Tales of Music — Part 4: Gambara — Part One

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Tales of Music — Part 4: Gambara — Part One | KacheliTV World Classics Part Four of Tales of Music, the KacheliTV shelf of stories in which music itself does the work, opens a tale told in three parts: "Gambara" by Honoré de Balzac. On a January evening in 1831, the young Count Andrea Marcosini follows a pair of dark eyes through the streets of Paris and arrives, by way of a modest table d'hôte, at the garret of Paolo Gambara — a composer whom the world calls mad, who has sold everything for his music and pawned his very instruments, and whose wife Marianna holds their poverty together with her needle and her patience. This first part follows the Count to Gambara's door, sits him down at the table d'hôte, hears Gambara tell the story of his life in his own words, and leaves him at the close of the evening on the threshold of the garret — with a vow of guardianship, not conquest, in his heart. The tale continues in Parts Five and Six of this season. Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices. Chapters 02:32 The Count Follows a Glance 26:59 The Table d'Hôte 43:22 The Story of Gambara's Life 57:36 Marianna A note on the telling: this is Part One of a three-part telling of "Gambara," and no claim is made that the story is complete here. Its shadows stay in the past and off the stage: the Count's pursuit is presented, as Balzac presents it, as a folly he questions in himself, and it ends in a promise of protection; the one dark anecdote of the evening — an old, comic accusation about a conclave — is talk about long-ago days, with no act done and none described. Nothing in this part is enacted but conversation, music talked of with passion, and a dinner among friends. Music: 'Virtuoso Trio in Motion' (instrumental theme) opens and closes the programme and sounds briefly between the movements, and 'Candlelit Manuscripts' plays softly beneath the narration throughout. Source: Honoré de Balzac, "Gambara" (1837), translated by Clara Bell and Ellen Marriage (as James Waring), 1895–98, Project Gutenberg eBook #1873. Public domain. Recorded for KacheliTV. KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.