ABSTRACT
It has become a commonplace that the piano played a vital part in the life cycle of the female members of the Victorian middle classes. Victorian stereotypes, whether expressed in non-fictional texts, novels, or poems, represent a particularly English response to a long-standing ambiguity in music's status. The time-honoured social practice of functionalizing female musical performance for courtship rituals reached a peak in the mid-nineteenth century, both exploiting music's erotic potential and containing it socially. The time-honoured social practice of functionalizing female musical performance for courtship rituals reached a peak in the mid-nineteenth century, both exploiting music's erotic potential and containing it socially. The literary effects of these inherent contradictions can be traced back to the early modern period, if not earlier.
