The piano in the square

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

The piano in the square changed the kind of pause I took there. I had usually crossed it between shops. One afternoon, a woman sat down and played a tune I knew imperfectly; two children tried to name it before she reached the ending. Nobody had bought a ticket, and nobody needed to stay for the next tune. I remained through three.

There is a special ease in an encounter that has not asked us to plan ourselves into an audience. Some players are skilled; some are working through a difficult passage. I do not need every attempt to become a performance worth selling. Hearing a person try can make music belong to the ordinary space where errands and conversations already happen.

The instrument needs care, and there should be hours when it is closed. People working nearby do not choose every sound they hear. Within agreed limits, though, I would keep it. The square has room for a form of pleasure that you can join by stopping and leave by beginning to walk again.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

From my upstairs desk, the street piano does not arrive as an unexpected pleasure. It arrives repeatedly, through the window, while I am checking figures for work. A passing listener can move on after one tune. I cannot take the desk and the afternoon’s appointments to another square whenever a new player sits down.

I have enjoyed hearing good music there, and I do not think a beginner should need permission from an expert to touch a keyboard. My objection is to calling the experience freely chosen because the piano is free to play. The player’s choice occupies other people’s space too. A refrain practised twelve times has a different length for the person practising it and the person trying to concentrate above it.

Set modest hours and agree them with the people who use the surrounding buildings. Let the piano be silent at other times without treating silence as hostility to music. A public instrument can be welcome and still need boundaries. The freedom to begin a tune is only one of the freedoms the square contains.

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about public street pianos. Support your comparisons with detailed references to both texts.