Piano Questions and Answers from a Hundred Years Ago

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, July 26, 1913: Ma wanted me to keep digging at my music this morning. I don’t like to practice very well.

DSC08000.crop — Source: Ladies Home Journal (November, 1911)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Oh dear, Grandma just began taking piano lessons on June 13—it’s sad that she’s already tiring of practicing.

Playing the piano must have been extremely popular a hundred years ago. Back then there was even a column called “Piano Questions Answered by Josef Hofmann” in Ladies Home Journal.

Today I’m sharing two examples from his columns.

Playing Staccato and Legato Together

How can one play staccato when there are two voices, as in the notes of the second measure of the example? Naomi

Why should one finger be unable to play staccato while another finger of the same hand holds a key down? It takes a little practice, it is true, but it is by no means difficult, much less impossible.

Ladies Home Journal (March, 1912)

Blue Hydrangeas and Other Questions

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, July 25, 1913: Not worth writing about.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since I knew my grandmother when she was much older than the teen in the diary, I’m constantly trying to reconcile how the young Helena in the diary evolved into the grandma I knew.

Since it was a slow day a hundred years ago today, I’m going to share a memory that I have of Grandma as an older woman—when she actually was my grandmother.

—

Every year when the hydrangeas bloom I think of Grandma. I can remember playing with my cousins—and seeing Grandma “watering” her hydrangeas with a can filled with something that wasn’t water.

I ran over and asked what she was doing . She explained how she needed to add aluminum sulfate to the soil to make the hydrangeas blue.

I couldn’t understand how a flower could possibly change colors depending upon what was put on the soil—so I asked a zillion questions. And, I remember Grandma carefully and patiently answering each one.

In many ways this story is very typical of many of my memories of Grandma. When I was a small child Grandma always welcomed questions and treated each question with respect.

When I was a youngster, she treated me like an older person than almost anyone else I knew—but I always understood her answers and really liked that she knew that I was big enough to understand what she was saying when she explained complex things to me.

Did Some Sewing

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, July 24, 1913: Did some sewing today.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Hmm. . . “Sewing” is such a general term. Did Grandma do it by hand or did she use a treadle sewing machine? What kind of sewing did she do?

Mending? . . . or Patching?

patch-01.crop — Source; The Dressmaker (Butterick Publishing Company, 1911)

Sewing a new dress?

wils36335.crop.A.J — Source: Ladies Home Journal (June, 1912)

Embroidery?

Why Do Children Toil?

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, July 22, 1913: Nothing much going.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to loop back to a couple posts that I made in early July.

A few weeks ago the diary entry indicated that Grandma’s father hired a “little boy” to help with the farm work—and a few days later the boy ran away. At the time, I wondered how old the boy was.

I recently was browsing through some 1913 issues of Good Housekeeping, and came across an article titled, “Why Do Children Toil?” Since a boy helping with farm work is very different from a child working in a factory, the article really isn’t very relevant to this conversation, but I still found it interesting and thought that I’d share a few quotes and pictures.

Neither beasts of the filed nor birds of the forest impose the burdens of existence upon their young. Only man lives upon his offspring. Why is it?

Involuntary poverty underlies child labor. . .

Poverty drives many a child into the factory.

Good Housekeeping (July, 1913)

Photo caption: Midnight workers in a glass-factory. To the company, it is just a question of getting the work done at the lowest cost, and youth is ever cheaper than age. Some states have forbidden this.

Which Name? Ruth, Ruther, Rufus, or Ruthie

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, July 20, 1913: Went to Sunday School this morning. Ruther and I went up to church this evening.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Hmm. . . Ruther. . . That’s a new nickname for Ruth.

Was Grandma annoyed with her sister Ruth. . . or feeling kindly toward her? Throughout the diary Grandma called her Rufus when she was annoyed with her. When the sisters were getting along well, Grandma generally called her Ruth. . . though she occasionally referred to her as Ruthie.

Not Presentable

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, July 19, 1913: Had company again, but I didn’t make my appearance, since I did not consider myself presentable.

Picture of a bedroom in the April, 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Did Grandma go to her bedroom to avoid the company?

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Wow, it’s amazing that the Muffly’s had company two days in a row. Visitors are seldom mentioned in the diary, but the previous day, Grandma wrote, “We had company this evening.”

Who were the visitors? Was it the same people as the preceding day or different people?

And, why was Grandma worried about whether she looked presentable? If the guests were friends of her parents, I won’t think that she would care how she looked.

Grandma was having a difficult July, and often felt down. For example, on July 14 she wrote that she was “sick at heart”. Maybe the guests were older people whose conversation didn’t interest her so she didn’t want to see them—but it also seems like the company might have included someone about her age (and maybe male), and but that her unhappiness unfortunately kept her from joining the group.

Visitors on a Summer Evening

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, July 18, 1913: We had company this evening.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (July, 1912)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Sometimes it’s nice not to have too much detail—because it allows me to create my own mind pictures.

If I squint my eyes I can almost see Grandma, her sister Ruth, and their parents sitting on the porch entertaining guests on a hot summer evening—and maybe serving cookies and iced tea—while her little brother Jimmie chases fireflies as dusk falls over the farm.

DSC06034.crop — Source: Ladies Home Journal (July, 1912)