Association of Blind Piano Tuners
UK Piano Page

A Wealth of Information on Pianos, Tuning, Piano History, Makers, Movers, Teachers, Accompanists and Piano Entertainers in the UK

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UK Piano Page

Welcome to the Association of Blind Piano Tuners (ABPT) website known as the 'UK Piano Page'. It contains information about everything related to pianos; we are the home of UK piano industry. We have designed the site to make things easier to find and allow professionals listed on this site to update their details. We have one of the largest collections of piano history information on the internet, with a special emphasis on the history of the piano industry in the United Kingdom. We also cover a wide selection of overseas piano makers, and provide links to sites with a piano history theme. The UK Piano Page also contains a wealth of information on tuners, manufacturers, movers, accompanists, teachers, entertainers, hire companies, French polishers, piano part makers, and piano construction. You may even find places to wine and dine with live piano music in the background. We have a database of pianos for sale by shops around the UK, as well as a free section for the general public to advertise their pianos for sale.Answers to a variety of piano-related questions are found on the pub quiz page. We have an active piano discussion forum where you can seek answers to questions onpianos, their history, and piano music. We also operate an extensive online piano gift shop were you can buy piano stools, castor cups, metronomes and lots of other piano related gifs and accessories. If you would like to advertise on the UK Piano Page, please visit our advertising page. The Aims of the Association of Blind Piano Tuners The Association of Blind Piano Tuners exists to serve the professional and particular needs of its members and other blind and partially sighted piano tuners throughout the world. All new members of the ABPT resident in the UK are vetted by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and approved to work in situations with vulnerable adults or children. There are three categories of membership: Students Student Membership is open to all visually impaired persons in full time training. Friends A Friend is anyone wishing to be associated with the ABPT or who has helped the ABPT in the past, or made a donation. Trade Members Trade memberships are open to allied trades of the music industry, and these can be either individual or corporate. Associated Members (AABPT) Open to U.K. resident tuners holding a full or part CTB Diploma or its later renamed equivalents but not otherwise eligible for full membership. They may use the letters AABPT to indicate this status, are entitled to vote and those holding a full Diploma may receive insurance cover. Associate Members shall not exceed 25% of the membership. International Members (MABPT) This is open to visually impaired tuners from around the world who have attended a recognized training school and qualified. Members (MABPT) This is for visually impaired tuners from the UK who have attended a recognized training school and qualified with the AEWVH (CTB) diploma or equivalent. Fellows (FABPT) This is open to members of the ABPT who have undergone extra training to enhance their skills. Honorary Life Members This is open to members of the ABPT who have been members for over ten years and have satisfied Council of their eminence in the profession or of the importance and value of their services to the ABPT. The status of Honorary Life Member is at the discretion of the ABPT Council, and no more than five may be serving at any one time. Only Members and Fellows who are resident in the UK are covered by our insurance policies. Only Full Members, Fellows, International Members and Associated Members may add the letters to their name and use the ABPT logo. All membership is at the discretion and approval of the ABPT Council. We encourage all tuners to gain and maintain the highest professional standards and to exhibit ethical and professional integrity at all times. We offer ongoing training to piano tuners who wish to acquire extra levels of ability. This is open to all everyone, even if they are not yet members of the Association. We do this by running subsidised seminars for fully sighted and visually impaired tuners. We maintain close links with all of the professional bodies of the music industry, and in particular with piano tuning organisations worldwide. The purpose of the website is to educate the general public in the good practice of maintaining their musical instruments and using professional tuners to do this work. This follows the broad outline of our mission statement. If we may be of any further assistance to you, please contact us.

The Canadian Chapters of the Piano Technicians Guild is back!

This page is a volunteer effort by members of the Canadian chapters of the Piano Technicians Guild, Inc. to provide information to the general public about piano related information in Canada. For linking information contact: Site administrator Stephen Thomas

Buying a Piano?
Of course, the best way to investigate any piano is to simply hire a Registered Piano Technician. The best way you can inform yourself is to go to your public library and read a book called "The Piano Owner's Guide" by Carl D. Schmeckel. The book translates piano technology into layman's terms for easy understanding. In addition, look for "The Piano Book" by Larry Fine.

