In what has to be one of music history's more bizarre footnotes, a 200 year-old nightshirt recently found in a closet in Vienna has been confirmed--by DNA analysis-- to have indeed belonged to Beethoven. The historical significance is not in the cloth, but in the musical sketch inked on the sleeve. Apparently old Ludvig awoke in the night, seized by inspiration, and finding no paper at hand, sketched out the theme for a sonata on the sleeve of his nightshirt.
A faded note pinned to the nightshirt from the cleaner reads, "Sir, please, I cannot remove the ink stain." Fortunately, because this discovery apparently provided the musical key to performing an unpublished Sonata. The Sonata--christened the Nachtgewand Sonata (Nightshirt Sonata) recently debuted its first performance by pianist Stephen Hough. I couldn't make this up; this is fact. The world waited 200 years to hear a heretofore incomplete Masterpiece until the missing piece was discovered on the sleeve of the composer's pajamas.
(from "Discovering the piano at 50")
A faded note pinned to the nightshirt from the cleaner reads, "Sir, please, I cannot remove the ink stain." Fortunately, because this discovery apparently provided the musical key to performing an unpublished Sonata. The Sonata--christened the Nachtgewand Sonata (Nightshirt Sonata) recently debuted its first performance by pianist Stephen Hough. I couldn't make this up; this is fact. The world waited 200 years to hear a heretofore incomplete Masterpiece until the missing piece was discovered on the sleeve of the composer's pajamas.
(from "Discovering the piano at 50")
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