Fugitive

By Simon Tedeschi

In 1917, a young composer writes a suite of twenty pieces for piano. Each pass by like a gust of wind. They are short, violent and strange – the music of another world. In 1938, a young Jewish family flees Italy for Sydney, Australia. In 1942, another family, this time Polish, is nearly destroyed. 
Half a century later, a young man begins to understand the role the young composer's strange visions have played in everything that came before him and all that has come to be.
In his first book, Simon Tedeschi applies elements – from history, memory and the body of the musician – to make a remarkable work of imagination and fractal beauty. He straddles the borders of poetry and prose, fiction and fact, trauma and testimony. Fugitive is filled with what Russian poet Konstantin Balmont called ‘the fickle play of rainbows’.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Inc. Books
• Release date: May 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781743822364

Simon Tedeschi

Known primarily as a concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi has written for publications across Australia. When he is not writing or practising, he reads books and drinks coffee. He and his wife, the painter Loribelle Spirovski, live in Sydney, Australia with their cat. Fugitive is his first book.

Book preview

Endorsements for Fugitive

‘The stanzas of Fugitive are rooms in a house through which memory, music and contemplation move. Like exquisite slivers of light under a door, or from a night window, they are acute, angular and darting, flaring against the dark shapes of history and memory. Haunting the structures of a piano suite, Fugitive is a mobile and musical work whose ideas circulate, restively reshaping and recasting each theme. Arch, tender and playful, this is a startling, evocative and moving debut.’

FELICITY PLUNKETT

‘A sparkling, minimalist meditation on what it means to make meaning. Imagine the ghosts of Kafka and Prokofiev and a queue of similar enigmas playing a tag-team fugue in a vivid, wry dream.’

ROSS GIBSON

‘What a profound gift for all of us that Simon Tedeschi is more than usually attuned to the tones of life, both harmonic and unstable. Artfully and honestly, he weaves together these shimmering fragments of sound, feeling, philosophy and embodied experience into a work of art so exquisite it will leave you in silent, breathless appreciation.’

CERIDWEN DOVEY

Simon Tedeschi

Known primarily as a concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi has written for publications across Australia. When neither writing nor practising, he reads books and drinks coffee. He and his wife, the painter Loribelle Spirovski, live in Sydney, Australia with their cat. Fugitive is his first book. www.simontedeschi.com

First published in Australia in 2022

by Upswell Publishing

Perth, Western Australia

upswellpublishing.com

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Copyright © 2022 by Simon Tedeschi

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

9780645247961 (paperback)

9781743822364 (ebook)

Cover design by Chil3, Fremantle

Cover artwork: Loribelle Spirovski

Where do you come from?

I have wandered.

Edmond Jabès, The Book of Questions.

Lentamente — Andante — Allegretto — Animato — Molto giocoso — Con eleganza — (Arpa) Pittoresco — Comodo — Allegretto tranquillo — Ridiculosamente — Con vivacitá — Assai moderato — Allegretto — Feroce — Inquieto — Dolente — Poetico — Con una dolce lentezza — Presto agitassimo e molto accentuato — Lento Irrealmente

A few weeks ago, I felt a whip inside my head. It flicked through my temples, my ears and my skull. Then came a dull ache and distant bells.

I consulted my dentist, a Brazilian with a lasso laugh. She told me that people with my skull shape are prone to a condition in which the ligament connecting the jaw to the skull doesn’t always flick back as it should. So whenever I open my mouth, whether yawning or otherwise (and of late, it’s a compulsion), the ligament snaps back into place over the bone. It’s usually not serious, said the dentist, but in extreme cases can cause headaches, tinnitus and even balance issues. People with a severe case of this condition, known as Temporomandibular joint dysfunction, or TMJ, can require a steel plate to be implanted into their jaw.

The jaw, she continued, is connected to the neck, the back, the shoulders and the spine. The pain can traverse, as if by stealth, to other parts of the body such as the knees and feet. It doesn’t happen often, especially at your age, but this could, in theory, stuff up your gait. (As she spoke, I thought of Jaws in Moonraker waving goodbye to Bond before being blasted into orbit. I always felt so sorry for poor old Jaws. A hulking killer, but with eyes of a child.

But Wikipedia tells me I’m wrong—Jaws survives and even falls in love.)

But yours is a mild case, she said.

She gave me two options—facial massage (I hate to have my face touched) and Botox. I chose Botox. She inserted a needle into my cheek and, with her left hand, pinched