# Once upon a time, people played the piano



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Once upon a time, people played the piano. Not in order to pursue a career in the concert world. Not to make money. Not even to impress anyone else. It was simply a satisfying form of entertainment and, until the advent of recordings, it was the only way for most people to enjoy the sound of music in their own homes, either alone, or in the company of others. Most piano music was written, ultimately, for just this reason. At first, its market was the nobility or at least the idle rich. But the rise of the middle class in the 19th century increased and diversified it, and the Industrial Revolution made it possible for everyone to own a piano. "Amateur" was not then such a pejorative term. Playing the piano was a pleasant, even serious avocation for many amateurs, though they probably never believed that their talents belonged anywhere other than in the parlour, delighting family and friends. Many of the short pieces heard in this collection were in the repertoire of most talented amateurs - Dvorak's Humoresque, Beethoven's "Fur Elise," Rubinstein's Melody in F, or Schumann's "Traumerei." Others would have tested the technique of even the best amateurs - the Chopin etudes, for instance, or Ravel's "Jeux d'eau." But there really was a time when average folks relished the chance to sit down at the family Mason & Hamlin and spend the evening playing through even the most difficult of this music. For the sheer pleasure of just doing it. - DAVID FOIL, from the liner notes of Piano Favorites (Seraphim).



Ah, the days before television. Comments?


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## Gouldanian (Nov 19, 2015)

millionrainbows said:


> Once upon a time, people played the piano. Not in order to pursue a career in the concert world. Not to make money. Not even to impress anyone else. It was simply a satisfying form of entertainment and, until the advent of recordings, it was the only way for most people to enjoy the sound of music in their own homes, either alone, or in the company of others. Most piano music was written, ultimately, for just this reason. At first, its market was the nobility or at least the idle rich. But the rise of the middle class in the 19th century increased and diversified it, and the Industrial Revolution made it possible for everyone to own a piano. "Amateur" was not then such a pejorative term. Playing the piano was a pleasant, even serious avocation for many amateurs, though they probably never believed that their talents belonged anywhere other than in the parlour, delighting family and friends. Many of the short pieces heard in this collection were in the repertoire of most talented amateurs - Dvorak's Humoresque, Beethoven's "Fur Elise," Rubinstein's Melody in F, or Schumann's "Traumerei." Others would have tested the technique of even the best amateurs - the Chopin etudes, for instance, or Ravel's "Jeux d'eau." But there really was a time when average folks relished the chance to sit down at the family Mason & Hamlin and spend the evening playing through even the most difficult of this music. For the sheer pleasure of just doing it. - DAVID FOIL, from the liner notes of Piano Favorites (Seraphim).
> 
> 
> 
> Ah, the days before television. Comments?


Lovely read. Thank you.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

This sounds like a requiem for a time that will never come again.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

From time to time this is still the way I like to spend an evening. 
Thanks for sharing that lovely little nugget Millionrainbows


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Considering that a new piano today costs two monthly salaries I wonder if average people had a piano when a salary was maybe 1/10 of what it is today and most families lived in houses or apartments with only one room and a kitchen or just a kitchen.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

In the good old days, composers were very aware of the difficulty of their keyboard music and its effects on audiences, which is to say, buyers of sheet music. Most classical composers wrote at least some relatively easy music. But Beethoven earned a reputation for quite difficult piano works. He wrote his publisher about his Op. 101 sonata: "Yes, it's quite good. After all, it makes you sweat, and that which makes you sweat is good!"

Still, publishers competed for his music. Amateur pianists were brave in those days!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Sloe said:


> Considering that a new piano today costs two monthly salaries I wonder if average people had a piano when a salary was maybe 1/10 of what it is today and most families lived in houses or apartments with only one room and a kitchen or just a kitchen.


A surprising number of people did have a piano in those days. Before TV the family entertainment was often singing round the piano. Knowing my singing my family is probably thankful those days are gone!


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

DavidA said:


> A surprising number of people did have a piano in those days. Before TV the family entertainment was often singing round the piano. Knowing my singing my family is probably thankful those days are gone!


