PIANO AT PITCAIRN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 7

PIANO AT PITCAIRN.

ISLANDERS DELIGHTED.

MUSICAL RECITAL LASTS A LT, DAY,

ALCKLAND, October 6. A pianoforte recital which lasted from daybreak until 10 o’clock at night was an outstanding event at Pitcairn Island recently. The occasion was the arrival-of a piano, the only instrument of its kind on the island.

Purchased in Auckland by Miss H. Ross a Seventh Day Adventist Missionary the piano was shipped to the island on the steamer Remuera. which anchored off Pitcairn after dark. It was midnight before all the cargo was landed on the beach, and it was left in the boat sheds until next morning. At daybreak the piano was unpacked and carried to Miss Ross's house. Then the inhabitants arrived and something in the nature of a music festival commenced.

“ None of us had time to have breakfast that morning,” Miss Ross says in a letter. “At first we had to play for the islanders, and then they had to take turns at the piano themselves. Some of them can read music and they played simple hymn tunes. Others with an apt ear for music played lively airs that they had learned from gramophone records. As the time passed, those waiting their turn became so anxious that three of them sat down at the piano at once, and a fourth at the organ. It was the first time I had ever heard a pianoforte trio on one instrument, and although the players made up their parts as they played, there was not one discordant note. The islanders have a wonderful ear for music. “In the evening the islanders brought stringed instruments, and we had quite a good orchestral concert, a day of continuous music lasting from daybreak until 10 o’clock. Next day my pupils began to arrive, and the first one would not leave the piano until he had mastered the intricacies of the ‘ Fairyland Waltz.’ Every evening since my arrival the concerts have continued. The islanders say that the piano is the best thing that has ever come to Pitcairn.”