“Harmony of the World” by Charles Baxter - Text a parlor – in a big house, this is a nice room where you invite

u invite your visitors to sit down and talk.

a sideboard – a rectangular table usually put against a wall, not the middle of the room.
a sofa – like a comfortable big chair with cushions on it, but big enough for two or three people
to sit on together. Some people call it “a couch”.
thegentility - this word is connected to the adjective “genteel”. A genteel person is a person
In the small Ohio town where I grew up, many usually of a high social class who is very polite to other people.
homes had parlors that contained pianos, to tune a piano – a piano tuner is a person who will come to tune your piano. That means he or
sideboards, and sofas, heavy objects signifying she is trained to work on the strings inside the piano and fix it so it sounds better when you play
it. This is similar to when people tighten the strings on a guitar, but there are many more strings
gentility. These pianos were rarely tuned. They inside a piano. It is a good idea to have a piano tuner tune a piano twice a year.
went flat in summer around the fourth of July and flat and sharp – “flat” and “sharp” are musical words. The piano’s music sounds flat in July
sharp in winter at Christmas. Ours was a Story and weather in Ohio; flat music doesn’t sound good. In the cold weather in December (Christmas),
the music sounds sharp (the opposite of flat).
Clark.
ours was a Story and Clark – the narrator’s family had a piano made by the Story and Clark
company.
the music stand – a place on the piano where printed pages of music can be put, so the person
playing the piano can read the music (read the musical notes on the page) as she or he plays.
On its music stand were copies of Stephen Foster Stephen Foster and Ethelbert Nevin favorites – on the music stand of the piano were songs by
and Ethelbert Nevin favorites, along with one these two composers (writers) of music. Both Foster and Nevin wrote music and songs that were
easy to play and sing.
Chopin prelude that my mother would practice for
a Chopin prelude – Frederic Chopin lived in the early 1800s in Poland and is now famous for the
twenty minutes every three years. She had no music he composed, mostly written to be played on a piano. “A prelude” is the musical
patience, but since she thought Ohio-all of it, every introduction to a longer piece of music.

scrap, made sense, she was happy and did not Ohio-all of it, every scrap, made sense – his mother loved her state, Ohio, and thought that
anything that happened in Ohio made sense. By “made sense” she meant that everything was all
need to practice anything. right. Probably there will not be a question on this on the RLA, because it is not very clear.
Happiness is not infectious, but somehow her infectious – if a disease is infectious, it means that one person can get the disease from another
person. In this case, the narrator is not writing about a disease, but about happiness. We don’t
happiness infected my father, a pharmacist, and feel happy, just because we are with happy people.
then spread through the rest of the household. her happiness infected my father…and then spread through the rest of the household –the father
became happy by being with the happy mother, and then the children (“the rest of the
household” also became happy. They became happy because of the mother, just as if she had a
“happiness disease”.
a pharmacist – a person who works in a pharmacy, selling medicine. Sometimes a pharmacist
owns the pharmacy where she or he works.
My whole family was obstinately cheerful. I think of
cheerful – happy obstinately – this is a negative word that is usually used to say someone
my two sisters, my brother, and my parents as will not change their mind. The narrator says “obstinately cheerful”, to say that the family never
having artificial pasted-on smiles, like circus changed their habit of being happy.

clowns. They apparently thought cheer and good artificial pasted-on smiles, like circus clowns – fake smiles like the smiles of clowns in the circus.
These smiles are painted on their faces with makeup. “Pasted-on” means glued on to their faces.
Christian words were universals, respected You can see clowns in this video on Youtube “Minimaster: Clowning Around At The Circus”
everywhere. The pianos were part of this cheer.
They played for celebrations and moments of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3lyLwrEQ9s left: a clown
pleasant pain. Or rather: someone played them, universals – something known everywhere
but not too well, since excellent playing would moments of pleasant pain– it is not clear what the narrator means here. Do you have a good
guess? There probably will not be an RLA question about this.
have been faintly antisocial. "Chopin," my mother
excellent playing would have been faintly antisocial – people may have thought it was good to
said, shaking her head as she stumbled through know how to play the piano, but to play too well might make others who didn’t play so well, feel
the prelude. "Why is he famous?" bad. “Faintly antisocial” may mean here “a little unfriendly to other people”(faintly = a little).
Chopin…as she stumbled through the prelude – “stumble” means almost fall when you are
walking, because your foot hits a rock or the root of a tree, etc. The mother is stumbling as she
plays Chopin’s music on the piano, because she cannot play the music smoothly.
When I was six, I received my first standing the ovation – when people clap their hands after a performance, such as when someone plays
the piano.
ovation. On the stage of the community The standing ovation – this is when the audience likes the music so much, that the members of
auditorium, where the temperature was about 94~, the audience respectfully stand up when they clap their hands after a performance.