A surprising number of people had a maid too.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

We have the problem today John Culshaw once outlined in one of his books, namely that why should we spend hours (even years) working on a piece when we can put on a CD player and hear a collection of great pianists perform it a million times better than we ever could. In the days before gramophone / radio there was only one way to hear the music. Now music abounds!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

When I was a kid (many years ago), my family was probably below what might have been called "middle class." But we had an upright piano -- a pretty terrible one, with a name nobody had heard of, but a piano nonetheless. We all banged away on it, but certainly couldn't afford to ever have it tuned.

Reasonably cheap pianos were available then, but maybe less so now aside from the used market. And many used pianos are going directly to the landfill because nobody wants them any more.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

KenOC said:


> And many used pianos are going directly to the landfill because nobody wants them any more.


In other words today is the time to learn to play piano when it is possible to get one for free.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

KenOC said:


> When I was a kid (many years ago), my family was probably below what might have been called "middle class." But we had an upright piano -- a pretty terrible one, with a name nobody had heard of, but a piano nonetheless. We all banged away on it, but certainly couldn't afford to ever have it tuned.
> 
> Reasonably cheap pianos were available then, but maybe less so now aside from the used market. And many used pianos are going directly to the landfill because nobody wants them any more.


When you hear some of those pianos you can see why no-one wants them!


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

DavidA said:


> We have the problem today John Culshaw once outlined in one of his books, namely that why should we spend hours (even years) working on a piece when we can put on a CD player and hear a collection of great pianists perform it a million times better than we ever could. *In the days before gramophone / radio there was only one way to hear the music. Now music abounds!*


Makes me wonder if we have become somewhat desensitized to music nowadays, if we value it less than the people in the past who could only hear it in concert or in own performance, did.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Makes me wonder if we have become somewhat desensitized to music nowadays, if we value it less than the people in the past who could only hear it in concert or in own performance, did.


Quite the contrary--look at how the music junkies in Current Listening have thrown their lives away for their addiction.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

DavidA said:


> When you hear some of those pianos you can see why no-one wants them!


I'm told that it's difficult to tune them? (Obviously if the tone is horrible there's no point in having them tuned, but I guess it's fairly easy to tell by ear if that's the case.)

I'm thinking of getting an old cheap upright piano for the kids to play around on after we move into our new house. I don't know if they are as plentiful as they used to be in the 80s and 90s, when our local auction rooms always seemed to have two or three in each sale. My best friend's dad bought one and it still sounds fine (or like it_ would_ sound fine if they had it tuned) but an acquaintance who used to buy and refurbish pianolas told me that most of these pianos that came to the auction from house clearances were bought for scrap and not to play- I don't know whether that's because they weren't considered playable, or because it was more lucrative to turn them into coffee tables or whatever. I guess I need to do some research before buying something that could be beyond economical repair.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Digital pianos aren't expensive. A decent one costs less than what many spend on a TV or several months worth of cable.

I mentioned this once on these forums and received push back on they weren't "real" pianos, blah blah blah. Well, a digital piano is better than none, and it's not like you're going to play it at Carnegie Hall.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

GreenMamba said:


> Digital pianos aren't expensive. A decent one costs less than what many spend on a TV or several months worth of cable.
> 
> I mentioned this once on these forums and received push back on they weren't "real" pianos, blah blah blah. Well, a digital piano is better than none, and it's not like you're going to play it at Carnegie Hall.


A great advantage of them for people who share my level of talent is that you can plug headphones into them and keep the performance to yourself.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> I'm told that it's difficult to tune them? (Obviously if the tone is horrible there's no point in having them tuned, but I guess it's fairly easy to tell by ear if that's the case.)
> 
> I'm thinking of getting an old cheap upright piano for the kids to play around on after we move into our new house. I don't know if they are as plentiful as they used to be in the 80s and 90s, when our local auction rooms always seemed to have two or three in each sale. My best friend's dad bought one and it still sounds fine (or like it_ would_ sound fine if they had it tuned) but an acquaintance who used to buy and refurbish pianolas told me that most of these pianos that came to the auction from house clearances were bought for scrap and not to play- I don't know whether that's because they weren't considered playable, or because it was more lucrative to turn them into coffee tables or whatever. I guess I need to do some research before buying something that could be beyond economical repair.


There are second-hand shops that refuse to take pianos.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

There are public piano's at various train stations over here. That's pretty nice... most people walk by but good players sometimes attract a small audience. 
Too bad half of the time I walk by somebody is playing that Amélie tune. I am still waiting for someone to play classical music on that piece of junk... guess I'll take a shot at it myself eventually, even though it sounds like crap.


