19th
So this guy moves into a new house.
Beautiful place: high ceilings, lots of light, great kitchen. He spends the day unpacking and is looking forward to a restful night’s sleep in his new bedroom. But as soon as he gets settled in, he can’t help but hear music coming from outside. At first he thinks it’s his neighbours, but it’s coming from the side where there’s nothing but open fields. He’s really tired, though, so eventually he drops off regardless.
The next night, it’s the same thing: strange, haunting music coming across the fields—he thinks it might be coming from the woods across the field. He closes his windows and manages to fall asleep anyway.
But the third night, he’s started to think there’s something familiar about the music, odd as it is. He leans out his bedroom window, holding a tape recorder as far as he can. He brings it inside and reverses the recording, and sure enough, someone out in the woods is playing “Für Elise”—backwards.
On the fourth night, he’s had about enough. He heads out into the woods, following the sound of the music. He traces it to a clearing in the woods, but even though the music is loud here, there’s no sign of anything that might be making it. On a hunch, he crouches down, listens closely: the music is coming from underground.
He goes home, comes back with a shovel, and starts digging. The deeper he digs, the louder the music gets; finally, his shovel hits something—a coffin. The music is nearly deafening. He throws open the lid of the coffin…
Inside lies Beethoven. Decomposing.
This has me thinking of Monty Python’s “Decomposing Composers”. Which isn’t such a bad thing.
