street piano

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English

Person playing a street piano.
Street piano manufactured in France circa 1900.
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Noun

street piano (plural street pianos)

  1. A piano placed in a public area to encourage passers-by to stop and play.
  2. (historical) A mechanical piano used by street entertainers, operated with a crank that turned a wooden cylinder from which leather hammers were thrown against the strings.[1][2][3]
    Synonym: barrel piano
    • 1854, Herbert Spencer, “Manners and Fashion”, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative‎, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, published 1858, page 148:
      Who that has lived thirty years in the world has not discovered that Pleasure is coy; and must not be too directly pursued, but must be caught unawares? An air from a street-piano, heard while at work, will often gratify more than the choicest music played at a concert by the most accomplished musicians.
    • 1916, T. S. Eliot, “Portrait of a Lady”, in Alfred Kreymborg, editor, Others: An Anthology of the New Verse‎, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 36:
      I keep my countenance, / I remain self-possessed / Except when a street piano, mechanical and tired / Reiterates some worn-out common song […]
    • 1921, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sea and Sardinia‎, New York: Thomas Seltzer, page 349:
      But hist! the [marionette show] is going to begin. A lad is grinding a broken street-piano under the stage.

References

  1. ^ Arthur Jacobs, A New Dictionary of Music, Penguin, 1960, p. 361.
  2. ^ David S. Grover, The Piano: Its Story from Zither to Grand, London: Hale, 1976, p. 172.
  3. ^ Robina Beckles Willson, The Voice of Music, New York: Atheneum, 1977, p. 78.
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