A busy morning so far!
Don has been gently pushing me to get the piano tuned and to have whatever needs to be repaired attended to. I’ve known since the last time it was tuned that some repair was needed and it was just not a top priority. He took over and called a local guy who tunes and repairs pianos for a lot of professional pianists and this morning, he came to check it out.
All of what you see here has been removed and taken back to his shop. He found the same things in need of repair, as the previous tuner. The hammers need filing, the dampers need adjusting, screws need tightening – the keys had what was called a ‘shallow key dip’ because of that and the action will be much better when all is repaired. He’ll bring it back in about a week and put it all back together. Then he’ll tune it.
That serial number tells me that it was made by Chickering (an American company based in Boston) somewhere between 1940 – 1943. Chickering was one of the finest piano makers in the country for decades and the pianos were incredibly well made. Abraham Lincoln had a Chickering. Adam (the piano tuner) told us that pianos of that era were so much better than any of the Asian import pianos made nowadays. The import pianos are cheaper, but the quality is lacking. I remember that the man who tuned our piano when I was young made an offer to buy the piano every time he tuned it.
So. I’m lucky. My grandmother bought this piano. Both she and my mother played it. Every time I went to my grandparents’ house, I played it (banged on it when I as little). Eventually, my grandmother had it moved to my parents’ house so I could take lessons. My brother and sisters played it. My uncle and aunt – who played beautifully, by ear – played it during family Christmas Eve celebrations. It’s priceless. So, even though it’s somewhat costly, it’s worth it. It needs some love. And I need to play it more. I’ve sat down to play once or twice lately but it was so badly out of tune that I couldn’t handle it.
Thanks for prodding me, Don.
Also this morning, some house moving:
I moved Don’s Studio (with his permission) out to the upstairs hallway where it sits on top of the linen cabinet. This real estate was previously occupied by the modern dollhouse, which has been moved to the bedroom.
Now I can actually see it and work on it!
I’m going to start sorting through things in the office today, a bit at a time. I have 4 big Trader Joe’s bags full of books that will be donated to the library. Right now, they’re in the car and they’ll stay there until we have a non-rainy day. Right now, it’s pouring out there and I don’t want them to get wet.
I’ve started the Louise Penny. I’m about 80 pages in. I’m going slowly so I can savor every word.
Happy Friday.
glad you have that piano with all your lovely family history and memories … and that you will soon be able to enjoy playing it (in tune)!
i would probably need some encouraging, too, because of the hassle and cost of repair, but think it’s so worth it, especially for maintaining family pieces. two members of my family are downsizing/moving next month and won’t have room for a beautiful, much-loved chair that belonged to our maternal grandparents. i happily paid money to get it moved (because none of us have a pickup truck), rather than have it go outside of our family. totally worth it. :)
glad the studio/dollhouse switch works for you, too. they look great!
and congrats on giving away four bags of books! i’m good on the books i have right now, but need to go through old files and find a place to sell two old collections (perpetual calendars and snow globes).
happy friday! happy weekend!
kathy in iowa
We feel like we made a good investment in the life of the piano and it actually was less money than I thought it would be!
Those old pianos had a much better sound…wish I could hear one of you play it!
Don doesn’t really play the piano. I’m the pianist.
how wonderful to have quality and to preserve it. in anything really but especially in a beautiful musical instrument like your Chickering piano! and the memories it inspires. oh my!
my husband Bob was like your aunt. he played by ear. he just had that gift. and what a wonderful gift it was. he played the piano and organ and guitar and mandolin. I miss that talent. he could also sing beautifully. I was so spoiled. and I always had the best seat in the house! LOL.
I like that you’re changing your little houses around in the cottage. it’s like seeing them with fresh eyes. xo
Same here, Tammy. I have the best seat in the house!
Don tells me that seeing his mini studio in it’s new place makes him see it with fresh eyes.
