Battle Hymn of the Republic

My mother’s mother was a piano teacher.  I never met her on account of her dying while my mother was pregnant with me, but we talked of her often.   One of the things that reminded us of her was playing the piano.   I remember my mother telling me how they would have a piano tuner come from time to time.   The piano tuner was blind but had excellent hearing.   My mother said she never understood why her mother would talk to the tuner in an extra loud voice, but she always did.

We have a piano in our house now and have had a piano tuner come to tune it once it got acclimated to the humidity in our basement.   He said he could tune by ear, but using technology like his iPad with a tuning app was better on the piano because it was less adjustments on the various strings.   He told me a lot about piano tuning, much of which went way over my head.   But the piano is tuned now and people who can tell a difference like my best friend who was a concert pianist in a prior life and our music therapist say it sounds good.    It sounds about the same to me but I lack training and knowledge.

My mother and I have co-written a Christmas song together the last two years.   This year we didn’t get started in time but we’ve revamped the plan and are going to sing Christmas carols on Christmas day with our family members who are coming to town for the holiday.

My mother is bringing “mimeographed” copies of some Christmas songs, which must mean old classic since I haven’t seen a mimeograph machine since I was young.   This works because my children already know some of the old classics.

My cousin and her family are coming for Christmas Day dinner which has brought to mind some times from my childhood with her and my mother and a piano.   From time to time either my mother would want to play things and have us sing or we’d ask her the same.   I always marveled at my mother’s ability to read music—complicated music—and play along shifting keys to whatever we needed to sing in our vocal range.   There was one song though that Rebecca and I liked to ask for: The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

This was a fiendishly difficult piece if the number of notes on the page was any indication.   It also was a fun song to sing.  My cousin and I would sing along, watching her play and flip the pages of the sheet music.   She would get to this interlude where we didn’t sing but my mother would hammer through chords with a level of focus that would have brought beads of sweat to my forehead, and then we’d finish the piece together.

I remember the sheet music being worn and almost falling apart.   My mother still has the same piano.   I wonder if the music is still inside the piano bench somewhere?

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Knock You Down Game:   Edna got my son a set of inflatable chest balls for Christmas.   You add air and wear them like a large vest.    Then you go somewhere preferably large and soft, run at each other and try to knock the other child down.    My husband just sent me a video of the two children in the yard about to smash into each other with my son yelling out, “let me show you what it’s like to get knocked down!”   My husband sent a preparatory text beforehand about how he warned them on head trauma and eye surgery.    Their friend, Gavin, stood on the side and gave them pointers on how to knock each other down more effectively.   My husband sent a text shortly after sending me a video of them saying, “better not tell Dr. Trese about this.”