Must Learn " Dinner Playing."

Otago Witness, Issue 2242, 18 February 1897, Page 53

Must Learn " Dinner Playing."

"A strikiug fact about thft poor foreigners, n ssiid a piano dealer in the Bast End, "is that most of them look upon it as quito the natural thiug that they will paw from piverty to affluence, aud they are therefore anxious to give that musical educatioa-to thi-ir daughters which they regard as indispensable, to them when they shall occupy a mo:e exalted station, as it exemplified by a house iv Maida Vale. "Ai noon as thay cun scrape together sufficient to pay the monthly instalment they hie them to a dealer and fff ct a purcaase on the easiest terms. Many a time have I delivered a piano nhioh was put into a room where, from the variegated nature of the furniture alread i there, it was easy to see that it served t^.a functions of bedroom, sitting room, and workshop, with a touch of a kitchen. "A teacher is immediately engaged whoee terms are strictly moderate, and whose tastes are not fastidious, and the parents expect their daughters- to ahow that they are getting value for their money. The various parents compare notes and tall one another how far in So-and-So's exercises their children have gouo in * given time, and how l«ng it took them to master Chopin's Sonatas or Mendelssohn's 'Lieder ohne Worto.' They measuie tho quantity of mnnic like they weigh their meat, and iliß teacher is supposed to bn cheating if the pupils fall below the recognised standard, though it must be confessed that the children are wonderfully quick in learning, aud are able to execute difficult movements in a very short space of time."