What happens in the video
“Bidding starts now!” A woman stands behind a wooden table with a worn case on it. A crowd waits in the bright hall. Before the auction proceeds, a man steps out and asks, “Let me whistle four notes.”
“You need a claim ticket,” she tells him.
The woman eventually opens the case. Inside is a mechanism with a brass-colored cylinder. The man looks down at it and says, “My grandfather built the second half.” An open record book is on the table in the final shot. “Tell me his name for the record,” the woman says. The footage ends before she records a name or decides what happens to the case.
Continuation:
“Edwin Vale,” the man said. “And before you play it, would you write something else down?”
On a spare piece of paper he drew four notes. He folded it once and handed it to the woman.
“If I whistle first, everyone will hear what they expect to hear. Play it first.”
She asked the room to hold the bidding. Then she worked the mechanism. A little tune rang out, thin enough that the people at the back had to lean forward. The opening phrase repeated. Just when everyone expected to hear it a third time, the music climbed four notes and stopped.
The woman unfolded the paper. A music teacher near the front read the notes and whistled them back. They were the four they’d just heard.
The man introduced himself as Peter. His grandfather had repaired the mechanism for a dancing teacher. The original tune had ended too abruptly for her youngest pupils, who kept bumping into one another during their bows. Edwin added four notes so they’d have time to finish.
“Left foot, right foot, down, up,” Peter said. “He taught it to me in our kitchen. I thought everybody bowed like that.”
A woman at the back repeated the little sequence under her breath. Then she stepped into the aisle and did it. Her knees were less cooperative than they’d once been, but she finished on the last note.
“Miss Bell’s Saturday class,” she said. “I was always the one crashing into the piano.”
Peter had come hoping to keep his grandfather’s name with the instrument. The former pupil knew the name of the hall where it had been used. Between them they gave the auctioneer enough information to put the lot aside while she checked its history.
A month later, the case went on display at the old dance hall. Beside it were Edwin’s name, the teacher’s photograph, and a card explaining why the music had needed four extra notes.
At the opening, Peter watched a girl attempt the bow. She went down too soon and glanced around to see whether anybody had noticed.
The former pupil took her hand. “Listen for the change. It gives you plenty of time.”
They tried again. Left foot, right foot, down, up. This time the girl rose exactly as the music stopped. She gave a second, entirely unnecessary bow to acknowledge the applause.
