Farewell to the family piano

Subject: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 10:05 AM

Yesterday the family piano moved out of our house. It has been in my care since 1982, when I accepted responsibility for it after my mother's death, and now it has gone to live with my brother.

I can, sort of, play the piano, but it was never my instrument of choice. I'm a singer who plays things with strings and frets, and the piano was always for figuring out new stuff, or for other people to play. A large Heintzman upright, it takes up as much space as a three-seater sofa, and requires careful placement and maintenance. It was a jolt to let it go, but I feel liberated without it. Also, the living room looks much less congested, and the instruments I do play are no longer shoved into a corner.

When I was a child, the piano in the living room was the unmistakeable sign of genteel, cultured people. The children of such a family took piano lessons following the curriculum laid down by the Royal Conservatory of Toronto and competed annually in the Kiwanis Music Festival or some such event. They played Bach études, Beethoven sonatas and Chopin preludes, and when they got really good they might rip off a little Rachmaninov to impress the neighbours. I'm not sure just how *musical* the entire experience was for many who went through it, for they would reach Grade 6 or so in the Conservatory system, usually about the age of 14, and quit, swearing never to play again -- or at least not that stuff.

I was not one of those piano-playing children, for I wanted to sing, not plunk keys with my back to the room. But although the piano was never central to my musical life, it became my responsibility because I was the most conventionally "musical" one in the family -- I sang in a choir and did wedding gigs (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring was always a sure seller), and laboured away at the art song repertoire. Of course, it could not be *sold* -- God, no! We were, after all, genteel, cultured people ...

But over the years I got tired of the choir and the art songs -- so much work, so little fun -- and began to focus on other kinds of music. I met Edmund, who prefers Sam Hall to Sheep May Safely Graze, and started to pay more attention to my guitar. The Getaway and the Celtic College at Goderich completed the transformation, and then I took up the mandolin. I can never go back -- now I'm tempted by the tenor banjo!

So farewell, a long farewell, to the old Heintzman. I'm just a picker now.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 10:52 AM

"farewell, to the old Heintzman. I'm just a picker now."....if that doesn't sound like the title of a song, I don't know what does!

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:06 AM

Sounds sooo familiar.....sold my mom's spinet when she died because I already had one....bought it for dauhter for the Mandantory Lesson thing. She likes piano, but hated her teacher.

I can only sorta play it....chords and melody. Can't read bass clef at all. I've told her that when she is settled someday, it is hers. An electronic keyboard or photo works just as well for theory stuff.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:07 AM

... and wouldn't it be a fine song to serenade the cows?

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:27 AM

Great pics, Wilfried! Darlin' cows!

After moving my beautiful, cherrywood piano cross-country, twice, my husband finally convinced me to sell it. I still miss it, very much. He wants to get one of the electronic ones so that we can easily enter all of my brother's music into the PC and produce/print it out. I suppose that's what we will get, eventually, but it will never take the place of an old-fashioned spinet. I didn't realise how much stress I released through playing that piano until it was gone. The family piano has always been an icon in my family, too.

kat

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:33 AM

LOL! I've serenaded cows a couple times too....they really do seem to like it.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: LilyFestre
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:34 AM

Just 2 days ago, I was given a piano that belonged to a dear neighbor of mine who is now in a nursing home. I am sure that it brought years of enjoyment to her entire household and I feel very lucky to have it in my home where we can add even more memories to it.

I will think of my dear friend (part of the family, really)every time I sit down to play....every single time.

Michelle

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: GUEST,Paranoid Android
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:41 AM

When I was a child we were bordering on poor
But my father, the bricklayer always made sure
That despite the lack of luxury and even lack of space
The piano in the parlour always took up pride of place.
Now when I first bought my own home nearly forty years ago
I had wife and child, one table, and nothing else to show
I went shopping for some furniture with what little cash I had
But when I brought my purchase home I could see my wife was mad.
My buddy with the Hiace van dropped it in my garden
And when I played it in the driveway I could see my wife's looks harden.
I never had a lesson, I just learned from Jerry Lee
And I've played it almost every day to amuse no one but me
Now that old piano stands there in its rightful place of pride
While I play my daily workout on the Yamaha by its side

(All true).