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## thorne (Aug 8, 2014)

Music for the piano once had more prestige than now, so more people wanted a piano, and, it's true, if you wanted music in the home you had to make it yourself. On the other hand, in the past, as now, pianos were expensive and people owned one only if either they could easily afford one, or if owning one was very important to them. The same is true now. Now, as then, those who can't or won't, but who want to make music, buy guitars -- music for which enjoys the lion's share of the prestige now.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

SiegendesLicht said:


> This sounds like a requiem for a time that will never come again.


Well, a nuclear war would certainly set us back a few thousand years, if not outright kill us all.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

DeepR said:


> There are public piano's at various train stations over here. That's pretty nice... most people walk by but good players sometimes attract a small audience.
> Too bad half of the time I walk by somebody is playing that Amélie tune. I am still waiting for someone to play classical music on that piece of junk... guess I'll take a shot at it myself eventually, even though it sounds like crap.


There was a public piano at the arrivals lounge of Luton Airport when I met Wood for the first time. If he'd arrived a little earlier and heard the racket the kids were making, he'd have probably got straight back on the plane to Scotland! 

Re digital pianos: they may well be a practical choice, but it's sad that they won't last a lifetime or several, like a well made traditional instrument would. Today's consumer electronics will all be landfill in a handful of years.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I have a petite grand piano in my house plus two keyboards. My wife and I rarely touch the keyboards. We've been spoiled by the sound of hammered strings resonating in the way which nature intended. 

Of course, my wife and I both have church backgrounds and are active there, and many people who attend my church have pianos in their houses. I wonder if the number of households with pianos skews upward according to their religious affiliations.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

When I was a teen, a friend was a pianist (his favourite composer was Scriabin—perhaps I ought to have mentioned Scriabin on that other thread of first pieces we got into?). In those days, department stores used to sell pianos. We used to regularly take the escalator to the fourth floor of one of the stores downtown and gather around a piano; the friend would seat himself with grand aplomb. We took great pleasure in watching the effect on the scowling and 'about ready to throw us out' salespeople, when the friend would commence playing a Scriabin Sonata or one of his own compositions.

He had a knack of knowing where all of the available pianos in the city were located. One of his favourite spots was a church not far from where a group of us lived. He must have gotten to know the janitor, for we would regularly all get herded into the church in the middle of the night and the janitor would allow the friend to perform for us.

I wish I had had a better understanding of classical music back then! I had no idea how priviledged I was.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Morimur said:


> Well, a nuclear war would certainly set us back a few thousand years, if not outright kill us all.


Merry Christmas, Morimur.


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## hagridindminor (Nov 5, 2015)

wait pianos are going directly to landfill? I want one!

btw I have a keyboard with wieghted keys but I hate playing on it


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Figleaf said:


> I'm told that it's difficult to tune them? (Obviously if the tone is horrible there's no point in having them tuned, but I guess it's fairly easy to tell by ear if that's the case.)
> 
> I'm thinking of getting an old cheap upright piano for the kids to play around on after we move into our new house. I don't know if they are as plentiful as they used to be in the 80s and 90s, when our local auction rooms always seemed to have two or three in each sale. My best friend's dad bought one and it still sounds fine (or like it_ would_ sound fine if they had it tuned) but an acquaintance who used to buy and refurbish pianolas told me that most of these pianos that came to the auction from house clearances were bought for scrap and not to play- I don't know whether that's because they weren't considered playable, or because it was more lucrative to turn them into coffee tables or whatever. I guess I need to do some research before buying something that could be beyond economical repair.


If you are serious about your children learning the piano I would get a decent one. They are not that expensive. Nothng is more dispiriting for a kid trying to learn than a poor piano. Like trying to learn carpentry with a blunt saw. My son recently got a lovely little piano for his house for not very much. Interestingly he could have got a grand piano even cheaper but of course he just haven't got the room to put it.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

With the piano or keyboard thing, they are quite different to play. I would not start a kid on the keyboard but the piano. The old thing that if you can play a piano you can play the keyboard but the other way round is more difficult.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Interesting to look at the pianos for sale at eBay. But I'd poke around locally. Craig's list? I just looked there and there are some attractive local offers.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

DavidA said:


> If you are serious about your children learning the piano I would get a decent one. They are not that expensive.


