Table of contents

One: early years, to 1859    
Introduction
Should we take the piano?      
Moving pianos
A disaster on the Taieri River
Playing their pianos  
Hannah Ormond, née Richardson

Two: mid-colonial period, 1860 to 1899     
Introduction
Adela Stewart            
Jess Whitworth           
Alick  Archibald         
The Wests      
Ellen Tripp     
Samuel Butler 
Julius and Mary von Haast     
Sarah Courage

Three: consolidation then decline, 1900–29          
Introduction
Working-class households in Petone  
Granny Jones and her Kirchner          
Latter-day pioneers in the King Country         
Hector Allan  
Musical postcards      
Society pages 
Katherine Mansfield’s drawing room
Piano in the cave – the Worgans

Four: the service industries
Introduction
Charles Russell’s Music Warehouse  
Edward Greaves Smith          
George West – Dunedin’s first musical entrepreneur 
Charles Begg & Co    
Dresden Piano Co
The Eadys and other music companies           
Piano teaching
Teaching in Catholic convents   

Five: what they played and sang    
Introduction
American minstrel music        
Printed music 
The Worgan collection           
The Annie Craig collection    
Dorothy Theomin’s music at Olveston           
New Zealand compositions and local publishing       

Six: competition and dénouement
Recorded music, radio, cinema, motor cars, guitars, epilogue

Seven: words, music and chords for 17 songs popular in parlours between 1840 and 1929

Feature pages:
A brief history of the piano    
Historic pianos on show        
Dancing, Victorian style         
The first piano in the Chatham Islands
Pianos on postcards from the Edwardian era 
Charles Russell advertisement

Appendix I: the Annie Craig music collection         

Appendix II: lithographed covers, local and overseas

Appendix III: Dresden Piano Co advertorial in the Auckland Star, 1890     

Notes and references           

Acknowledgements – illustrations and graphics

Index

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