We are occasionally reminded in various threads that, until the development
of recording techniques, people heard their music, classical or otherwise,
either at concerts or at home where they had learned to play these works,
often, in the case of orchestral works, in piano renditions.

It has occurred to me that, while serviceable electronic equipment to hear
broadcasts and recordings are today within the purchasing range of almost
anybody not on food stamps, pianos, even uprights, are still expensive
items.  I assume that pianos were similarly expensive, in terms of people's
earning powers, in the days before sound recordings.

How widely available to middle class families, would music playable in
piano arrangements have been before the days of radio and sound recordings?

Walter Meyer