Sujet 7 ♦ Amérique du Sud, septembre 2005, séries ES et S, LVI Ail the time I knew Madeline, there...

« Sujet 7 ♦ Amérique du Sud, septembre 2005, séries ES et S, LVI Ail the time I knew Madeline, there was always the sense that she didn't fit - with me, with London, with the rest of the world.

I noticed it the first cime I saw her: she looked so out of place, in that gloomy bar where I was playing the piano.

l'd been in London for nearly a year, and l'd thought that this might turn out to be my first break.

A place in some side street just off the s Fulham Road that had a clapped-out baby grand 1 and called itself a "jazz club": I saw an advert they had placed in The Stage and they offered me twenty pounds cash and three non-alcoholic cocktails of my choice to play there on a Wednesday night.

I mrned up at six, scared out of my mind, knowing that I had to play for five hours with a repertoire of six standards and a few pieces of my own - about fifty minutes' worth of material.

I needn't have worried, because there was only 10 one customer all evening.

She came in at eight and stayed till the end.

lt was Madeline. I couldn't believe that a woman so well dressed and so pretty could be sitting on her own in a place like that all night.

Maybe if there had been other customers they would have tried to chat her up. In fact l'm sure they would.

She was always getting chatted up.

That night there was only me, and even I tried to chat her up, and l'd never done anything like that in my life before.

But when you've 1s been playfog your own music for nearly an hour to an audience of one, and they've been clapping at the end of every number and smiling at you and even once saying.

"I liked that one", then you feel encitled.

lt would have seemed rude not to.

So when the cime came to take another break I got my drink from the bar and went over to her table, and said: "Do you mind ifl join you?" "No.

Please do." 20 2s 30 "Can I buyyou something?" "No thanks, l'm all right for the moment." She was drinking dry white wine.

I sat down on a stool opposite her, not wancing to appear too forward. "Is it always this quiet in here?" I asked. "I don't know.

I've never been here before." "It's a bit tacky, isn't it? For the area, I mean." "lt's only just opened.

lt'll probably take a while to get off the ground." She was lovely.

She had short blonde hair and a grey fitted jacket, a woollen skirt that came just above the knee and black silk stockings - nothing provocacive, you understand, just tasteful.

[...] Her voice was high and musical and her pronunciation - like everything else about her - showed that she was from some high-powered background.

Her hands were small and white, and she didn't paint her fingernails. 1. Baby grand: a smaller-sized grand piano. "I like the way you play the piano", she said, "Are you going to play here every week?" "I don't know.

It depends." (I never did play there again, as it turned out.) [...] "You live near here?" 35 "Yes, not far.

South Kensington.

What about you?" "Oh, it's like another world to me, an area like this.

I live in South East London.

On a council estate." 2 • After a pause, she said: "Do you mind if I ask you for something? A request, I mean.

A piece of music." 40 45 50 I feit a sudden tight grip of anxiety.

You see, the reason I never made it as a cocktail bar pianist was that my repertoire was never wide enough, and I was hopeiess at playing by ear.

Customers are always asking pianists to play things and the only way I could have covered myseif against situations like this was by learning every standard in the book.

Thar would have taken months.

It usually took me a few hours to get a piece into shape, sometimes more.

Take My Funny Valentine, for instance.

[...

] It had just taken me two days to get it sounding exactly how I wanted, I'd been listening to some of the most famous records, seeing how the masters had handled it and working out what I thought were some pretty neat substitutions of my own.

I could play it well, now, I thought, but that had been the result of two days' hard work, and anything she was to ask for, even if I knew roughly how the tune went, was bound to corne out sounding amateurish and embarrassing. "Weil...

try me", I still said, for some reason. "Do you know My Funny Valentine?" I frowned.

"Weil...

the ritle's familiar.

I'm not very quick at picking things up, though.

Can you remind me how it goes?" 55 Wouldn't anybody have done the same thing? I think that was the best version I've ever played.

I've never topped it since: it was a real heartbreaker. Jonathan Coe, The Dwarves of Death, Penguin, 1990. Compréhension Answer using complete sentences. 1.

When and where does the scene take place exactly? 2.

What is the atmosphere like there? Why? 3.

Who are the characters? From whose point of view is the story told? Justify with one quotation. 4.

Say ifit is right or wrong.

Justify by quoting from the text. a) From the start he knew that they were made for each other.

(one quote) 2.

Council estate: municipal (inexpensive) housing. b) He was really looking forward to his fust performance in the bar.

(one quote) c) The club was a popular place.

(one quote) d) She was a sophisticated young lady.

(two quotes) e) They carne from similar areas.

(one quote) f) He could play anything he was asked to.

(one quote) S.

"I'd thought this might turn out to be my fust break." (1.

4) What does this suggest about his professional life? Answer in your own words and find two other examples which confum this. (quote the text, 30 words in ail) 6.

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