recording records?”
“This…”
Wheatstone struggled for a long time, but when Arthur placed his hand on the patent document, he suddenly flinched as if electrocuted, “No objections, I have absolutely no objections. And I will do as you said, pay them their profit share on time after the record is released.”
Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but smile, he leaned against the piano with his arms crossed, “Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Potter, all these top British pianists should be coming for sound checks this afternoon and evening. How much do you think a collection of recordings from such top-tier talents is worth?”
“Uh…”
Wheatstone frowned slightly, calculating in his mind for a long time. Just as he was about to give a specific number, Arthur suddenly spoke again.
“This concert has gathered so many celebrities and musicians, it’s almost guaranteed to cause a sensation. If you release a collection of recordings from these musicians at this juncture, how much income will it bring you?”
Wheatstone’s breathing almost stopped when he heard this. He seemed to see God opening his pockets and stuffing them with money.
Arthur continued, “So many people buy records, they’ll have to buy a machine to play them, right? And currently, your workshop is the only one in London that can manufacture phonographs. If others want to imitate it, it just so happens that you have the patent document…”
Hearing this, Wheatstone gasped, he reached out to interrupt Arthur’s speech, “Arthur, you are my close friend, just tell me what you need me to do.”
Arthur smiled slightly and said, “Actually, it’s nothing big. I just think the phonograph is good enough for ordinary leisure entertainment, but for some more secretive special tasks, the phonograph not only has poor sound quality, but the size is also too conspicuous.
So, I have a preliminary idea, are you interested in participating? By the way, out of our friendship, I can give you a little hint, this project comes from a government organization that is not easy to mention.”
Wheatstone’s eyes lit up when he heard this.
A project from a government organization, that sentence alone was fatally attractive to Wheatstone, who came from a merchant background.
Because it often meant a stable large-scale purchase, and guaranteed payment. Even, if the project could attract enough attention, it could also get a lot of scientific research funds. Babbage’s Difference Engine, which lost over ten thousand pounds, is a prime example.
With the backing of the pound sterling, even Arthur, who usually seemed repulsive to him, suddenly became handsome and charming in Wheatstone’s eyes.
Wheatstone suppressed his excitement and asked in a low voice, “May I have the honor of knowing… No, may I be honored to participate in this project?”
Seeing that he had been blinded by money, Arthur confidently proposed the LPS research project, which actually had no budget.
“Mr. Wheatstone, you have a deep understanding of acoustics. Now that we’ve figured out that the principle of sound production is vibration. Then, perhaps we should consider linking this to electromagnetism. I hear you’ve been going to Mr. Faraday to discuss electromagnetism lately, is that true?”
Wheatstone nodded, “Mr. Faraday has been very kind to me, with his help, I’ve gained a foothold in electromagnetism.”
Arthur smiled and said, “That’s good. Since you’ve gotten your foot in the door, you must know about Mr. Faraday’s amazing electromagnetic induction experiment this year?”
“Of course. The electromagnetic induction experiment proved that electricity and magnetism can be transformed into each other, this is the most important scientific discovery of the year. But…”
Wheatstone scratched his head, “But what does this have to do with acoustics?”
Arthur said, “As we all know, if you wrap a copper wire around a common sewing needle, the needle becomes magnetic when the wire is electrified. Then, what interesting changes would occur if a steel wire were slowly passed through a coil with varying current?”
Wheatstone’s hairs stood on end when he heard this, “If you do that, as the current changes in strength, there will be a number of small magnets of varying strength on the wire. If we can link this change to the vibration change of sound, we can achieve sound storage.”
Arthur smiled and nodded, “Fortunately, electricity is much more sensitive than mechanical phonographs. So, it’s definitely suitable for recording human voices.”
Wheatstone took a deep breath, “Arthur…”
“What?”
Wheatstone swallowed hard, “How did you come up with all this? You could have gone solo with such a brilliant idea! If you had this, the phonograph would be completely helpless.”
Arthur gently shook his finger, “No, Mr. Wheatstone, I don’t have your skills, nor the mindset of a proper engineer, I only have worthless ideas.
And most importantly, this technology can’t be used for profit, it has to be controlled within a certain range to be most effective. So the phonograph market won’t be affected, you can rest assured.
After all, even from a cost perspective, just the fact that it doesn’t need electricity, the mechanical phonograph with a winding spring is already more suitable for this era than what I’m talking about.”
Arthur suddenly paused, he smiled at Wheatstone, “So, when can I get a sample?”
Wheatstone took a deep breath, he patted his chest and assured him, “Although this thing sounds difficult, at least the direction is clear. I have no obstacles in acoustics and craftsmanship, as for electromagnetism, I can just make more trips to the Royal Society to find Mr. Faraday. As long as the principle is smooth, it will take at most a month to make, at least two or three weeks.”
“Two or three weeks?”
Arthur was somewhat disappointed to hear this, it seemed even if he had Wheatstone working overtime, he really had limits. At least during the London conference, he couldn’t rely on the recording machine to do anything.
Wheatstone didn’t notice Arthur’s disappointment, he was excited, “Arthur, go back and get that department that can’t be named to prepare the money. This kind of thing with direction, I’ll get it done sooner or later.”
Arthur heard this, just pursed his lips with a subtle expression, he nodded, “Okay, next time.”
(End of Chapter)