Figure 1.--Here an unidentified boy in this post-card back photograph is practiving the piano at home, we think in the 1930s. We believe he is Canadian as the postcard came from a Canadian dealer. The photograph is also an interesting view of a period livingroom.

Canadian boys like boys in other countries studied music. Here we have few details, but suspect that the experience was similar to that in the United States. Music in the 19th century for children was primarily a home experience. Mothers liked their children to take up musicl instruments, this is especially true as the country became increasingly prosperous by the late-19th century. European immigration in the late-19th century may have been another factor. We suspect that many immigrants althogh coming tgo Canada with little money, brought European musical traditions. The same was true of the United States, although fewer Jews settled in Canada. We do not have a large photographic archive for Canada. We do note impages of boys learing the piano and violin. We think that these were the two most common instruments. Of course a piano was an expensive indtrument. Only established middle-class families would have had a piano in the home.

Created: 1:47 AM 6/25/2005
Last updated: 8:52 PM 9/22/2010