Reclaiming the past

[larryhammer]

When I was born, my parents put $500 in a savings account for me, for expenses of the future.* It came out more quickly than expected: in second grade, most of it was used to buy a piano -- my piano. A plain, 40" upright Kohler & Campbell, about 10 years old. I used it for lessons for five years, and then thumping out my teenage years with Bach,** Mozart, Debussy, and Ravel.***

I left my piano behind when I went to college. When my parents retired, it went with them -- played by my mother and, occasionally, during visits, me. By which you might infer I'm rusty. But so, now, is my mother: because of arthritis, she rarely plays -- nor knit nor quilt, alas. Between that, a desire to remodel, and my being grown up enough to live in a place with space, it was time for them off-load it -- or from my point of view, retrieve it. This week, it traveled by trailer to our living room.





It sounds a little brassy when the curtain's open, and is in desperate need of acclimation and tuning and two replacement strings, but still has a decent tone. Time to start over with the notebooks for Anna Magdalena and Wilhelm Friedemann.


* The accuracy of this part of this account has been disputed, but it's the only one that accounts for my memories.

** Okay, so the Well-Tempered Clavier may not be traditionally thumpy music, but a good, solid toccata did my adolescent soul good.

*** I rarely touched Chopin, and never Liszt -- despite having the hand-span for him. The Romantics had very little appeal. Still don't, though I like some Brahms.

---L.

Comments

[rhonawestbrook.livejournal.com]

OHHH it's beautiful! Those old pianos are so precocious. You can have a piano tuner out and I bet it will sound good as new. I grew up playing the piano, but I play by ear. Have always envied those of you who can manage the classical music I love so much. Fur Elise,(or however you spell it) is about as far as I go in that direction:-)

Here's to you and many happy years with your piano.

:::: Raises coffee mug::::

[larryhammer]

Whereas I always envied those who didn't need sheet music. I never could memorize anything (tho' I came close with some of Bach), let alone improvise.

I also envied those who could talk or sing while playing.

---L.

[rhonawestbrook.livejournal.com]

See? now you made me feel better. I can play and sing....used to do praise bands all the time etc....but always feel so inferior around those talent souls like yourself, who can make the piano sing for them....yanno?

[larryhammer]

It's more of a limping whistle than singing at the moment.

Practice!

---L.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Jeez, I could have written this statement. I've got a couple of things memorized, and that's about it. Improvization... nope, definitely not there yet, even though I've been carrying a little keyboard around for ten years now to encourage playing it when I'm not doing anything else.

I need somebody to play with. I manage this about once every other year. It's not enough.

Are you sure it's yours?

[janni.livejournal.com]

Re: Are you sure it's yours?

[larryhammer]

I'm still waiting for the first hairballs to show up.

---L.

[paulakate.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely piece! Congratulations on the retrieval.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

What joy.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Beautiful! Annita has a piano tuner....

[larryhammer]

We've been emailing around for recommendations.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

A handsome piano!

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

Nice! One teacher of mine made me play Chopin and Chopin only for months. It was years before I could get back to him.

[larryhammer]

For months? Eek.

I just found my old Clementi books. Him and scales is where I'm at now.

---L.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Larry!!!!!

How wonderful!!!!!!

To have your own piano in your own house!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot speak to this enough, since, ah-hem, being married to a musician.

No matter what the primary instrument is of any musician, since the days of tempered tuning and pianos taking over from clavicords etc., it's hard to find an educated musician who doesn't want a piano ....

Last night our dear friends' son, 13, whose dad is a terrific sax and clarinette player amd composer, and whose mom is a video artist, and who has had the saxes appropriate to age - range since the git go -- well, he shows every time we're all together, that the piano is the instrument he's really killing with. And he's only 13.

Well, having a well-connected pro parent helps so much.

So much.

Vaquero was held back and blocked by his own scientist / math parents in every possible way from music, you know. So we're very sensitive to this.

Love, C.

[larryhammer]

My scientist parents insisted on music lessons of some form. Though they managed me rather well, I must say, since when they started I had no whiff of parental decree.

---L.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

You were very fortunate with your parents, Larry.

There are some ways that his parents' attitudes and practices concerning music have forever crippled Vaquero in his career, I think.

Love, C.

[harvestar.livejournal.com]

That's so cool! I always wanted to take piano lessons, but we didn't own a piano.

Trombone's not really a thing to have people sing along with.

[larryhammer]

Er, no, it isn't. March, betimes, but not sing.

---L.