The doorbell rang, and he saw a short man with dishevelled grey hair facing him and smiling. ‘This is a new and exciting experience for me. But let’s give it a go,’ the man said. ‘Let’s give it a go,’ he said to Mr. Frederick. ‘I can assure you from the start that I don’t have lofty ambitions. I don’t want to be a brilliant musician, since that’s impossible. But I want to gain a good foundation in the language of music.’ Frederick asked him to elaborate. ‘I want to be able to understand its symbols, and how the composers can use it to express themselves through it. I want to reach a level of understanding that enables me to read the musical score of one of Beethoven’s works, for example, and be able to follow it with its various fluctuations, while listening to the piece, and to work out i
