The piano at the home of Woodbourne, just south of Louisa, Virginia, was purchased by my grandfather Mr. Weir B. Gilmer after the family took up residence there after returning from India in 1926. It was formerly owned by the Porters. It is a "square grand", a type not so often seen these days. It does still play,though the pedal assembly has become detached, and the tuning is off after not being serviced for the better part of a century. Mostly it serves now as a platform to display my mother's doll collection. Still, it's an interesting instrument.
A piece of music I have really enjoyed is the Wagner Pilgrims' Chorus from Tannhaeuser. This arrangement for piano by John Hyatt Brewer was found in The Abridged Academy Song-Book, Charles H. Levermore, ed., The Athenum press, Boston, copyright 1895. This is a volume from my aunt Betty Anne Smith's collection. I had not run across it elsewhere, but it did appear in some other books as well as this one now available at Google Books. The piece speaks to me of the satisfaction returning home after a difficult trial elsewhere, a pilgrimage in Wagner's work, but I think of the returning veterans of foreign wars.
Wagner: Pilgrims' Chorus page 1
Wagner: Pilgrims' Chorus page 2
