R.I.P. Piano

The Piano has had some distressing press of late...

In June the Los Angeles Times reported that the piano has lost its status in US homes replaced by the guitar (this news was also reported with great sadness at the recent Music Teacher's of California conference in Santa Clara) - read the entire article below:

The piano's status in U.S. living rooms is declining - Los Angeles Times

The July 2009 BBC Music Magazine published a story "Hammer Horrors! It shouldn't happen to a piano...Fifteen tear-inducing examples of utterly beastly keyboard maltreatment" with some of my favorite examples such as:

14: the MIT students dropping a piano off Baker House to prove the gravity works (great video of the first piano drop on You Tube)
10: being eaten by your piano (in the Japanese horror film "Hausu" Melody is munched by her grand piano fingers first) --- I don't really blame the piano - what piano wouldn't want to eat a "melody"?
9 and 13: La Monte Young (I've the pleasure of working with La Monte) says to feed and water the piano in performance or try to push it through a wall.

and many, many more very funny or horrifying examples. To see the examples from the magazine go to:

www.bbcmusicmagazine.com

So, I guess it is rather serendipitous that I'd see the piano here on a recent trip to Texas...








Photos from a Tyler, Texas cemetery.