This social history article treats the role of the piano in the home, from its invention in the early 18th century to the present day. Social history is an area of historical study considered by some to be a social science that attempts to view historical evidence from the point of view of developing social trends. ... A grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ... Home is a place where a person lives, perhaps spends much of the time, or where a person is comfortable to be. ...

Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, pianos were financially beyond the reach of most families, and the pianos of those times were generally the property of the gentry and the aristocracy. Visiting music masters taught their children, more often the girls than the boys, to play the piano. It was widely felt at the time that ability to play the piano made young women more marriageable. Photo of a piano keyboard. ... Photo of a piano keyboard. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Before the Industrial Revolution, the gentry was located between the yeomanry and the nobility. ... -1...

Women who had learned to play as children often continued to play as adults, thus providing music in their households. For instance, Emma Wedgwood (1808-1896), the granddaughter of the wealthy industrialist Josiah Wedgwood took piano lessons from none other than Frédéric Chopin, and apparently achieved a fair level of proficiency. Following her marriage to Charles Darwin, Emma still played the piano daily, while her husband listened appreciatively. Emma Darwin Emma Darwin (née Wedgwood, 2 May 1808–7 October 1896) was the wife of the English naturalist Charles Darwin. ... Josiah Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood (July 12, 1730 – January 3, 1795) was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. ... Frédéric-François Chopin as portrayed by Eugène Delacroix in 1838. ... In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics. ...

A number of female piano students became outright virtuose, and the skills of woman pianists inspired the work of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, who dedicated difficult-to-play works to their woman friends. However, careers as concert musicians were typically open only to men (an important exception was Clara Schumann). (Franz) Joseph Haydn (in German, Josef; he never used the Franz) (March 31, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the classical period. ... W. A. Mozart, 1790, portrait by Johann Georg Edlinger, see also: face only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. ... This article concerns the composer of music. ... Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann (September 13, 1819 – May 20, 1896), wife of composer Robert Schumann, was one of the leading pianists of the Romantic era as well as a composer. ...

Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, the middle class of Europe and North America increased in both numbers and prosperity. This increase produced a corresponding rise in the domestic importance of the piano, as ever more families became able to afford pianos and piano instruction. The piano also become common in public institutions, such as schools, hotels, and public houses. As elements of the Western middle class lifestyle gradually spread to other nations, the piano became common in these nations as well, for example in Japan. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... A public house, usually known as a pub, is a drinking establishment found mainly in the Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries influenced by British cultural heritage. ...

To understand the rise of the piano among the middle class, it is helpful to remember that before mechanical and electronic reproduction, music was in fact performed on a daily basis by ordinary people. For instance, the working people of every nation generated a body of folk music, which was transmitted orally down through the generations and sung by all. The parents of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) could not read music, yet Haydn's father (who worked as a wheelwright) taught himself to play the harp, and the Haydn family frequently played and sang together. With rising prosperity, the many families that could now afford pianos and music adapted their home-grown musical abilities to the new instrument, and the piano become a major source of music in the home. It has been suggested that Folkies be merged into this article or section. ... (Franz) Joseph Haydn, (March 31 or April 1, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was a leading composer of the Classical period, called the Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. Although he is still often called Franz Joseph Haydn, Haydn himself actually never used Franz, signing letters and... The harp is a chordophone which has its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. ...

Amateur pianists in the home often kept track of the doings of the leading pianists and composers of their day. Professional virtuosi wrote books and methods for the study of piano playing, which sold widely. The virtuosi also prepared their own editions of classical works, which included detailed marks of tempo and expression to guide the amateur who wanted to use their playing as a model. (Today, students are usually encouraged to work from an urtext edition.) The piano compositions of the great composers often sold well among amateurs, despite the fact that, starting with Beethoven, they were often far too hard for anyone but a trained virtuoso to play perfectly. Evidently, the amateur pianists obtained satisfaction from coming to grips with the finest music, even if they could not perform it from start to finish. An urtext edition of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material. ... This article concerns the composer of music. ...

A favorite form of musical recreation in the home was playing works for four-hand piano, in which the two players sit side by side at a single piano. Sometimes members of the household would sing or play other instruments along with the piano.

Parents whose children showed unusual talent often pushed them toward professional careers, sometimes making great sacrifices to make this possible. Artur Schnabel's book My Life and Music (reprinted 1988; Mineola, NY: Dover) vividly depicts his own experience along this lines, which took place in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 19th century. Artur Schnabel (April 17, 1882 – August 15, 1951) was a classical pianist, who also composed and taught. ... Official languages Latin, German, Hungarian Established church Roman Catholic Capital & Largest City Vienna pop. ...

The piano's status in the home remained secure until technology made possible the enjoyment of music in passive form. First the player piano (ca. 1900), then the home phonograph (which became common in the decade before World War I), then the radio (in the 1920s) dealt severe blows to amateur piano-playing as a form of domestic recreation. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, piano sales dropped sharply, and many manufacturers went out of business. The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ... Edison cylinder phonograph from about 1899 The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the 1870s through the 1980s. ... Combatants Entente Powers Central Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties > 5 million military deaths > 3 million military deaths World War I, also known as the First World War and (before 1939) the Great War, the War of the Nations, War to End All Wars was a world conflict... The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or depression) that ran from 1929 to approximately 1939. ...

Another blow to the piano was the widespread acceptance in the late 20th century of the electronic keyboard. This instrument, in its cheaper forms, is widely considered to provide only a poor substitute for the tonal quality of a good piano (see piano for why), but it is much more flexible and in many ways better suited to the performance of popular music. An electronic keyboard is a keyboard instrument which uses electricity to produce or amplify its sound. ... A grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. ...

Nevertheless, the piano survives to this day in many 21st century homes. The pianos being bought today tend to be of higher quality and more expensive than those of several decades ago, suggesting perhaps that domestic piano playing may have concentrated itself in homes of wealthier or better-educated members of the middle class. It is unlikely that ability to play the piano contributes much these days to the marriageability of daughters, but many parents still feel today that piano lessons teach their children concentration and self-discipline, and open a door into the world of classical music. Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ...

Reference

• Piano roles : three hundred years of life with the piano by James Parakilas (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999) is a history of the piano and its role in society.