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Story Notes
When we were young, we were sometimes obliged to do things which we neither liked nor understood. One of these things was taking piano lessons.
Since its invention in the 18th century, the piano had established itself as a barometer, measuring the gentility of middle class family life and the accomplishment of middle class females: any family sufficiently affluent to have a piano as the centre piece of its drawing room would surely have a daughter sufficiently accomplished to play upon it.
A presupposition which lingered on at least until the 1920s, when the piano industry began to crumble.
First, the Depression, then the invention of radio and the outbreak of World War II in which radio would play an active part. Different life styles for young women and new social patterns emerged after the war. Piano was dislodged from its pedestal.
Yet, on both sides of the world and in both hemispheres, and despite the fact that the "salon" has long since ceased to be, and that girls are no longer sold in marriage, piano lessons continue to be taught.
And mostly to girls. Girls who want to learn to play the piano. Girls who do not want to learn to play the piano. Some of these girls are heard in this piece.
It is the voice of the Maiden reaching back through time, traversing space, telling of the Music of her childhood.
First broadcast in October 2007
Presented and produced by Kaye Mortley
An radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries
Story Credits