Talk:Social history of the piano

Is this article NPOV?
This doesn't seem very NPOV to me-what do other people think? - Adrian.


 * Social history has a particular approach that has its critics, see historiography. Within the very well established academic discipline of social history this is how we study different social phenomenon. Perhaps you could explain why you do not think it is POV and either right an article from within the rubric of a different disciplinary approach and make reference to it here. Remember it is entitled social history of the piano. If you want to write a more general history of the piano article this could be linked to it, in my opinion. Alex756 17:16, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

There's something right about what Adrian is saying. As far as I know all the facts I put into the article are true (though some are harder to verify, like beliefs concerning marriageability). However, in retrospect it seems to me I may have selected these facts on purpose to evoke a sense of nostalgia for a musically-participatory era now largely gone.

One remedy for this might be to explore why people gave up their pianos as soon as radios, record players, etc. appeared on the scene. I don't understand myself how this happened, but perhaps other contributors could say something useful.

NPOV-monitors interested in similar cases might enjoy looking at folk music (where a previous Wikipedian also expresses regret for loss of participatory music), and popular music, where commercial purveyors of music are duly bashed as Philistines.


 * Opus33 21:38, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Sexual selection and evolution of music
Hoping not to provoke rage, I've reverted:


 * "Darwin wrote several pages on the evolution of music by sexual selection in The Descent of Man (1871)."

I think that the evolution of music is an important and interesting topic, and I know that Darwin isn't the only one who thinks that sexual selection was responsible; there's a certain amount of more recent work as well. But does this really have much to do with the social history of the piano?

I've tried to find a way to think of this sentence as relevant--for instance, perhaps we might suppose that when Darwin lounged on the couch and listened to Emma play, his inner animal was aroused. But we have no way of knowing this, and indeed it seems more likely to me that Emma's piano playing was part of her lifelong task of humoring an invalid. If there is to be an example of the piano as an instrument of seduction, there surely is a better one available than Emma and Charles!

On the other hand, the Wikipedia seems to have nothing at all on the evolution of music, including the sexual selection theory. Could the author of this passage perhaps be persuaded to write at least a starter article in this area? Thanks, Opus33 22:37, 31 May 2004 (UTC)