Your piano makes me so happy—and so sad, at the same time. It’s one of the few regrets that I have, never really learning to play as a kid, when your brain can really learn things. We didn’t have a piano back then, so when I visited my grandparents I played theirs. But without lessons, no technique was learned. When I had lessons as an adult, my fingers just would not do as I told them, and my pretty good “ear” was not happy with the results. My Mom plays by ear and so does our son. I really missed that boat. When we downsized, we gave the piano away, because Mom and Son just didn’t visit often enough to justify the space it took up. But I’m so glad that you will be hearing yours again, soon! It is a treasure.
It is. I’m anxious to play it again and all the work that the tuner is doing will make it much more satisfying.
What a treasure your piano is! Chickering! as soon as I saw that name there I said “Wow!!” You’re inspiring me to get ours tuned again, although ours has a shorter family history than yours.
Claudia, you are such an inspiration. Parting with books – perhaps my biggest issue – still trying to find the right mantra to tell myself so I can release them to the world. Ridiculous! New Year’s Resolution in progress . . . .
Parting with books is extremely hard for me and I have to be in a ruthless mood or I just can’t do it. But I’m happy I did. My favorite books are all still here, though!
What I really, really, REALLY love here is your skyline atop the modern dollhouse! It’s wonderful! Happy Weekend.
Thank you, Jeanie! I got that at the Art Institute of Chicago last year.
Happy for you to have your piano. Enjoy.
Marilyn
I will, Marilyn.
Golly, I’ll bet that piano repair is costly. Still, there’s a lot of history there to protect. I have my mom’s console piano which my kids practiced on and needs tuning badly. I don’t feel a strong connection to it. Now, I’d feel differently if it was the old upright that I practiced on back in the day, but when we moved when I was in high school, my parents jettisoned it and bought the console. Still, I’ve always lived in a house with a piano and, though there are days I’d love to have the console hauled away, I hesitate. I love that yours has been loved by so many members of your family for so many decades.
It’s actually not nearly what I thought it would be. And with the kind of specialized work he will be doing and the eventual tuning, it is worth it. I neglected this piano for too long. It should have been tuned. I’m determined to keep it in good shape.
I gasped when I saw the Chickering “label” inside your open piano. Lucky girl!!! Even if it weren’t so full of family history, it would be a treasure. I have a heavy oak upright that my grandmother bought in the 1930s for her girls. She worked in a fish cannery standing in freezing water up to her ankles to make the payments, probably a nickel a week. As a baby, I was drawn to that huge thing and the story goes I was always so gentle with the keys that she was determined the piano would be mine someday. I was home from school on a random weekday when I was 9 when I big Mayflower moving truck pulled up to our tract home. Namie’s piano rolled off and into our small dining room and I thought I had gone to heaven. Several years of lessons followed as well as a box of vintage sheet music from my aunts, my aunt’s mother in law, some ladies who played for the Episcopal church in Hillsboro, OR, and music my mom played. I lugged that enormous box to a second floor apartment in California, to Rhode Island, with a crane into two other second floor apartments (why always the second floor?), had an agreement with the family downstairs to keep it in their living room with playing rights when I lived in yet another second floor apartment in Newport, and then brought it here to my home in CT. It kept a tuning like you wouldn’t believe, but about 10 years ago the tuner informed me he wasn’t sure how much longer the sound board would last. I’ve been afraid since then to find out the instrument had reached the end of its life. My playing time eventually went dormant. But it’s been in the back of my mind for years and finally when I hauled out the holiday sheet music this year, and heard just how pitiful the poor thing sounded, I decided, like Don, to take action. As luck would have it, a few years ago a piano restoration business popped up just down the road from us. The owner agreed to come by and check out my piano after the new year. He warned me that replacing the works would be extremely expensive and not worth the investment (my instrument is not a Chickering, it’s a Thompson, manufactured in Chicago in the early part of the 1900s by Thompson, a segment of the Stegner piano company). It was a good, sturdy, well made but moderately priced piano used primarily by schools because of its good quality and ability to take a licking and keep on ticking. Which it has done. However, given the family history of this particular piano, if indeed it needs to be rebuilt and can be and I can afford it, I’m willing to make the effort. It’s one of my very first memories. One of the ivory keys has a small round burn hole in it from my grandfather’s cigarette. The black keys are very worn from decades of family fingers. One of the legs has deep grooves in it from a precious cat who loved wood. And there is a sun bleached oval on one side from a position in one of the many apartments (on the second floor) that I dragged it to. You know how you can’t put a price on that kind of history. I’m really tickled that Don and I were inspired at almost the same time to pay attention to the music of the spheres. LOL. Do you think the fact that Don was able to retrieve his much-loved guitar revived his spark (no pun intended) and brought the piano’s plight to the forefront? I hope that when you’re baby is back together, and you have some practice time, you may grace us with a small concert video. I would dearly love to hear your precious treasure in action.