sweat fell from my forehead onto the piano keys, *RLA Question: There may be a question about his age at his first or second
standing ovation.
making their ivory surfaces slippery. At the
the community auditorium – a big room belonging to the town, where people can give
conclusion of the piece, when everyone stood up
performances, such as play music, act out a drama, do a dance, etc.
to applaud, I thought they were just being nice. My 94 – this was the temperature measured in Fahrenheit degrees, the way of measuring
playing had been mediocre; only my sweating had temperature used by the U.S. and a few small countries. 94 = 34 in Celsius, the temperature
measurement in Thailand and most of the world.
been extraordinary.
the piano keys…ivory surfaces – The long black or white rectangles a person touches to play a
piano are called “piano keys” or “keys”. Long ago piano keys were made of elephant tusks, called
“ivory”. In modern days piano keys are made of plastic, so elephants won’t be killed for their
tusks. The surfaces of the keys are the tops of the keys.
mediocre – not very good
only my sweating had been extraordinary – I sweated so much, it was a lot more than usual on a
Two years later, they stood up again. When I was very hot day.
eleven, they cheered. two years later, they stood up again – he played the piano in public when he was eight, and at
the end the audience stood up and clapped their hands.
when I was eleven, they cheered – he played the piano in public when he was eleven, and after he
played, people cheered, meaning they shouted in a positive way as they clapped their hands.

By that time I was astonishing these small-town

audiences with Chopin and Rachmaninoff recital astonishing - surprising
chestnuts. Rachmaninoff – Sergei Rachmaninoff was a famous Russian piano player and composer who lived
in from 1873 to 1945.
Chopin and Rachmaninoff recital chestnuts –pieces of music by these two famous composers that
I thought I was a genius and read biographies of music teachers often train their students to play.A recital is a musical performance before an
Einstein. Already the townspeople were saying audience. “Chestnuts” is slang from the 1940s – 1960s, meaning music people have heard many
times and so it is not interesting any more.
that I was the best thing Parkersville had ever
Parkersville – the small town in Ohio where the narrator grew up.
seen, that I would put the place on the map.
I was the best thing Parkersville had everseen– (an idiomatic expression in English) this means
that the narrator, as a talented young piano player, was the most interesting person who had
Mothers would send their children by to watch me lived in Parkersville.
practice. The kids sat with their mouths open while I would put the place on the map – (an idiomatic expression) tourists would want to visit
I polished off another classic. Like many Parkersville because of the famous talented young piano player.
I polished off another classic – I finished playing another piece of classical music on the piano.
musicians, I cannot remember ever playing badly,
“Polished off”, meaning “finished”, is another slang term from the 1940s-1960s.
in the sense of not knowing what I was doing. In
in high school my identity was being sealedshut – in high school all the other students thought of
high school, my identity was being sealed shut: him as a musician.
my classmates called me "el senor longhair," even El senor longhair – in the 1950s all American boys wore “crewcuts”, meaning their hair was cut
very short. A few young men who were artists and musicians started wearing their hair a little
though I wore a crewcut, this being the 1950s. longer and were called “longhairs”. “El senor” means “Mr.” in Spanish. The narrator’s classmates
Whenever the town needed a demonstration of called him “el senor longhair” or “Mr. longhair”, probably because he was a musician.

local genius, it called upon me. whenever the town needed a demonstration of local genius, it called upon me – when the town
wanted to show off that they had a talented young person or genius in their town, they would
contact the narrator.

