The Morini Strad 1.25.11.pdf

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I’d sleep on it. You have to understand, this job would mean a steady income. Health insurance. The work would be nothing especially inspiring - mostly repairs, tune-ups. Instrument making? ERICA BRIAN That was not in the job description. ERICA Pierre would be very fortunate to have you as an employee. And what would be the duration of your employment? A year? Less? More? BRIAN I would say definitely more. ERICA Take care more doesn’t turn into forever more. BRIAN It’s a job. It’s not a life sentence. ERICA If you were any kind of an artist you would have told him Va te faire foutre! Parlez vous francais? BRIAN Yeah. “Go fu—-” (ERICA cuts him off before he completes the translation. The violins are horrendous. SHE reacts.) They do it to spite me. (HE stomps on the floor. The violins stop.) Done. (HE removes the Strad from under the lamp.) And done. (ERICA takes it, turns it over in the light.) ERICA Passable enough, to the naked eye. BRIAN I can’t see it anymore. Have a better look. (SHE inspects it with a magnifying glass.) ERICA It’s invisible. BRIAN I told you it would be. Let me show you something. (Hands her a quarter cut plank of maple) 25
What’s that? ERICA BRIAN (taps his finger on the plank) A violin. Or it will be when I get around to it. ERICA Looks like a piece of wood. BRIAN And sheet music looks like paper until you remove a concerto from it. I just remove everything from this piece of wood that isn’t a violin. Paper, maple – we both start with a tree. (takes back the maple) Now that we know we come from the same place, you think you might tell me how the Davidoff was damaged? ERICA (beat) There was a time when I was mentioned in the same breath as Kreisler, Elman, Heifetz! I memorized Paganini’s Second Caprice in one reading! Now I am reduced to giving violin lessons to hopeless students. This one young woman was making such a hash of Bruch I could bare it no longer. “Here,” I told her, “I’ll show you.” I never even felt the ebony of the bow against the spruce top. But when I looked down at white wood… What white wood? What, indeed. BRIAN ERICA BRIAN So I guess you’ll list it with Sotheby’s. ERICA Sotheby’s is a brothel. I could no more auction off the Davidoff than auction off my soul. You’re not very good at business, even if you are a fine… BRIAN Repairman? ERICA I’ll thank you not to finish my sentence. I am quite confident you do not know where this is going. That invitation from the Mannes School? BRIAN 26
Page 1 and 2: The Morini Strad by Willy Holtzman
Page 3 and 4: Time: The recent past Place: Manhat
Page 5 and 6: I’m just an artisan. ERICA I say
Page 7 and 8: ERICA No bother, to speak of. Of co
Page 9 and 10: Item? BRIAN ERICA Please. The toast
Page 11 and 12: ERICA He said the instrument wasn
Page 13 and 14: BRIAN Look at the tool marks on the
Page 15 and 16: The Tchaikovsky. What else? My sign
Page 17 and 18: Two remembers exactly what it was t
Page 19 and 20: ERICA Himself. The old crowd has go
Page 21 and 22: She isn’t happy? BRIAN She isn’
Page 23 and 24: It’s not a crime. I see that sort
Page 25: I generally avoid artists at all co
Page 29 and 30: How can I properly thank you? ERICA
Page 31 and 32: Three 30 Erica’s apartment. ERICA
Page 33 and 34: BRIAN Alright, alright. Well he see
Page 35 and 36: Time will tell. Aren’t you going
Page 37 and 38: follow. HE gets better as the dance
Page 39 and 40: ERICA This is the question! Why has
Page 41 and 42: Pushing people is what I do. I’m
Page 43 and 44: ERICA The vultures - they’re offe
Page 45 and 46: ERICA No, I feel it, too. Mozart, T
Page 47 and 48: Yes, I did have the Davidoff in my
Page 49 and 50: (agitated, confused) A flat over C.
Page 51 and 52: She moved on to a gluten-free diet.
Page 53 and 54: of an audience as musician tune up
Page 55: draws the bow across the strings an

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