Piano in the parlour : when the piano was New Zealand's home entertainment centre / John MacGibbon.
"Huge numbers of pianos were in front parlours through Victorian and Edwardian times and into the 1920s. Central to home and community entertainment, they also stoked the flames of love for courting couples. Piano in the Parlour is a musical and social history that looks affectionately at a per...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wellington, N.Z. :
Ngaio Press,
[2007]
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "Huge numbers of pianos were in front parlours through Victorian and Edwardian times and into the 1920s. Central to home and community entertainment, they also stoked the flames of love for courting couples. Piano in the Parlour is a musical and social history that looks affectionately at a period when pianos were the most cherished domestic possessions in New Zealand and many other countries. Brought to life by contemporary real-life stories and graphics, Piano in the Parlour recreates a century of home musical culture between the 1820s and 1920s. Who played and sang? What did they play; where and how did they perform? Who looked after them: the music publishers at home and abroad, entrepreneurs and companies including Charles Begg & Co, the Dresden Piano Co and Auckland's Eady stores that serviced and sold pianos, and the old-time piano teachers. Pioneers would go to extreme lengths and spend a fortune to put a piano in their homes, as shown in the Academy Award winning film, The Piano. That was fiction, but similar real-life stories are in this book. Piano in the Parlour also looks at how and why piano culture declined in the 20th century. Words and music (with chord symbols) are included for 17 songs commonly played and sung in the piano's heyday: Rule Britannia!, Auld Lang Syne, Home! Sweet Home, Annie Laurie, Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep, Come Home Father, Beautiful Dreamer, I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen, When You and I Were Young Maggie, On the Ball, Love's Old Sweet Song, The Holy City, Waiting at the Church, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Love's Garden of Roses, Hine e Hine. Though Piano in the Parlour is set mainly in New Zealand, the piano culture was similar elsewhere in the English-speaking world."--Publisher. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 127 pages : illustrations (some colour), music ; 22 x 31 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0958224390 9780958224390 |