In a disused department store near the port of Edinburgh, Tim Vincent-Smith reaches inside a grand piano and gently plucks the taut strings. The musician will restore this abandoned instrument, as he has already done with hundreds of others.
His vocation was born while living in Paris 20 years ago. He worked at the English bookshop Shakespeare and Company, on the banks of the Seine, a place loved by generations of writers, including Ernest Hemingway.
The owner sent him to fetch planks of wood from local dumps to make shelves, benches and beds for passing employees. Tim Vincent-Smith was often amazed by the quality of the pianos that were thrown away.
In Edinburgh, the musician and his team of volunteers have already saved hundreds of pianos, abandoned by their owners wanting to save space in their homes.
Once restored, these pianos are offered for “adoption”. Those that are irreparable are turned into works of art or furniture.
“I found out there were lots of pianos going to the landfill and I started making furniture – a window seat and some kind of high bed with a staircase – and then the pianos continued to happen,” he told AFP.
He then realized that many were still “in fairly good condition”. With a musician friend, Matthew Wright, they decided to found “Pianodrome”, in order to save as many as possible.
“If you’re lucky, you can find a beautiful old piano that has good mechanics and sound, and is fun to play with,” he says. “The best thing that can happen to an old piano is to find a new home.”
The UK has a tradition of piano making that dates back over 200 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the country had about 360 manufacturers.
The pianos were sent around the world, in particular to great composers, including Chopin, Liszt or Jean-Chrétien Bach, the youngest son of Jean-Sébastien Bach.
These instruments were once central to British social life and identity, taking center stage in homes and in neighborhood pubs.
But the size of the dwellings has decreased, and it has become more difficult to find space for a piano there.
Television and later electronic pianos began to provide another source of entertainment.
And the traditional pianos have started gathering dust in a corner of the living room.
Surprising practices emerged: in the 1950s and 1960s, competitions were held to tear pianos to pieces with sledgehammers.
After the creation of “Pianodrome”, a piano was brought to Edinburgh from Plymouth in the southwest of England, apparently unusable.
“All the keys were stuck together because of the humidity,” recalls Tim Vincent-Smith. He worked on it. “And then the keys were able to move and we found the sound was really good.” This piano has become their instrument for concerts.
Some, irrecoverable, are transformed into works of art. Thus, in front of “Pianodrome”, there is a structure 6 meters high representing elephant tusks. A symbol to represent what is considered waste.
“A piano is an example of what our society perceives as waste but which can be used in a wonderful way”.
“So what I would like to say to people is: If you’re thinking of getting rid of your piano, think twice, it’s a beautiful thing, a piano”.
“Pianodrome” regularly organizes events during which the disused store is transformed into a concert hall, in an amphitheater entirely built from recycled pianos.
23/05/2023 17:26:56 – Edinburgh (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
