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Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 123 ratings · 39 reviews

"A fascinating, lyrical memoir about one woman's obsessive search for the perfect piano-and about finding and pursuing passion at any age"How can a particular piano be so seductive that someone would turn her life upside down to answer its call? How does music change human consciousness and transport us to rapture? What makes it beautiful? In this elegantly written and hea...more "A fascinating, lyrical memoir about one woman's obsessive search for the perfect piano-and about finding and pursuing passion at any age"How can a particular piano be so seductive that someone would turn her life upside down to answer its call? How does music change human consciousness and transport us to rapture? What makes it beautiful? In this elegantly written and heartfelt account, Perri Knize explores these questions with a music lover's ardor, a poet's inspiration, and a reporter's thirst for knowledge.

The daughter of a professional musician, Knize was raised in a home saturated in classical music, but years have passed since she last played the instrument that mesmerized her most: the piano. Surprised by a sudden, belated realization that she is meant to devote her life to the instrument, she finds a teacher and soon decides to buy a piano of her own.

What begins as a search for a modestly priced upright leads Knize through dozens of piano stores all over the country, and eventually ends in a New York City showroom where she falls madly in love with the sound of a rare and pricey German grand.

"At the touch of the keys, I am swept away by powerful waves of sound," Knize writes. "The middle section is smoky and mysterious, as if rising from the larynx of a great contralto. The treble is bell-like and sparkling, full of color, a shimmering northern lights. A soul seems to reside in the belly of this piano, and it reaches out to touch mine, igniting a spark of desire that quickly catches fire."

The seduction is complete. But the piano far exceeds Knize's budget. After a long and painful dalliance, she refinances her house to purchase the instrument that has transfixed her. The dealer ships it to her home in Montana, and she counts the days until its arrival. When at last she sits down to play, almost delirious with anticipation, the magical sound is gone and the tone is dead and dull. Devastated, she calls in one piano technician after another to "fix" it, but no one can.

So begins the author's epic quest to restore her piano to its rightful sound, and to understand its elusive power. This journey leads her into an international subculture of piano aficionados -- concert artists, passionate amateurs, dealers, technicians, composers, and builders -- intriguing characters all, whose lives have also been transformed by the spell of a piano. Along the way she plays hundreds of pianos, new and vintage, rare and common, always listening for the bewitching tone she once heard from her own grand, a sound she cannot forget.

In New York, she visits the high-strung technician who prepared her piano for the showroom, and learns how a wire tightened just so, or an artfully softened hammer can transform an unremarkable instrument into one that touches listeners to their core. In Germany, she watches the workers who built her piano shape wood, iron, wool, and steel into musical instruments, and learns why each has its own unique voice. In Austria, she hikes the Alps to learn how trees are selected to build pianos, and how they are grown and harvested. With each step of her journey, Knize draws ever-closer to uncovering the reason her piano's sound vanished, how to get it back, and the deeper secret of how music leads us to a direct experience of the nature of reality.

Beautifully composed, passionately performed, "Grand Obsession" is itself a musical masterpiece.(less)

Hardcover, 371 pages

Published January 8th 2008 by Scribner Book Company

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Jul 25, 2008 pianogal rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The most appropriate part of this book was it's title. The author is definately obsessed when it comes to her piano - and I don't really understand why.

I am a classically-trained pseudo-concert pianist. I say pseudo because while I play all the time, I only perform a couple of times a month. My undergraduate degree is in piano performance and I studied at Indiana University's renowned School of Music, so I understand the importance of finding that perfect piano. When I went looking for mine (a Y...more The most appropriate part of this book was it's title. The author is definately obsessed when it comes to her piano - and I don't really understand why.

I am a classically-trained pseudo-concert pianist. I say pseudo because while I play all the time, I only perform a couple of times a month. My undergraduate degree is in piano performance and I studied at Indiana University's renowned School of Music, so I understand the importance of finding that perfect piano. When I went looking for mine (a Yamaha C2 in matte black) I played a lot of pianos. Not as many as the author of this book, but then I didn't have the funds to travel to various cities nor could I afford to ship pianos back from them.

I found my Yamaha by touch more than sound. Having studied at a university, I played my share of questionable pianos. My biggest qualm was not so much the tone, but the touch. Most of the actions in practice room pianos are horrendous. So when I sat down to play my piano in the show room, I immediately knew it was the one I wanted. I went back to play it several times before I bought it, making sure it really was the one for me. The thought of letting anyone rip out its guts to try and capture that fleeting feeling doesn't make any sense to me.

The author of this book is a self-proclaimed amateur who heard her piano once in a store and then tried for three years to recapture that sound when it failed to arrive at her house in Montana in perfect condition - even though it had been shipped from New York in the middle of the coldest blizzard ever. She also failed to realize that her house was in no way atmospherically perfect for her piano to always sound great (mine's not either, but I live with it). Her quest was insane.

