Better Than Billy Joel?

Better Than Billy Joel?

Silent mental patient known as “Piano Man” gives marathon solo piano performance.

Written By

Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri is an ASCAP-award winning composer and music journalist. Among his compositions are Already Yesterday or Still Tomorrow for orchestra, the "performance oratorio" MACHUNAS, the 1/4-tone sax quartet Fair and Balanced?, and the 1/6-tone rock band suite Imagined Overtures. His compositions are represented by Black Tea Music. Oteri is the Vice President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is Composer Advocate at New Music USA where he has been the Editor of its web magazine, NewMusicBox.org, since its founding in 1999.

Perhaps the most interesting “news” item I’ve read all month is the story of “Piano Man” who, since being in the custody of a British mental ward for the past six weeks, has not spoken a single word but has composed music on manuscript paper, played the piano for several hours without stop, and has made an extremely well-crafted pencil drawing of a grand piano.

Either this is all an extremely brilliant PR stunt, worthy of a George Antheil or John Cage or one of their latter-day accolades like Paris-based American pianist Guy Livingston, or it is further proof that music transcends language. I just hope someone in the ward has the smarts to record one of his performances, although anyone attempting such a venture might be scared off by possible patient’s rights lawsuits which are an even bigger legal Tower of Babel than today’s intellectual property battles.