1916

The serial number for my piano, The Volkert, is 177448.  According to this serial number wizard, she was probably completed some time in 1916.  Because the side of my lowest key has the date "Jul 2 - 1916" stamped into it, I decided that was as good a day as any to designate as The Volkert's official birthday.  That means she turned 100 on Saturday.

To celebrate the occasion, one of my best friends, soprano Malinda Healy, agreed to perform a program of "16 songs from 1916."  I chose 15 of the 204 files published in 1916 from The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, and ended with Irving Berlin's "I Love a Piano," which was published in December of 1915.  I'm not usually one for breaking rules, but occasionally, it is the right thing to do.

It was a great time.  Our guests started arriving a bit early for the 7:30 performance, so we'll just say the party started at 19:16.  Strangely enough, we ended up borrowing 16 chairs to add to our seating (6 chairs and 2 benches - yet another 16) to accommodate the 30 guests on the RSVP list.  In another coincidence, we had a total of 16 families: in addition to Malinda's family and mine, four were my friends, four were from the shop, four were from the church, and two were from Malinda's work.  Malinda brought a grand total of 9 relatives with her, and our guest of honor was my dad.  Not counting my immediate family or Malinda's immediate family, 19 + 16 = 35 people showed up, making a grand total of 42 people in the house.  Oh, and 4^2 = 16.  The audience joined in the choruses from two of the pieces, and they really can sing!  I was so impressed.

I'll end this memoir with pictures.  It would be a shame not to showcase the pretty covers of the original sheet music, so here they are, in program order.

Program

Roses of Picardy