I thought the beginning of this book was interesting - how she decided which stores to shop in, what models she liked, what kind of sound she was looking for. About halfway in, though, I got very tired of her whining about how her piano wasn't just perfect all the time. I almost didn't finish the book. Even the fact that she travelled a lot to try and recapture her piano's so-called lost color and eventually found a close proximation didn't change my position. If I'dve been any of the myriad of technicians she employed to work on it, I'dve just told her she was crazy and left. And I thought I was obsessed with my piano. This book and this author give a whole new meaning to the term.(less)

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Mar 14, 2011 Sheldon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely wonderful.
I am studying guitar and piano, and have a basic understanding of the physics of sound. All together, I can totally relate!
The author heard a wonderful piano in the store, but when delivered to her home it sounded awful! The book goes on to describe her efforts to get back "HER piano", the magnificent instrument she heard in the store. For those who do not know, no two pianos will sound alike, even two Steinways, same model, produced one after the other. The wood, the soundb...more

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Nov 06, 2010 Emma rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was totally immersed in this story of midlife obsession...a woman finding her way back to playing the piano and re-visiting her childhood ambition of becoming a concert pianist. Along the way she begins to shop for the perfect piano--she travels all over listening and playing pianos in every showroom. When she finds her piano it has to travel across the country to be delivered at her home and it arrives not sounding at all like it sounded in the store. The quest for the piano, suddenly becomes...more

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May 02, 2010 Jenny rated it 1 of 5 stars

This memoir explores one woman's return to her passion for piano playing. The first section of the book in which she explores her relationship to music and to the piano is great. Most of the memoir, however, is a scientific exploration of sound technology. After the narrator spends a huge sum of a money on her dream piano -- a rare German grand -- that she spent two years searching for, she learns that a piano's sound is not static; it constantly evolves. The tone that she initially fell in love...more

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Dec 19, 2008 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Perri Knize's goal is to bring back to life the voice she heard on her Grotrian-Steinweg piano that she first heard in the showroom she purchased it from and back to life in her home--the home she re-financed to purchase her piano.

As an adult student learning how to play the piano, I was able to relate to Knize's trepidation about pursuing a long, unfulfilled passion at an older age. Unlike Knize, however, I cannot play by ear. I really liked this book since the author so clearly loves the pian...more

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May 04, 2013 Thorn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-edition

this book absorbed me completely; and i liked it a lot. but for me it was a bit of a strange read, because i felt from the book's tone and character like the it started out as a personal quest and narrative, but about halfway through became an 'i have a book-deal', object-book like the one about the pencil, or the one about the screw. i think that may be because i had some assumptions about the book, which isn't really the author's fault.

(warning : spoiler after the break)

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the author actuall...more this book absorbed me completely; and i liked it a lot. but for me it was a bit of a strange read, because i felt from the book's tone and character like the it started out as a personal quest and narrative, but about halfway through became an 'i have a book-deal', object-book like the one about the pencil, or the one about the screw. i think that may be because i had some assumptions about the book, which isn't really the author's fault.

(warning : spoiler after the break)

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the author actually discovers and acquires her instrument about halfway through the book. the second half is about her quest for the 'perfect' sound -- that is, the sound that made her choose the instrument she bought.

like another reviewer, i think that the author's quest was a bit odd. but everyone's different, and she apparently happened to want her house to be a concert hall rather than her practice room. unlike the reviewer i mention, i think that once the author bought her instrument, it was perfectly reasonable for her to try to get the sound the way she wanted it to be. she'd heard it sound a certain way, so she knew it was possible; and the piano in question.. well, i just did a google search and found one listed in germany used for about 50,000 euros. if the author bought it new, even if she got a deal... she never states what she paid -- but she did mortgage her house to buy it. i'd say she's entitled to be demanding. i also have to say i'm shocked that she had to basically become a detective to figure out how the dealer's tech had tuned& voiced/regulated it. you'd think the tech himself would have had a range of things he might have done that he could have suggested off the top of his head. instead, the author worked with bunches of different techs barking up a world of wrong trees, and ultimately still had to pull the answer out of the original tech's nose.

still, it was a good book, and pretty suspenseful. seriously. i mean, the author mortgaged her *house* to buy the bloody piano.(less)

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Jun 19, 2012 Elizabeth Rowe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

WARNING: Do NOT read this book if you don't love and respect music

I thought this was a great story about the connection that a musician has to their instrument. Purchasing an instrument is such a personal decision no matter what you play. I know trumpet and tuba players that have gone through the same ordeal trying to find the perfect instrument for their needs. I was able to feel the stress Perri went through in searching for the perfect piano, the relief when she actually heard it, and the he...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Alvin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Grand obsession is a good read on how pianos are made, and a little bit about the network of characters from manufacturer to consumer. Its also a read about someone with a good ear, who can hear things most people would ignore. However a fair chunk is self indulgent hand wringing of some woman with the luxury of affording a piano wanting to have an instrument that suits her golden ears. There's also a whole chapter on the metaphysics of sound (and string theory) that should have been omitted as...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Obsession is an understatement. The author decides to take up piano in her forties. She lives in Montana but shops for a piano wherever she goes in her work. She finally finds one in New York City, buys it, has it shipped to Missoula, then doesn't like the way it sounds. It's not the piano she "fell in love with." So she spends years (at least three) meeting with piano technicians, voicers, tuners and builders (actually making a trip to Germany to see where her piano was built, where the wood fo...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: piano lovers

