As a schoolboy I had studied German in 1966 in the Vienna Summer University and piano during a second summer in 1971. Then I chanced on a slim volume called Myten om Asdival (Engl. Myth and Meaning) by Claude Lévi-Strauss. He became my greatest idol.

I left for Paris in 1972 with my Master’s dissertation On the Possibility of Applying Structuralism to Musicology, tucked under my arm. I went to the Collège de France with the intention of meeting Lévi-Strauss. And he agreed to see me within the week. I was able to convey greetings from the Finnish anthropologist, Lévi-Strauss’ friend, Elli-Kaija Köngäs-Maranda. I’ll never forget our meeting.

I determined to study in Paris, playing piano in the mornings and went for lessons at the École Normale de Musique and then with the legendary Jacques Février at his home in Blvd Malesherbes. In the afternoons I would meet French structuralists, including Roland Barthes, A.J. Greimas and Tzvetan Todorov. I also attended Michel Foucault’s teaching. I felt that Paris was my city, a place where I could fulfil myself. In the intervening forty years, my wife, Eila Tarasti, pianist and musicologist, has been with me on every trip.