Thursday, May 19, 2005
Mystery of the Piano Man
Super story over the last few days on the BBC website:
A wealth of names and nationalities have been suggested to try to identify a man found wandering in Kent who communicates only through piano music. The mystery man was unable to communicate with police or carers after he was found in a street in Sheerness in a rain-soaked suit. When staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital gave him a pen and paper in the hope he would write his name, he drew a grand piano. His carers then put him in front of an instrument in the hospital chapel and he stunned them with a virtuoso classical performance. The mystery man produced a pencil drawing of a piano. He has also composed music since he was found.
You can read more here, here and here (and here on CNN).
These are the two most frequent images of him at the moment:
It seems that he just turned up in Sheerness soaking wet in a suit, shirt and tie, unable to speak a word of English. The police who found him thought he had been in the sea. Sounds like the first part of the film 'The Bourne Identity', so far. As he was unable to communicate, he ended up in hospital and then in a mental facility before he ended up in front of a piano in a hospital chapel.
Initially they thought he might be a street musician from Paris, but this seems unlikely (how could you busk on the streets of Paris with a piano?) CNN and this French website report he might be a Swedish musician called Martin Sturefalt who has studied in London. Could this be the man, or will the mystery continue? If you Google the words Martin Sturefalt for images, there's only one image on all the web. It's one of a number of files on the following Swedish website: www.kmh.se, which appears to be the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, so the image might be of the man we're after. You have to admit, there is a certain resemblance... something about the hair, the ears, the high forehead?
Could this be the man?
You be the judge...
And if the Piano Man is this Swede, it still doesn't answer the main mystery - how did he end up in the drink and why can't he speak?
Answers on a postcard, please...
A wealth of names and nationalities have been suggested to try to identify a man found wandering in Kent who communicates only through piano music. The mystery man was unable to communicate with police or carers after he was found in a street in Sheerness in a rain-soaked suit. When staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital gave him a pen and paper in the hope he would write his name, he drew a grand piano. His carers then put him in front of an instrument in the hospital chapel and he stunned them with a virtuoso classical performance. The mystery man produced a pencil drawing of a piano. He has also composed music since he was found.
You can read more here, here and here (and here on CNN).
These are the two most frequent images of him at the moment:
It seems that he just turned up in Sheerness soaking wet in a suit, shirt and tie, unable to speak a word of English. The police who found him thought he had been in the sea. Sounds like the first part of the film 'The Bourne Identity', so far. As he was unable to communicate, he ended up in hospital and then in a mental facility before he ended up in front of a piano in a hospital chapel.
Initially they thought he might be a street musician from Paris, but this seems unlikely (how could you busk on the streets of Paris with a piano?) CNN and this French website report he might be a Swedish musician called Martin Sturefalt who has studied in London. Could this be the man, or will the mystery continue? If you Google the words Martin Sturefalt for images, there's only one image on all the web. It's one of a number of files on the following Swedish website: www.kmh.se, which appears to be the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, so the image might be of the man we're after. You have to admit, there is a certain resemblance... something about the hair, the ears, the high forehead?
Could this be the man?
You be the judge...
And if the Piano Man is this Swede, it still doesn't answer the main mystery - how did he end up in the drink and why can't he speak?
Answers on a postcard, please...
Comments:
Post a Comment