If there is information or news that you feel should be listed in this page, feel free to send us an email below. A web page that has a complete listing of all piano resources world wide is at: The Piano Page.

The Links Page has been completely revised. If you wish to submit a link or know of a valuable resource, please contact us.

How often should my piano be tuned?
Most manufacturers suggest that all pianos be tuned at least 3 to 4 times a year when they are new. Sadly, only a very small number of pianos receive regular attention. Also, many piano lessons are given by teachers on out-of-tune pianos. As a result, children then become adjusted to horrible sounding pianos and think that is how they should be!

Piano Roles: Three hundred years of life with the piano
by James Parakilas and others. A stunning cultural history of the musical and social roles that the piano has played in its long and amazing career. Please check out this book at: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300080557

Kids and the effects of music on the brain
Recent studies have shown that children who are exposed to piano keyboards at an early age, score 30% higher on math and science examinations in school. These startling new findings have been featured on CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC on recent broadcasts.

Site administrator and contact for listing additions:
Stephen Thomas

Last Updated, August 25, 2006.

Web Design by Paul Brown

The Piano

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This article is about the film. For the instrument, see Piano. For other uses, see Piano (disambiguation).

The Piano
Poster for The Piano
Directed by	Jane Campion
Produced by	Jan Chapman
Written by	Jane Campion
Starring	Holly Hunter Harvey Keitel Anna Paquin Sam Neill
Music by	Michael Nyman
Cinematography	Stuart Dryburgh
Editing by	Veronika Jenet
Distributed by	Miramax (USA and Australia)
Release date(s)	May 19, 1993 (1993-05-19) (premiere at Cannes), 5 August 1993 (Australia) 12 November 1993 (USA)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	New Zealand Australia France
Language	English Māori British Sign Language
Budget	$7 million
Gross revenue	$40.2 million

The Piano is a 1993 film about a mute female pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier New Zealand backwater. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion, and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill and Anna Paquin. It features a score for the piano by Michael Nyman which became a bestselling soundtrack album. Hunter played her own piano pieces for the film, and also served as sign language teacher for Paquin, earning herself three different screen credits. The film was an international co-production by Australian producer Jan Chapman with the French company Ciby 2000.

Alistair Fox has argued that The Piano was significantly influenced by Jane Mander's The Story of a New Zealand River.^[1]

Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Responses 2.1 Awards 2.1.1 Won 2.1.2 Nominated 3 Soundtrack 4 Casting 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The Piano tells the story of a mute Scotswoman, Ada McGrath (Hunter), whose father sells her into marriage to a New Zealand frontiersman, Alistair Stewart (Neill), and she is shipped off along with her young daughter Flora (Paquin). Ada has not spoken a word since she was six years old, communicating instead through sign language for which her near-adolescent daughter has served as the interpreter. Ada has no occupation, and has spent most of her time obsessively playing her piano. It is never made explicitly clear why she ceased to speak. Flora, it is later learned, is the product of a relationship with a teacher whom Ada believed she could control with her mind, making him love her, but who "became frightened and stopped listening," and thus left her.

Ada, Flora and their belongings, including the piano, are deposited on a New Zealand beach by the ship's crew against her angry objections. As there is no one there to meet them, they spend the night alone, sheltering under a tiny tent made of a hoop skirt frame. The following day, Alistair arrives with a Māori crew and his friend Baines (Keitel), a fellow forester and a retired sailor, who has adopted many of the Maori customs, including tattooing his face and socializing with the Maori instead of his own race (save Alistair). There are insufficient men to carry everything and Alistair abandons the piano, again eliciting objections from Ada.

