Piano in "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
By Karl Ellison
I'm reading the 1851 novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as I ride to/from work
each day. I'm at the point after Tom's benevolent master St. Clare's
daughter's death:
"St. Clare sat down at the piano, and began playing a soft
and melancholy movement with the Aeolian accompaniment."
Can someone expand on an "Aeolian accompaniment"? Might this had been
a built-in reed organ in the piano? What brand?
"Aeolian" defined in my Webster's dictionary: "... of or relating to
Aeolus. Giving forth or marked by a soughing sound or musical tone
produced by or as if my the wind."
Karl Ellison
Salem, Massachusetts
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(Message sent Mon 26 Apr 1999, 09:40:36 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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