302 THE PIANO^S DEFICIENCY 



The evolution of the piano has not, however, 

 proceeded on identical lines with that of other 

 instruments, wind and string. Thus, the chief 

 value of the piano is as an accompaniment to the 

 voice, to assist and strengthen it, to form a back- 

 ground to it and give it a richness it would not 

 otherwise have. It serves a similar purpose in 

 orchestral music, albeit as a background to violin, 

 'cello, and other orchestral instruments, it has 

 less value. 



In listening to a great performer I may be so 

 charmed, so carried away, as to think the piano 

 the supreme instrument; yet when it is over I go 

 away with a sense of something wanting : it has not 

 wholly satisfied me: after all it is not the supreme 

 instrument. That which I most desire in music, 

 which most delights me, is a quality wanting in the 

 piano, or not possessed in the same degree as I find 

 in other instruments. This quality, this charm, is 

 in the expression^ by which I mean the human asso- 

 ciations of the sound. And as it is with man so it is 

 with all sound-producing beings, from the highest 

 vertebrate to the insect. Each has its own specific 

 associations, its recognition of a special sound, the 

 meaning of the memories it invokes. 



Here is an illustration. I had as a visitor to my 

 window in London a woodpigeon who came every 

 day to devour any food it found on the tray kept 

 there for the birds. It was an excessively shy pigeon, 

 and as long as I remained in the room, even with the 

 window closed, it would stand motionless watching 



