Introduction: 'A Strange Heritage': from colonisation to transformation? Harriet Margolis; 1. Music in The Piano Claudia Gorbman; 2. The last patriarch Ann Hardy; 3. The Piano, the animus, and colonial experience John Izod; 4. Ebony and ivory: constructions of Maori in The Piano Leonie Pihama; 5. Foreign tunes? Gender and nationality in four countries' reception of The Piano Stephen Crofts.