D. L. Bullock wrote in 000523 MMDigest:

> If it cannot be played then what is it good for?  I think a piano
> in that horrendous condition should be restored if it can be.  Let's
> face it, the piano was not an item to be looked at -- it was built
> to be listened to.

That's right!  Maybe I'm just being silly, but that is a phenomena that
has greatly irritated me for years.  Many people possess some of the
finest pianos ever built, but no one knows how to play 'em.  The piano
just sits there -- never fully appreciated, and never fills the house
with music -- "But gosh, it's pretty," the owners will tell you.

I remember a friend who called me, asking that I inspect a new Baldwin
grand he had just bought.  So I did.  This is one great piano.  To this
day, I tune it, and it never gets played except by me. <sigh>

Call it jealously, class envy, or what you will.  I have always found
it very irritating that people buy very fine pianos only for furniture,
while aspiring (or shall I say starving)? artists are stuck with clunky
old uprights!

Andrew Taylor
Tempola Music Rolls