Let me stop you right there. They b****y are and you have to have room to put them somewhere and think about the money you might spend if and when you move house which is more and more common in our renting times. So, unfortunately, no piano for my kid who deserves one but I'm just not in the position to provide. Electronic keyboards, despite their awful self play and rhythm functions which I hate, are democratising


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

dgee said:


> Let me stop you right there. They b****y are and you have to have room to put them somewhere and think about the money you might spend if and when you move house which is more and more common in our renting times. So, unfortunately, no piano for my kid who deserves one but I'm just not in the position to provide. Electronic keyboards, despite their awful self play and rhythm functions which I hate, are democratising


Sorry but you are completely wrong in saying second hand pianos are expensive. It depends where you go. I saw a pretty decent one in a second hand shop the other day for £150. Just needed tuning. Of course f you haven't room a keyboard is better than nothing. But please don't go on about 'democratisation' as if it's only the rich who have pianos. We had one when we hadn't any money.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

DavidA said:


> Sorry but you are completely wrong in saying second hand pianos are expensive. It depends where you go. I saw a pretty decent one in a second hand shop the other day for £150. Just needed tuning. Of course f you haven't room a keyboard is better than nothing. But please don't go on about 'democratisation' as if it's only the rich who have pianos. We had one when we hadn't any money.


I'm glad 150 pounds isn't expensive is for some people. I assume you checked the 150 quid piano and it responded to playing well? Did you try moving one recently? Things might have changed since you had a piano - young people could probably afford real estate back then too :ducks:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

dgee said:


> I'm glad 150 pounds isn't expensive is for some people. I assume you checked the 150 quid piano and it responded to playing well? Did you try moving one recently? Things might have changed since you had a piano - young people could probably afford real estate back then too :ducks:


Yes I know the cost of moving too. I've moved a piano approx seven times during our marriage so I understand the economics of the situation too. Moved ours just a couple of years ago. As I say we had one when first married when we hadn't any money. If you keep a lookout you often come across someone who has a decent piano they want to get rid of and will sell it cheap. of course, if you haven't the room that's another thing.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Gumtree is currently advertising about 20 upright pianos for free in the UK.

I researched this a couple of years ago. It appears that the demand for pianos became high in the early twentieth century. This resulted in mass production of relatively low quality instruments. This was when the lower orders could begin to afford them.

It seems that it is these ones which have no market value today. Even though they are advertised as just requiring tuning, they frequently need much more work, eg the hammers, and it isn't cost effective for them to repaired by a restorer.

So in order to get one to use, it would be good to first research the things likely to be wrong with them, and see if they could be sorted on a DIY basis.

I think it should be possible to tune one's own piano to an acceptable level.

It looks like a worthwhile project Figleaf!


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I have a digital piano. I live in an apartment and I don't want to bother the neighbors all the time.

It's not the same as a real piano at all, but it's a surprisingly OK substitute. The technology is way ahead of where it was 10 years ago.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Does anyone have a microtonal piano? I'd love to hear one of those played live.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Morimur said:


> Does anyone have a microtonal piano? I'd love to hear one of those played live.


All MIDI keyboard and pianos can tune each note of the scale up or down in "cents" to get whatever kind of temperament is desired. There is usually also a tone-bender lever for on-the-fly shifts.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

isorhythm said:


> I have a digital piano. I live in an apartment and I don't want to bother the neighbors all the time.
> 
> It's not the same as a real piano at all, but it's a surprisingly OK substitute. The technology is way ahead of where it was 10 years ago.


I have one too. It cost me $150 at a church sale, it slid comfortably into the back of my pickup truck, and it required only one other person to help me carry it into my apartment, where it takes up less space than a small spinet despite having a full keyboard. Best of all, it's a Technics model which is no longer made and which has excellent tone and action, with an infinite decay of the sound (like a real vibrating string) when the damper pedal is down instead of the abrupt cutoff of sound which I've found in other digital pianos I've played. I find this feature to be musically essential and have no idea how Technics did it and why other makes don't.

I don't know how old this instrument is, but it doesn't show its age. I treasure this little jewel and I hope it lasts as long as I do.


