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MMD > Archives > April 1999 > 1999.04.26 > 02Prev  Next


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


(Message sent Mon 26 Apr 1999, 09:40:36 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Cabin, Piano, Tom's, Uncle

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