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Rockhen
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:43 AM

Am just finishing sniffling and sobbing over the thought of that poor piano being banished...I was lucky enough to have piano lessons and followed the exams/festivals/ route but was always more tempted by picking out the latest pop song or tv theme or just 'going off on one' tinkling and plonking along. I am glad I had that background because I feel I have the best of both worlds now I have moved onto playing in bands and such, (well ok, I had to buy a stage piano cos my childhood one has to stay at home!)
Glad you are enjoying the guitar etc but don't be too hard on the old piano...for me it is a wonderful instrument, so versatile and so beautiful, funny, powerful, poignant...I could go on for ever raving about it (And I probably am raving, too!)
If I didn't have my piano, or keyboards, accordion etc...I would definitely have to take up smoking, hardened drinking, some form of mind-altering substance as I would lose one of the greatest fixes of my life. Long live the piano cos I will always love you.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: open mike
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 12:43 PM

BOOM DE AH DAH
alas, many a parlor piano
only gets to play Chop Sticks
and Heart And Soul.

mine longs for more opportunities
to be played...right now it serves
as a shelf for a terrarium, and a
music rack...ah, the old 88...

i remember hearing a song about
someone's father who played the
piano in a parade and i can jsut
imagine the logistics of hoisting
a full sized piano onto a parade
float!!

i am just now arranging to find
another home for the other key
board in my life...that accordion
that sits unused on the shelf will
soon be in the hands of someone who
will play it i hope...

i hope your brother's house proves
to be a good place for the instrument
in your family!

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 01:19 PM

I understand - There are ghosts in those old pianos.

I was pissed at my sister when I visted their home and found that they had sold the family piano that my mother had played when she was little. My sister should have known that I wanted it. I didn't really consider that I didn't know how to play it - and I couldn't afford to move it from Florida to Texas.

But I swear that if I ever sell a good instrument again that I will write down it's history and put it inside the case. If the new owner throws it away - so be it.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 01:41 PM

You're right, Wesley; a family piano has soul, and I'm glad I had the sense to ask around before putting the fateful advertisement in the paper. Among the cousinage are at least five capable keyboard players, and my brother (whose main instrument is the pipes) was always more of a player than a singer. He's at something of a loose end these days, and winter's coming; a daily dose of Czerny will be good for him.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 01:48 PM

The other problem with pianos is that you have to place them on the longest wall of the room. And that's the same wall where foks now place their big screen TV sets.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 03:31 PM

Unless they're weird, and have way too many bookcases -- like us.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 03:50 PM

And, on an inside wall, at that!

At least we still have my brother's, my sister's, and my mom's (now, my other sister's) pianos in our family!

well done Punkoid.

Rockhen, exactly!

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 04:18 PM

Books - the original laptop !

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: sapper82
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 04:48 PM

From: Wesley S - PM
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 01:19 PM

I understand - There are ghosts in those old pianos.

BBC Radio 4 did a play a couple of years ago about the memories of a piano. One of their best efforts for a VERY long time.

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Rockhen
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 06:41 PM

I like the idea of putting the history of a piano inside it...Will do that in mine...I have had it for 30+ years and it is like an extra member of my family...well sort of!

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 04:13 AM

katlaughing - Great pics, Wilfried! Darlin' cows!

... and what about darling Charmion?

Subject: RE: Farewell to the Family Piano
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 09:51 AM

I had the mixed fortune to be the child of two packrats, and descended from a long line of packrats. For most of my adult life, I have been gradually easing myself out from under a considerable weight of other peoples' possessions, a task complicated by expectations that I should value those possessions as their original owners valued them. That makes sense when you're talking a fiddle (count 'em, one), a piano, or even a set of table linen or china, but when the accumulation fills a large house (14 rooms) to overflowing and ranges from construction materials to volumes of poetry in Latin (as it did in the case of my parents), you will drive yourself completely nuts if you allow yourself to dwell on the emotional freight that comes with the stuff.

I have no children, and my brothers also are childless. Many of our extended network of cousins have children, however, and some of them have learned to duck and run when they hear I'm coming just in case I happen to have a rocking chair or a box of books in the car that I'm sure they could use. They often can, but people get tired of always being on the receiving end.

In normal families, movable property disseminates among the descendants until it falls apart; in ours, largely because of my mother's acquisitive habits, a heck of a lot of stuff (some of it very nice) concentrated in one place -- my parents' house, where it was meticulously preserved. The 20-year project of redistributing all that stuff has taught me one very important lesson: the value of any item is entirely subjective. When what you really need is 18 square feet of floor space, even a fine old Heintzman piano that has been in the family since 1900 can be more of a burden than an asset.

I have not become totally callous, however. I have sold a fair few of my mother's prizes over the years, but I always try to give family stuff to a relative. What they do with it is their business, but at least it's off my slop chit -- along with the aforementioned emotional freight!