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## Gouldanian (Nov 19, 2015)

I had a digital piano (a Priva), and let me tell you that it came in handy for someone who used to live in an apartment. If you're the nocturnal type and often feel like playing something at 3:00AM you won't feel worried to bother anyone. Either you lower the piano's volume or wear a headset and blast your brain away with your mediocre playing.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

DavidA said:


> If you are serious about your children learning the piano I would get a decent one. They are not that expensive. Nothng is more dispiriting for a kid trying to learn than a poor piano. Like trying to learn carpentry with a blunt saw. My son recently got a lovely little piano for his house for not very much. Interestingly he could have got a grand piano even cheaper but of course he just haven't got the room to put it.


Thanks David, that's very encouraging and useful advice. I feel like I should do something to nurture any musical talents my youngest child may have, her father's promises of money for music tuition having so far failed to materialise. She is six, and her paternal grandmother was a concert pianist and later an accompanist who also taught at Juilliard. I don't know if my daughter has inherited that musical talent or will be ordinary like my family, and of course she doesn't have the advantage of growing up in a musical household, but having access to a nice piano would be a step in the right direction.



dgee said:


> Let me stop you right there. They b****y are and you have to have room to put them somewhere and think about the money you might spend if and when you move house which is more and more common in our renting times. So, unfortunately, no piano for my kid who deserves one but I'm just not in the position to provide. Electronic keyboards, despite their awful self play and rhythm functions which I hate, are democratising


I'm renting in the UK too, for a month or two more. That's one reason why I haven't taken the plunge yet and bought an instrument- everything I know about moving pianos comes from the Bernard Cribbins song "Right Said Fred", and that didn't make me want to try my hand at it!






There does seem to be a wide range of prices in the world of used pianos. A couple of hundred for a basic upright in playable condition doesn't seem to be too outrageous- but of course you need somewhere relatively secure to put it. Luckily there are unfashionable but perfectly nice parts of France (and no doubt other countries) where property prices have yet to be inflated by the grey pound, and you can still buy a big townhouse for renovation for well under the price my local piano store is currently charging for a used Blüthner 6'3 style V grand piano. (I don't know about the French equivalent of Charlie and Fred, but I probably wouldn't entrust them with a piano that cost more than my house! )

http://www.montaguepianos.co.uk/product/bluthner-63-style-v-grand-piano-restoration/


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

What Jethro Tull sang about English workhorses might yet be true about pianos as well...

_"And one day when the oil barons have all dripped dry
and the nights are seen to draw colder
They'll beg for your strength, your gentle power
your noble grace and your bearing
And you'll strain once again to the sound of the gulls
in the wake of the deep plough, sharing."_


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I think there are still a fair number of amateur pianists everywhere who play for their own enjoyment or for friends . This is very nice , but let's not mislead ourselves into thinking everything was so much better in the past .
And there are more amateur musicians who get together with friends to play chamber music than most people realize . There is even an organization for them, although I can't recall its name offhand .
Long ago, there were only a tiny fraction of all the orchestras, opera companies and other classical organizations which exist today , and you had zero chance of attending their performances unless you lived in one of the major cities which had them in Europe and America and could afford tickets .
If you were just Joe Schmo in some rural German or Austrian city , you chances of hearing the latest work by Haydn,Mozart or Beethoven were non-existent .
Now, anyone with a CD or DVD player and a computer can hear countless different works by countless different composers ranging from the centuries before Bach to the latest works by contemporary composers .
People can hear all the world's greatest conductors, orchestras, violinists ,pianists etc and the greatest opera and concert singers on recordings from the infancy of recordings to the newest releases by today's leading classical musicians .
What is all the fuss about ? We lovers of classical music have never had it so good !


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

There are good points about the availability of recorded music, but the difference is that it takes the power away from "live" humans, which used to be the* only *way it could be heard. Not that the past was any "better," but it certainly put more value and power in the human ability to make music and play an instrument.
This is the difference we should ponder, and the point we should take away from this observation in the OP.


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## Agricola (Dec 3, 2015)

I have played piano since I was 4 years old. Some words of advice, learning on a piano is best thing to do, reason being is that the learner will be able to pick up on feeling and sensitivity a lot better than average keyboards, even those with weighted sensitive keys are no where near as good as learning a mechanical instrument. 

