By Jasmine KC Laldinpuii &
Nabamita Mitra
Her fingers once flirted with the ivories, unsettling the hammer, and danced coquettishly on the nocturne. While the day started with Mozart, the evening ended with Chopin. The piano, now an “antique piece”, has fallen silent. He craves for a lover and his heart skips a beat every time her wrinkled skin brushes against the polished mahogany. “I shall create a new world for myself,” he agonises silently.
But Betty Trevor would not agree to play one of her oeuvre like the old days of togetherness and the around 100-year-old August Forster sits alone at one corner of her bedroom.
Trevor is among the hundreds of proud owners of an antique piano in the city. “My mother bought this piano from an Anglo-Indian family in the 1950s. I played it before I left for Canada. Now it’s been two years that I have not played,” says the retired music teacher, who is among a handful in Shillong with the Trinity College Fellowship.
Trevor is also the proud owner of another piano, which she bought around 50 years ago during her stay in Canada. “But you can see the difference in elegance between the two,” she says as she caresses the polished wood of the old piano.
Piano is a common musical instrument in most households in Shillong passed down through generations. Once upon a time there would be a pianist in almost every house, some professionals and others amateurs. The A majors, B minors and C flats would lighten up evenings quite often. Now, pianos in many houses still exist as a remembrance of the glorious past but only a few sing out sonata.
Nara G Hynniewta, “one of the best piano teachers in town”, did not tinkle the forlorn keys for years. She has also stopped giving piano lessons. However, this has not lessened the grandeur of the German-make piano in her living room.
Hynniewta says the piano was bought by her mother when her brother was born. It was from Loreto Convent and over 100 years old.
She says there are many memories attached to the piano. “I would practise on that piano and my mother would be after me all the time, even during examinations, to seat on the instrument at least once a day,” says the 62-year-old pianist who has coached many talented artistes in Shillong.
“Though I still play piano in the church I have not played on the old piano for years,” she adds.
But is not the instrument lifeless without a player? “My son who is a thespian and singer plays when he is in town. My grandson too is good at playing the piano,” says Hynniewta with pride.
It is the same with Saphie Blah, one of Hynniewta’s students, who is “out of practice” for a long time now. The mahogany of the second-hand Rachael in the living room shines invitingly but Blah refuses to give in. After cajoling for quite some time, she agrees to take the pianist’s seat. “In 1989, the piano cost Rs 75,000. But we have maintained it well. It needs some tuning though,” says Blah as she tries to explain the difference in tune to two novices.
Lily Latiphlang’s Spencer made of maple wood too has a lonely life. Eric Nongkynrih, Latiphlang’s grandson, says none among the youngsters in the family has taken after grandma or great grandma in music. “Nonetheless, we play sometimes. Most of the time, it is just there,” he smiles.
The “piano culture” in Shillong is all thanks to the British raj and the subsequent arrival of missionaries to the hill state, observes Joyful Lawrence Shingnaisui, the “piano man” of Shillong.
Lawrence, as he is known among all the proud piano owners in the town, says the city has the most concentration of the musical instrument among the northeastern states, “and 95 per cent of them are antiques”.
The man in his forties left the job of a lecturer of Philosophy to know a piano inside out. Trevor says her century-old piano was overhauled by Lawrence and “that was the first time I saw the inside of the instrument and it as equally amazing”, she says as the amazement shines throw her glasses.
“The piano was first invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori in the 1700s. In Shillong, there are some of the fantastic pieces from the 1800s. Hamburg-based Steinway & Sons was the best in the world and as far as I can remember there are three Steinways in the city,” informs Lawrence, who also mentions grand pianos, one of which is graces Prabhat Sawian’s house in Mawprem.
The Austrian grand piano at Sawian’s house is a Lambert Holzl manufactured in 1873. It also won a gold medal in Melbourne in 1881, the golden inscription underneath the keyboard cover proudly declares.
Sawian, an architect, says there family bought the masterpiece from Rathin Sharma, a tea garden owner from Assam, in the early nineties. “It is with us now for 30years and we all play, though not regularly. The piano had added a lot of soul to many evenings,” he says as he runs his fingers on the “real ivory” keys.
The Department of Art and Culture and Pine Wood Hotel are among the proud owners of grand pianos, though not of opera size. There are owners of Blüthners, Hamiltons and Rachaels too in the city but most of the pianos that families possess are cottage pianos, or upright pianos, says Lawrence, who also deals in pianos and considers the musical instrument as the most sophisticated among the acoustics.
The Thoroses, who run St Peter’s School, are proud to have a grand piano which so far is the oldest. The 1815-made Rachael came from erstwhile Calcutta to Shillong when its owners, Marjorie and Alexander Thorose, shifted base.
Son Patrick Thorose narrates the love that is attached to the grand piano. Both his parents were from Calcutta. “The German grand was bought from an auction house in Calcutta. My father was looking for a gift for my mother on their wedding. He wanted a piano and so went to the auction house where he found this masterpiece, which was brought to India by a German in the late 1800s,” he goes back to the 1930s.
The mahogany piano arrived in Shillong in 1941 along with the young couple who had a dream to start a school. Marjorie, who was a Fellow from Trinity College and had received the Queen’s parchment, was the soul of the piano and “the happiest moments I could remember were those when dad sang as mom played the piano”, says Thorose.
The piano had a close shave in 2016 when a fire damaged a part of the school building and destroyed several documents, the Thorose’s family history and precious photographs of Marjorie creating musical magic.
Now the grandeur is locked in the darkness of a building in Laban and the owners are fighting a legal dispute over the property.
Talking about the maintenance of a piano, Lawrence says the musical instrument is expensive (some of the best ones now cost over Rs 20 lakh, the expert informs) and requires proper maintenance. “The placement of a piano in a house is the most important thing. Moisture and dampness spoil the instrument because the sound box is behind the piano,” he says.
Lawrence, who is also a musician, says he wants to take up a project to study the history of all the pianos in the city. “Original pianos have resale value too. However, now is the age of digital piano and many people are going for Yamaha. An individual’s taste and level interest determine what he or she will buy — an acoustic piano or a digital one,” he says and adds that Yamaha came to Shillong in 2009-10.
But owners of age-old pianos feel the value of the instrument cannot be measured in monetary terms. Many people that Sunday Shillong spoke to said they do not want to replace the old but might think of buying a digital later.
AD Dkhar, a resident of Jaiaw, says the family piano, a Chapel, was bought from Calcutta in 1975. “I was the one who started playing it first. Then my children and grandchildren too took interest.”
Rozareen, Dkhar’s granddaughter, remembers the days from her childhood. “My cousin brother and I would stand on our toes to reach the keys. We do not want to replace it because I am contemplating going for piano lessons,” she adds.
RL Shullai too has similar views. “There are so many memories associated with our 68-year-old piano. How can I even think of replacing it,” he says.
But many old-timers feel that the value of the acoustic piano has lessened over the years and many affluent people now keep it or buy one “as a piece of furniture” to stand in their living room. “The number of dedicated pianists is less nowadays. Piano is another embellishment now,” observes Hynniewta.
Despite the changing times and notion, the majestic instrument has an aura that remains unbeatable. As Lawrence aptly says, “Time and age only make the musical instrument more magnificent.”
(With inputs from Heather
Cecilia Phanwar)