The Piano And The European Middle Class:a Study Of The Piano’s Social Functions And Cultural Meaning(1830-1870)

This paper aims to study the social functions of the piano(as an instrument) in both domestic and public area in the mid-19th century(1830-1870). I try to explain how these functions helped the European middle class stablish their social identity and affected the development of piano music.When the piano existed in the domestic area, it was regarded as a domestic instrument and was supposed to be interconnected with the "middle class parlor-culture".In this case, the piano was provided with five social functions which were:family entertainment function, the function of furnishing as furniture, the function of female image building,the function of promoting marriage prospects and the function of maintaining the morality.The family entertainment function met the mid-19th century middle class’s needs of cultural life.The function of furnishing as furniture had two effects:reflecting the financial strength and social prestige of the middle class and thus helping to proclaim their social identity.and intensifying the middle class’s sense of belonging and identity. The main embodiment of the function of female image building was that limited performing ability helped female build their image as "The Angel in the House".The main embodiment of the function of promoting marriage prospects was that girls abled to sing and play the piano enjoyed an unfair advantage in the marriage competition in comparison to their less musical sisters.The main embodiment of the function of maintaining the morality was that the piano could bolster the females’ dignified image and guard their chastity,and the purity and chastity was just the core of the middle class morality. In my opinion,though these functions were different in forms,they all worked for one purpose-helping the European middle class stablish their social identity and this was just the social meaning of these functions.Meanwhile, these functions also affected the development of piano music in this period and the most marked influence lay in the domestic music field. Domestic music was enjoying a boom in this period and could be divided as "amateur music" and "serious music".A Maiden’s Prayer was an typical work of "amateur music" which was just composed for the family entertainment."Serious music" which could reflect the middle class parlor-culture mainly lay in the works of Mendelsohn’s and Schumann’. Songs Without Word was the work that Mendelsohn wrote with good taste and great skill to respond to the middle class parlor-culture.Schumann’s response to the middle class parlor-culture was mainly embodied in the his later works-Hausmusik. Besides, Art Songs was mainly regarded as domestic music in the mid-19th century,so it was the music that could strongly reflect the influence of the middle class parlor-culture.When the piano existed in the public area, it was regarded as a public instrument and was supposed to be interconnected with the "middle class concert-culture".In this case,things were more complicated. First of all,the"public concert" itself inevitably gained a middle class quality, and the middle class quality of the "Public Piano Concert"was extremely strong because of the appearance of piano."Piano Recital"and"Piano Virtuoso Concert"were worth studying.Piano Recital showed the "The liberation of personality "which was emphasized by the Enlightenment values,and the Enlightenment values was just the soil which the middle class culture was embedded in. As refer to Piano Virtuoso Concert,I found out three functions of the piano which were-satisfied the middle class’s machine-worship,gave the public the right to comment and represented the pianists’ sense of of competition.These three social functions helped the middle class to establish their social identity in three different ways:first of all,the complicated mechanical structure of the instrument and the amazing technique of the virtuoso satisfied the middle class’s machine-worship,and machine-worship was the outward manifestation of "progressive idea"which was an important part of Enlightenment values.Thus, because of this complicated machine-the piano,the middle class was able to express their values.Second,the popular of Public Piano Concert brought the pubic the right to comment which was once only belonging to the princes and aristocrats.This was the symbol of being big and powerful and was a direct evidence of the middle class’ social identity.Third. the decline of sponsorship system and the gradual development of free market economy greatly intensified the pianists’ sense of competition which not only reflected their wishes of gaining social identity,but also objectively represented the middle class’s well known fighting spirit.These functions also affected the development of piano art, and in my opinion, the most marked influence lay in the piano playing field.A spectacular explosion of keyboard techniques happened in this field in the mid-19th century. It could be regarded as the direct influence of the middle class concert-culture. In this paper,I would like to take some typical and significant piano techniques which were created or improved in this period for example—like "singing on the piano"technique and thumb technique—and try to discuss how the middle class concert-culture had an affect on the piano art.These above is the main part of this paper.Moreover, before the main part, I put a preamble in which I try to do an overall description of the mid-19th century piano history and try to explain the concept of "Middle Class" in order to provide a historical context for the study in the main part.