When buying a piano, beware, there is a minefiled of pianos fit for firewood or smashing up in competitions. IN Victorian and Edwardian days pianos were cheap as chips, reason being they were made on the cheap with wood being used for the frames instead of Iron, there are some hybrids and cheap alloy and part metal frames. 

Wood drys out, warps, buckles and so on, a wooden frame over 100 years old is going to detune in days if not hours, not to mention the other cheap quality parts in the piano being worn out and even completely missing. 

Better quality pianos are over strung, that is the strings are put in on the diagonals as the longer the string the better the sound. Cheap pianos are often straight up and down and very short, I have seen some ancient victorian pianos with strings no longer than 20 inches. 

Finally check for woodworm!


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

millionrainbows said:


> Once upon a time, people played the piano. Not in order to pursue a career in the concert world. Not to make money. Not even to impress anyone else. It was simply a satisfying form of entertainment and, until the advent of recordings, it was the only way for most people to enjoy the sound of music in their own homes, either alone, or in the company of others. Most piano music was written, ultimately, for just this reason. At first, its market was the nobility or at least the idle rich. But the rise of the middle class in the 19th century increased and diversified it, and the Industrial Revolution made it possible for everyone to own a piano. "Amateur" was not then such a pejorative term. Playing the piano was a pleasant, even serious avocation for many amateurs, though they probably never believed that their talents belonged anywhere other than in the parlour, delighting family and friends. Many of the short pieces heard in this collection were in the repertoire of most talented amateurs - Dvorak's Humoresque, Beethoven's "Fur Elise," Rubinstein's Melody in F, or Schumann's "Traumerei." Others would have tested the technique of even the best amateurs - the Chopin etudes, for instance, or Ravel's "Jeux d'eau." But there really was a time when average folks relished the chance to sit down at the family Mason & Hamlin and spend the evening playing through even the most difficult of this music. For the sheer pleasure of just doing it. - DAVID FOIL, from the liner notes of Piano Favorites (Seraphim).
> 
> 
> 
> Ah, the days before television. Comments?


While that was nostalgic, one could also observe that pretty much no one today is playing an oboe da caccia or viola da gamba either. Time marches on, and our reminiscing like this is hardly any different from people who remembered Luther and Melancthon's Chorales, pieces which the whole congregation joined in, as they were harangued by technically difficult Cantatas in church.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Two piano or piano-four hands versions of symphonies, serenades, or other ensemble pieces were a much more significant source of profit for music publishers than the original works. They were the eighteenth and nineteenth-century version of recordings.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

I remember my much-beloved great-grandmother playing piano in their parlor when I was a young child; she had an enormous upright piano on their farm since at least 1900 out in the middle of nowhere. My great-grandfather played the violin also (or in his case perhaps better described as a fiddle). She was quite good and very fond of marches, ragtime and descriptive pieces. Pianos were expensive but in the days before radio there were limited options for entertainment in the hinterlands.

I still play the piano myself for my own entertainment, and have been for 40+ years. I occasionally pull out my great-grandmother's sheet music from the turn of the last century and play through it. It's a comfort to imagine myself connecting with her (she died in 1967) through that. My sister still has the piano, though I don't think it's been tuned since the early 1960s and needs a lot of repairs.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Wood said:


> I think it should be possible to tune one's own piano to an acceptable level.


Oh, it should be possible. I can tell you from years of experience tuning and repairing pianos, though, that it is a whole world of trouble, and staggeringly difficult when you're at the beginning of the learning curve. If you don't have a couple thousand dollars to spend on a strobe, and are left with tuning forks or other such simple devices, then god have mercy you're going to run into problems.

Should anyone here be interested, I'm willing to share a preponderance of pointers and trade secrets on how to tune pianos, but a pursuit this inherently frustrating isn't for the faint of heart. It takes people months just to find the right touch with a tuning hammer, let alone how to make all of the correct decisions with the instrument (trust me, you can't just tune them all to standard), and train your ear to such a fine level of distinction.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Wood said:


> I think it should be possible to tune one's own piano to an acceptable level.


For what it costs to have a piano tuned it's something I wouldn't even attempt myself.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

DavidA said:


> For what it costs to have a piano tuned it's something I wouldn't even attempt myself.


Amen to this, unless trained for it, keep away from the interior of your piano .


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