All those poor tortoises walking around without their shells.
If you do it right, horizontal stripes, they just become armadillos. It’s quite eco friendly.
And all those pearls that lost their mothers
They were forced to transition to lizard.
Honestly, for me things like this are not mildly interesting, but infuriating. I don’t care how pretty it is, it’s not gonna sound better because of aesthetics. Hell, although I’m not sure on this case, musical instruments crafted to look pretty will often sound worse. And I don’t support savaging nature just to find shit to make fancy ass things for pedophile sociopaths that dedicate their lives to making things worse for everyone else.
It’s history, we should just appreciate that it exists, is beautiful, and never make more again.
Just to infuriate you more: Plastics originally were viewed as a great alternative to such waste - instead of ivory, tortoiseshell, mother of pearl, expensive wood, you could use this human-made, often much stronger, material in different colors.
…and look where we are now.
Those poor savages back then, with tortoise shell particles in their blood probably
/s
I’m imagining this comment as an I Think You Should Leave sketch. A bunch of people are on a tour in a museum and Tim Robinson starts going off on more and more unhinged rants about every art work the tour guide presents.
Uh…
Yes. Lol
There is something incredibly poetic about the hubris and cruelty required to create an instrument or other tool that enables art, something that does makes us distinct from the animals, out of the remains of needlesly taken lives. Transcending through art beyond human morals, somehow landing us back in the dirt with other worms, struggling only to self-satisfy. It’s only fitting that it looks pretty, it better does when the price is so high.
Hi, it’s me, the devils advocate.
One could argue that every instrument made out of wood is needlessly taking lives, since the tree died. It’s also possible to extend the argument so that every instrument is needlessly taking lives, since no matter what material you use requires use of energy and we have no way to generate energy without something dying.
The question naturally comes down to what is needless. Needless for what? Needless according to whom? When it comes to art, as music does, it is completely subjective. It is completely valid to think this use of materials is needless but who’s to say what’s correct. The marker of this probably didn’t think their work was needless.
I’ll counter your trees with my humans. Would you agree that skinning children to make drums would be “needlessly cruel”? The creator might have thought that it was necessary for whatever reason, but neither the children nor any sane observer would agree. It’s fine to disagree on what’s moral and what’s not, and it’s up to the invidual to decide for themselves. I think killing turtles for vanity project is cruel, especially since you have all those trees that just deserve to be carved up for being so tall. I believe there is some common ground most interested parties can agree on. And if not, then the situation is probably quite complicated and you should rethink making those drums.
Wind turbines
If it hadn’t used mother of pearl and tortoiseshell, which weren’t particularly rare at the time, they would have used things like rosewood, ebony, and ivory. So either way, precious materials were going to be used.
At least they are being used in the service of Art, and Music, instead of something vain, or selfish, like jewelry or beauty accessories. If these materials are going to be harvested anyway, using them to create a fine musical instrument, which can then be used to create beautiful music for a century, or possibly longer, is a worthy use of those precious natural materials.
It’s not that I disagree with you. I do think I get where you’re coming from.
I specifically have a problem with those looks being prioritized. I mean, think about it if they’re worried more about the appearance than they are about the sound quality, that hubris has become straight up pride. But I’m not talking like the positive connotation. I’m talking pride as in the sin from the Bible.
I do think that there are layers to the corruption in play here. It’d be plenty evil even if it sounded good and looked bad, since cruelty and stuff. Pianos are expensive, and were even more back in 1853, so having and playing one was a hobby limited to elites, which had to exploit the work of the poor to afford it and the rest of their luxurious lifestyle, which makes it worse again. Due to it being one of the possible symbols of the class status, it’s very ownership rather than a function became a priority, which then made it a piece of visual art to be admired rather than the tool to create such art, which degenerated the meaning of such expense even further. The author most likely wasn’t thinking about the cruelty, about the class or about the demeaning the art, or maybe they were and it was the point. Either way, the result is something beautiful that shouldn’t have ever existed, and the “incredible poetic” characteristic that I mentioned earlier (maybe a bit of an overstatement) referred in part to this contradiction.
Oh, yes, I’m being horribly pedantic due to quite obviously being triggered, so I don’t argue the related points you are making. Not at all.
I meant to convey something more of a “yes, and…” rather than argue. It would be different kind of messed up if it sounded angelic but required a blood of a endangered turtle to be fed into the unholy tube in order to keep playing. But like this, there wasn’t even the point. Vain, cruel, corrupt. Which is to say, I agree.
Ah, that does make sense
I sincerely doubt that tortoises were killed for their shells. Their skeleton was a waste product in a sense.
Poaching was and still is a very serious problem. Your comment is embarrassingly devoid of critical thinking.
Back then loads of turtles were hunted for meat. I.e. you would have a large supply without hunting for it explicitly.
Liberace’s tomb just rattled.
You reckon they still play it, or is it just decorative now?
I did some digging, and here is what I found: “This is the Nunns & Clark square piano from 1853, a masterpiece of American Victorian craftsmanship featuring a rosewood case, mother-of-pearl key covers, tortoiseshell veneers on accidentals, and abalone inlay, built in New York City for display at the 1853 Crystal Palace Exhibition.”
It’s at the Met in NYC. So while theoretically it is playable, they wouldn’t let you.
Source - a lot more info on the piano: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/503678
Those legs! Ridiculous.
Oops, limbs. Victoria would not approve.
Holy shit! That thing is a monster
Arguably the rest of this piano is way more interesting than the keyboard pictured above
Wow, it’s gloriously hideous.
Probably still works. The actions on these old pianos are fairly robust.
Looks like its behind glass. There seems to be a reflection in the right corner, but I can’t tell for sure.
Glad we’ve moved on from farming animals to make pianos.
Still doesn’t stop humans raping and pillaging the natural world, of course.
I hate humans.
Who’s the craftsperson?
Don’t answer this. Probably some PETA nut that just wants to dox the poor old guy.
The poor guy from the 1800s? Also, it wouldn’t be doxing if it’s public info. Wtf are you on about
You sound like a real ageist.
You sound like a fucking cunt
Bruh… Lol
Fuck you. Blocked head