The Lawyer and the Lute

A Short Tale of Moldings & Music

[This is part of my How to Install Moldings series.]

The point finally came in this project when I could put away all the noise-makers — the saws and sanders and dust collectors — and turn on some music.

I never play harsh music when I’m at someone else’s house, so NIN, Fatboy Slim and Pearl Jam were out, while Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi were in.

Besides, it’s really just classical music that I want to listen to while I spend the many days needed to prepare complex rooms like these for paint. And it was during this phase of the project that I learned about my friend’s deep knowledge and love of classical music.

My friend, an international patent attorney by day, but classical aficionado at night, would pop his head in now and then and say something like, “Mozart, Concerto Number 3, Third Movement,” and then pop back out again, only to return later with, “Purcell, Chacony in G Minor.”

Each time my response was the same. I’d stop what I was doing and go check the CD case because I usually had no idea if he was right. He always was.

Moldings, music and wonderful patrons of the craft made for a very pleasant working environment.

This went on for the remainder of the project.

A year and a half later I was back inside his home installing and painting moldings in more rooms, including building a front door surround, the basic design for which I’d been toying with in my mind all during the previous project.

Even then I knew what woodworking ornament I wanted in the center of the architrave — this lute and violin design.

I have a pretty good inventory in my head of hundreds of ornate architectural details that I’d like to someday incorporate into a design, and this music motif applique I was saving for a true music lover.

It could not have ended up in a more appreciative home.