Smashed and broken harmonies slide downstairs

"After dinner, whole trays of smashed and broken harmonies slide downstairs. They rolled down and splintered in unexpected bursts, more abrupt and striking than any waiter's awkwardness. In between these turbulent falls, spread miles of carpeted silence. That was Arild upstairs, behind pairs of padded and tightly shut doors, playing Schuman and Chopin on the grand piano. At such moments, more involuntarily than usual, one had a desire to stare out of the window"

Boris Pasternak, The Last Summer