I meant to convey something more of a “yes, and…” rather than argue. It would be different kind of messed up if it sounded angelic but required a blood of a endangered turtle to be fed into the unholy tube in order to keep playing. But like this, there wasn’t even the point. Vain, cruel, corrupt. Which is to say, I agree.

I do think that there are layers to the corruption in play here. It’d be plenty evil even if it sounded good and looked bad, since cruelty and stuff. Pianos are expensive, and were even more back in 1853, so having and playing one was a hobby limited to elites, which had to exploit the work of the poor to afford it and the rest of their luxurious lifestyle, which makes it worse again. Due to it being one of the possible symbols of the class status, it’s very ownership rather than a function became a priority, which then made it a piece of visual art to be admired rather than the tool to create such art, which degenerated the meaning of such expense even further. The author most likely wasn’t thinking about the cruelty, about the class or about the demeaning the art, or maybe they were and it was the point. Either way, the result is something beautiful that shouldn’t have ever existed, and the “incredible poetic” characteristic that I mentioned earlier (maybe a bit of an overstatement) referred in part to this contradiction.

I’ll counter your trees with my humans. Would you agree that skinning children to make drums would be “needlessly cruel”? The creator might have thought that it was necessary for whatever reason, but neither the children nor any sane observer would agree. It’s fine to disagree on what’s moral and what’s not, and it’s up to the invidual to decide for themselves. I think killing turtles for vanity project is cruel, especially since you have all those trees that just deserve to be carved up for being so tall. I believe there is some common ground most interested parties can agree on. And if not, then the situation is probably quite complicated and you should rethink making those drums.

There is something incredibly poetic about the hubris and cruelty required to create an instrument or other tool that enables art, something that does makes us distinct from the animals, out of the remains of needlesly taken lives. Transcending through art beyond human morals, somehow landing us back in the dirt with other worms, struggling only to self-satisfy. It’s only fitting that it looks pretty, it better does when the price is so high.