PIANOS RETURN TO PUBLIC FAVOUR

Radio Record, Volume IX, Issue 2, 19 July 1935, Page 26

PIANOS RETURN TO PUBLIC FAVOUR

"The Novelty of Radio Has Worn Off" : "PARTLY because the novelty of Tadio as a means. of entertainment has worn off, and because an increasingly. large number of young people are having the desire to express themselves musically, pianos are returning to favour," said the manager of a leading Wellington music house to a "Radio Record" representative the other day, "Radios have taken on 2 new aspect in. the publie view. Whereas they were for years a medium of entertainment, they are now taken as a matter of course in our everyday life, and there is not the same mental satisfaction in radio programmes that there is in flesh and blood performances, . "The desire to do something for oneself has a psychological effect on the enjoyment rather than having someone else play or do something for you. In England pianos began to fall away from public fayour in the latter part of 1931 and sales did not start on the upward path again until the latter part of 1983, but an improvement was not noticed until about a year later in New Zealand," Recently small or miniature grand pianos were placed on the market: in large numbers, and thus sold to a public who, though liking the grand, ° which is pleasing to the eye and ear,

would have purchased an upright on account of the lower price. The desire to play is universal; reports from Burope and the United States show that a reaction toward radio has already taken place and a large number of pianos have been sold on the Continent. England, for the first time, has come to the fore in markets for pianos, supplying Beligum, France, Italy and Holland, where hitherto Continental makers had held the monopoly, thus reversing the position of previous years, Piano manufacturers have awakened to the fact that instruments must be made to comply with modern interior decorations and are accordingly building their instruments to suit modernistie fittings. Small pianos are being made, too, for the convenience of modern apartments, whose limited space does not allow the addition of an ordinary sized piano to its furnishings. Due to an improved knowledge of acoustics piano manufacturers are now able to produce pianos at a reasonable price, with a very beautiful tone.and an evenness of scaling that previously had been lacking in all but the most expensive instruments. One can safely assume that the new piano to-day is an infinitely superior instrument to the piano of ten or twenty years ago; so much superior, in fact, that it is questionable whether it is advisable to buy second-hand instruments in view of the cheapness and quality of new ones, The sale of sheet music also has shown a marked increase, especially that of ballads, which are again becoming quite popular. Ingniries for songs are increasing, showing that more people are learning singing,