There were newspaper articles detailing my

accomplishments, and I must have heard the newspaper articles detailing my accomplishments – newspaper articles about the wonderful
things the narrator had done (probably about the difficult classical music he could play).
phrase "future concert career" at least two
future concert career – a concert is a music performance. People in the town expected that the
hundred times. narrator would become a famous musician and have a career playing in concerts.
I collected applause – he played the piano many times and people applauded (clapped).

My parents smiled and smiled as I collected my senior year – my last year in the four years of high school.

applause. My senior year, I gave a solo recital and a solo recital – he performed “solo”, meaning he was the only musician to play at that
performance. Note: “a recital” is usually smaller, and the audience doesn’t pay to attend, while
was hired for umpteen weddings and funerals. I usually “a concert” is bigger, and the audience pays to go to the concert.
was good luck. On the fourth of July the I was hired for umpteen weddings and funerals – people paid him to play the piano at many
weddings and funerals. “Umpteen” is a very informal way to say “more than nineteen” or “many,
townspeople brought out a piano to the city square
many”.
so that I could improvise music between I was good luck – people who hired him to play thought that having him play would bring them
good luck. Maybe this means that it is good to hire a local boy, not someone from another town.
explosions at the fireworks display.
brought out a piano to the city square – carried a piano and put it outdoors in the center of the
town
so that I could improvise music between explosions at the fireworks display – so that he could play
music between the fireworks that were set off at night on 4 July for Independence Day. He
improvised, meaning he made up his own music to fit the situation.

Our neighbors wanted to come up to me ostensibly for small talk, but actually to touch me -
Just before I left for college, I noticed that our neighbors came to see him. It seemed that the reason they came was to make “small talk” (like
“how are you? I hope you have a good year at college,” etc.), but really they just wanted to touch
neighbors wanted to come up to me ostensibly for him, like touch his arm.
small talk, but actually to touch me. “Small talk” is just a few sentences like the ones above.
“Ostensibly” means “the reason that it seemed that they did this”. The neighbors seemed to want
to talk with him a little, but the real reason was that they wanted to touch him, thinking that he
was a genius.

In college I made a shocking discovery: other

people existed in the world who were as talented I sat down to play a Debussy etude – I sat on the seat in front of the piano and started playing
music by the French composer Claude Debussy, whose piano music was often quiet and peaceful.
as I was. If I sat down to play a Debussy etude, A musical “etude” is usually a short piece of music which is difficult to play.
they would sit down and play Beethoven, only
they would sit down and play Beethoven- other students would sit at the piano and play music by
louder and faster than I had. I felt their breath on the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, usually just called “Beethoven”.
Beethoven, 1770-1827, wrote music for orchestras and many instruments, and his music can be
my neck. Apparently there were other small towns. quite loud, very different from Debussy’s quiet music.
In each one of these small towns there was a
I felt their breath on my neck – the narrator writes about his first semester in university as if he
genius. Perhaps some geniuses were not actually had been in a running race. He imagined he was winning the race, but he could feel the breath of
the runners behind him breathing on his neck as they ran close behind him.
geniuses. I practiced constantly and began to
Really, he is not writing about a running race, but a race to be the best piano player. Though he
specialize in the non-Germanic piano repertoire. was considered a genius in his home town, the narrator finds at university that there are many
equally or more talented piano players his age.

Notes: The life of this story’s author, Charles Baxter, was quite perhaps some geniuses were not actually geniuses – the narrator may be thinking that he is not
different from the young piano player in this text. Therefore, as talented and smart as he thought he was, now that he meets other young musicians.
this is the narrator’s story (fiction), not an autobiography. I began to specialize in the non-Germanic piano repertoire – I started to “specialize in” (= almost
Charles Baxter studied at university to be a writer, wrote many always played) piano music which was not from the German tradition, meaning he didn’t play
books, and also taught writing at a university. music written by German composers, such as Beethoven.

the repertoire is a word meaning the music he liked to play regularly.

The text of “Harmony of the World” is longer, but this is the
part of the text which is on the RLA. The text the on the internet
did not have paragraphs, but we have added paragraphs. The
text on the RLA also has paragraphs.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mqrarchive/act2080.0020.002/31?
page=root;size=100;view=text