Shelves: nonfiction

This book took me FOREVER to read. Well, forever for me anyway. I really enjoyed the story and Knize's writing style, but I was a bit ambivalent about the whole premise of the story. On the one hand, I can appreciate one person's quest to find the perfect piano given my love for this beautiful instrument; on the other hand, this woman's grand obsession got a bit tedious at times. I couldn't understand how she could be so obsessed with the sound of the piano, but for me I would just be happy to o...more

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Jun 05, 2008 Selma rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: accomplished pianists, piano technicians

Shelves: nonfictionmemoir

This is mainly of interest to those knowledgeable about music, and specifically pianos. As a pianist, I found it compelling, but the layer of metaphysical and general discussion that arises from the very idiosyncratic quest described by the author is banal in comparison to the specifics of the situation. Knize is fixated on an unusual type of piano, the German-made Grotrian, and recounts her manic search for her special piano, and then her profound disappointment when the piano's sound seems to...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Megan Peters rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was magnificent. Perri Knize goes into intense detail when she describes a piano and describes everything about it beautifully. She crazily travels all over the world to try and discover her piano's origins and how its sound is manufactured.. A sound she fell in love with in Beethoven's Piano store in New York. She has this way of telling her story that makes you feel everything she is feeling and you just want her to find her piano's sound! This book is an awesome example of not settl...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Claudia rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you're interested in music - more specifically if you have an interest in piano's, you'll enjoy this book. As a person who both plays the piano and is interested in piano technology, I found it fascinating. This said, it may not have broad appeal for every reader.

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Dec 07, 2008 Hollis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I thoroughly enjoyed this, although likely because I play piano. In fact, it really inspired me to start playing again on a different level. It's the story of a woman who decides to play piano again as an adult. She has an amazing ear, the result of a musician father who trained her to listen from an early age. In her quest for the perfect piano to buy, she finds it, only to discover how ethereal that perfect sound is. The book is her quest to 'return the piano to itself' and she learns a lot ab...more

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Jul 11, 2009 Mejken added it

Wow!! This one has completely changed my approach to piano. I used to think much of what I heard and felt while playing was all in my imagination. Now I've learned it's all in my head--literally!

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Aug 04, 2011 Solor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found the story poor, and her pretty annoying and predictable. But there are some good things to learn and suggestions for further reading on the making, tuning, voicing of piano.

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Oct 08, 2008 Dgfletch rated it 4 of 5 stars

The conductor of a chorus I sing in, handed me Grand Obsession and told me I'd love it. He had just finished and had been enthralled. Since he is the smartest, interestingest and most musical person one would ever want to meet, I read it.
I was captivated by some coincidences - the author found her perfect piano at the same store and at about the same time I found mine (which, alas, I coudn't afford). Her favorite piano sound on CD is the one I've always treasured as the best recorded piano (I...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Victor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful book about a woman's love affair with music and a piano and the lengths that she goes to to seek out and restore the original sound that she heard on her piano.

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Mar 11, 2011 Sheila King rated it 5 of 5 stars

a beautiful account of a passion becoming a reality in Perri's life.
Loved reading of her journey of self-awareness and desire to express her love through the avenue of music

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Jan 13, 2009 Brads rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is an interesting odyssey for someone whose hearing ability is more acute than my own. This book made me want to own a grand piano even more.

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Oct 24, 2009 Mereke rated it 3 of 5 stars

An account only a pianist could love. I found learning about the process of making a piano and then creating a unique sound for it through voicing and tuning very interesting and perhaps even helpful to me in my own quest to someday take up the piano again as an adult after leaving it behind for many years. But a lot of the other more personal stuff related to the author was boring and made the book too long. On the whole, a good but not great read if you're interested in classical piano.

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Dec 21, 2011 Daisy rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. The search for the piano was interesting, the search for the sound got annoying.

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Jan 17, 2013 Ginny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another good book about pianos. It goes into a lot of detail but I learned a lot and now I am trying to listen better. Don't have nearly the ear of the author but I can try.

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Aug 19, 2011 Mark Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you play piano and are passionate about music, this book is a wonderful choice for you.

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Jan 04, 2012 Sally Fouhse rated it 5 of 5 stars

In the all time top ten. Really resonated with me. A wonderful odyssey.

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Jun 14, 2009 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I learned a good deal about what makes a piano a piano. some of the chapters were a bit too technical for me (someone who doesn't play piano) but altogether fascinating!

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Jan 24, 2013 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

A book every pianist should read!

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Aug 12, 2009 Rhawkes added it

I want to learn piano!

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Feb 15, 2012 Kelekolio Malakina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lucid and lyrical. Highly recommended.

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Jan 16, 2010 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I gave up about a quarter of the way in. I enjoyed the story but I couldn't get into the author's presentation of it mostly because I didn't like her as the "main character." She grated on my nerves rather heavily. I had thought the book was supposed to be about embracing the piano and a life-long love for it, not some middle-aged woman overcoming her own ego.

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