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Coveted Possession: The Rise and Fall of the Piano in Australia A

Author: Michael Atherton
Illustrator:
Retail Price: $34.99
Betabooks Price $27.99
ISBN: 9781863959919
Format: Paperback
Published: July 2018
Published By: Black Inc
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Before electricity brought us the gramophone, the radio and eventually TV, the piano was central to family and community life in colonial Australia. It brought Australians of different ages and backgrounds together, offering solace on remote stations, comfort at the fronts of war, and joyous entertainment at weddings and parties, on ships and trains, in hospitals and prisons. An upright piano in the nineteenth century home, with its iron frame, candelabra, carvings, polished surfaces and ivory keys, was a machine, an instrument and a key member of the household that conveyed potent social meanings- prestige, education, class, leisure, national identity and intergenerational relationships.

From the arrival of a square piano at Sydney Cove in 1788 to the resurrection of derelict heirloom pianos in the streets of twenty-first century Melbourne, A Coveted Possession tells the curious story of Australia's intimate relationship with the piano. It's an insightful, beautifully illustrated multi-stranded cultural history that reveals the material, social and political worlds in which the ivories were tinkled, the shifting aspirations embodied by this instrument and the way it came to fulfil powerful educational, social and spiritual purposes.Before electricity brought us the gramophone, the radio and eventually TV, the piano was central to family and community life in colonial Australia. It brought Australians of different ages and backgrounds together, offering solace on remote stations, comfort at the fronts of war, and joyous entertainment at weddings and parties, on ships and trains, in hospitals and prisons. An upright piano in the nineteenth century home, with its iron frame, candelabra, carvings, polished surfaces and ivory keys, was a machine, an instrument and a key member of the household that conveyed potent social meanings- prestige, education, class, leisure, national identity and intergenerational relationships.

From the arrival of a square piano at Sydney Cove in 1788 to the resurrection of derelict heirloom pianos in the streets of twenty-first century Melbourne, A Coveted Possession tells the curious story of Australia's intimate relationship with the piano. It's an insightful, beautifully illustrated multi-stranded cultural history that reveals the material, social and political worlds in which the ivories were tinkled, the shifting aspirations embodied by this instrument and the way it came to fulfil powerful educational, social and spiritual purposes.
Emeritus Professor Michael Atherton is a composer and performer across several instruments, and several genres and styles of music. His research has focused on Asia-Pacific musical instruments, Australian instrument makers and intercultural music practices. His performances and recordings include creative realisations of ancient Egyptian, medieval and renaissance music, as well as choral music and film scores.
ISBN: 9781863959919
Number of Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Reading Level:
Published Date: 02-Jul-2018
Dimensions (mm): 0x0mm
Publisher: Black Inc

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