A Study in Scarlet
Wilhelmine Norman-Neruda (1839–1911), later known as Lady Hallé, was a virtuoso solo violinist who, like Holmes, played on a Stradivarius. She was an international star at a time when the instrument was still seen as ‘unlady-like’.
As many have noted before, Chopin never wrote any pieces for solo violin, nor was he part of Norman-Neruda’s usual repertoire. If she did perform a Chopin piece, it would most likely have been as an encore or during a private concert, and would have to have been arranged before the events of A Study in Scarlet.
Theories range from assigning specific Chopin (and controversially non-Chopin) pieces to the vague “Tra-la-la-lira-lira-lay”, to suggesting that Holmes never actually said “Tra-la-la-lira-lira-lay”. In Vera Mazzotta’s extensively researched article for The Watsonian (Vol. 5 No. 2), she selects Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 34 No. 1. In the 1989 BBC Radio adaptation, the problem is solved by removing any reference to the composer and using a piece from the more recent Carmen.
I’ve always been content to think that Watson would remember the composer but not necessarily the tune, and the “little thing” could be, well, anything Chopinesque, yet there still remains a probability that Holmes himself, who has been guilty of misquoting once or twice, could as easily get it wrong.
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