A 233 year old piano is returning to the UK for restoration after being taken to Australia on the First Fleet in 1788. It belonged to the ship’s surgeon of HMS Sirius, which carried almost 200 people, including sailors and their families. But why did the surgeon take his piano with him? Was it played on the ship as it made its 8 month journey to Australia? If so, what joy and comfort must its sound have brought to the passengers and crew of that ship as they journeyed to the unknown.
Music knows no boundaries and transports us across space and time to places we may (or may not) rather be, and the emotional response that music can stimulate in us is like nothing else on earth.
When I moved to Australia I took my piano with me too. A familiar piece of furniture in an unfamiliar place, playing music that’s reminiscent of people and places of home, and the reassurance of doing something with ease when your heart and body feels uneasy and homesick was a welcome break from navigating a new life in a new place, just as it must have been for the surgeon, with his piano, over 200 years ago.