I love the look of old upright pianos. I’d actually prefer an upright rather than this spinet, but the family piano is this one, so that’s that. You have so many memories with yours. I couldn’t afford to move it from place to place because I was a poor graduate student, then a poor professor at Boston University. Once I moved to San Diego and was earning more money, I finally could afford to have it moved. I think you are so wise to make the effort to rebuild it, Nora. Some things are priceless – and your piano is that for you. Mine had ivory keys, but over the years, they became discolored and broken, so when I moved it to SD, I had them replaced – even though it broke my heart to say goodbye to the ivory keys.
Don has been talking about the piano for a while, but I think you’re right. I had no idea the guitar had been preying on his mind, that he regretted selling it. He always wants to hear me play more. So the combination of the guitar coming back to him and the piano sitting there – unused – in the living room, spurred him on to nag me about it. I’m glad he did.
Let me know what happens with the piano, what the restorer has to say about it. By the way, I remember Thompson pianos very well – I played on some of them when I was in school.
I go try to go slowly when reading a book I have been waiting for. It’s hard because I read fast and if it’s good you want to devour it. Then, I’m sad when it ends and you have to wait a long time for the next in the series.
Question: what did you think of the latest Susan Hill book?
I know! Now I’m almost halfway through it, so I deliberately put it down for a while today!
I liked the latest Susan Hill, though I seem to remember thinking the plot was overly intricate. What did you think?
I usually love her books and Simon is such a great character, but this one did not feel the same. The whole plot on the island took a lot of time and then he just left without a real resolution. But, I won’t complain too much, because she said she was done with the series and then she wasn’t haha
Exactly! At least she came through with another Serailler book.
How wonderful to have that piano! It will be fun to play once it’s tuned. The moving of the doll houses is good so you can work on some this winter. It has rained rained here but I see a peek of sunshine this morning. Yay!
Sunshine here today, as well. Hallelujah! (Though it’s windy and I don’t like windy.)
I learned to play on my grandmother’s heavy!!!! dark wood upright. My dad had to put extra supports under the floor of our home when she gave it to us. I am in my 70’s,. learned to play on that piano as did my youngest sister. She went to college on a music scholarship, won Most Talented in the state beauty contest by playing piano, entertained many patients in my mother’s last few years in a nursing home, and has taught many students varied musical instruments in her work life. After I retired from nursing, I worked 5 years as church musician. All because our mother got that old piano. When that old piano had lost its usefulness (7 children in my mother’s family, then 7 children in our family will cause that!), my dad had the wood cut and made into a beautiful chest (on wheels) for my sister’s home. Thanks for your memories & allowing me to reflect on mine. So which Louise Penny book are you reading?
Isn’t amazing what one piano can do? Love that story, Jan!
Have you ever read anything by Martha Grimes?
Yes, I read all of her books many years ago.
Hi Claudia, You probably know that pianist Glenn Gould owned and played a Chickering piano. Here is an interesting link:https://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic.php?id=3329
Betty
Thanks for the link, Betty! Actually, I didn’t know that! I love that he owned a Chickering.