Alistair proves to be a shy and diffident man, who is jokingly called "old dry balls" by his Maori cohorts. He tells Ada that there is no room in his small house for the piano. Ada, in turn, makes no effort to befriend him and continues to try to be reunited with her piano. Unable to communicate with Alistair, she goes, with Flora, to Baines and asks to be taken to the piano. He agrees, and the three spend the day as she plays tunes on the beach. While he socially allies himself with the Maori, Baines has steadfastly refused any sexual activity with their women. But he clearly finds Ada attractive due to her passion about music. Baines eventually retrieves the instrument and suggests that Alistair trade it — and lessons from Ada — for some land that Alistair wants. Alistair consents, oblivious to the budding attraction between Ada and Baines. She is surprised to find that he has had the piano put into perfect tune after its rough journey. He asks to simply listen rather than learn to play himself, and then offers to let her buy the piano back, one key at a time, by letting him do 'things he likes' while she plays. Ada ambivalently agrees as she is attracted to Baines. Ada and Alistair have had no sexual, or even mildly affectionate, interaction even though they are by now formally married.

Baines is sexually aroused by Ada's playing to the point that he openly approaches her. Finally, she yields to her own lust one afternoon, and allows Baines to have intercourse with her. Alistair finally begins to suspect the love affair and after discovering them, he angrily boards up his home with Ada inside when he goes off to work on his timberland. After that interlude, Ada avoids Baines and feigns affection with Alistair, though her caresses only serve to frustrate him more because when he makes a move to touch her in return, she sadistically pulls away. Before Alistair departs on his next journey, he asks Ada if she will go to see Baines — she shakes her head no — and he tells her he trusts that she won't go to him while he's gone.

Soon after, Ada sends her daughter with a package for Baines, containing a single piano key with an inscribed love declaration. Flora has begun to accept Alistair as her 'papa' and is angered by her mother's infidelity. She brings the piano key instead to Alistair. After reading the love note burnt into the piano key, Alistair furiously returns home and chops off Ada's index finger with an axe to deprive her of the ability to play her piano.

After Ada recovers from her injury, Alistair sends her and Flora away with Baines and dissolves their marriage. They depart from the same beach on which she first landed in New Zealand. While being rowed to the ship with her baggage and the piano jammed into a rowboat, Ada feels that the piano is ruined as she can no longer play and insists that Baines throw the piano overboard. As it sinks, she deliberately puts her foot into the loops of rope trailing overboard. She is rapidly pulled deep underwater connected by the rope to the piano — but then she changes her mind and kicks free to be pulled back into the boat.

In an epilogue, she describes her life with Baines and Flora in Nelson, where she has started to give piano lessons in their new home, and her severed finger has been replaced with a silver digit made by Baines. Ada says that she imagines her piano in its grave in the sea, and herself suspended above it, which 'lulls me to sleep.' The film closes with the Thomas Hood quote, from his poem "Silence", which also opened the film:

“

There is a silence where hath been no sound. There is a silence where no sound may be in the cold grave under the deep deep sea.

”

[edit] Responses

The film won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm, shared with Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine) and a Best Performance Prize for Holly Hunter at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.^[2] In 1994, the film won Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Holly Hunter), as well as Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Anna Paquin) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Anna Paquin was the second youngest person after Tatum O'Neal to win an Academy Award. Holly Hunter is notable for being the only actress along with Marlee Matlin (for her American sign language performance in Children of a Lesser God) and Jane Wyman (for her deaf-mute role in Johnny Belinda) to receive an Academy Award for Best Actress in the post-silent era for a non-speaking role (her voice is only heard off-screen in a few scenes). The film made its US premier at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

Critical reaction was overwhelmingly supportive. Roger Ebert wrote: "The Piano is as peculiar and haunting as any film I've seen" and "It is one of those rare movies that is not just about a story, or some characters, but about a whole universe of feeling". Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called it "[An] evocative, powerful, extraordinarily beautiful film". In a Rotten Tomatoes sample of top critics, The Piano scored a 100 percent rating.^[3]

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