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Artesian Falma - a trilingual trumpeter and trombonist - was travelling in a DC 3 aeroplane with his Polish wife, Viola, and their triplets, Edvard, Karlheinz and Richard when he heard a shrill vibratory noise, not unlike a bird's warbling. He was eating the trimmings to the starter of his three course meal and the plane was over Germany. As they flew over Hungary, the noise began to imitate an atonal work by Arnold Schoenberg. As they reached Austria, it bore more than a passing resemblance to Anton Webern's 1935 oratorio, 'Das Augenlicht'.

Artesian became aware that the form taken by the noise was related to the air pressure in the cabin. As it switched to three bars from Grieg's 'Peer Gynt' - he was eating his desert and the plane was over Italy - he realised that it was inaudible to his wife, to his triplets, and to any other passenger. Artesian was clearly a victim of tinnitus. For the rest of the journey he avoided the DC 3's toilet: he felt sure the vacuum created by the flush would be a prelude to Stockhausen's 'Kontakte'.