You may or may not know that I come from a long line of musicians. My mom is the organist and music director of her church, she's the staff accompanist for her school district, she teaches private piano, and she's a NYSSMA adjudicator.

Her brother went to music school and has a lovely baritone voice. Their parents, my grandparents, were both school music teachers and church organists. Grandma and Grandpa met playing cello in their college orchestra.

I (briefly) went to music school for piano, but it didn't stick because I have bad wrists and I hate practicing. My family and personal history being what it is, I have a piano and a small library of music. Including this very beat up binding between Brahms and Chopin.

Check out this cover. This was my grandfather's copy and I think he used it in college!

He has a note explaining the different markings for dynamics (how loud to play) on one piece

He took notes about symphony/concerto/sonata movements on the back cover

He marked dates on several pages. Possibly due dates for piano lessons? (There are more of these, looks like he studied it over a summer)

He spent 2 pages crossing out these notes. Looks like he was having problems with ties! (Connecting 2 note-heads of the same pitch by a curved line is a tie and it means you don't play the note again but you hold it for the total time shown by the note-heads)

While I was poking around all this, I noticed another old-looking binding right next to my old Hanon, bane of every child forced to take piano lessons.

The newest date on this Czerny is 1939 (we'll come back to this) and there is no name on the cover. It is old enough that the page corners have started to flake off and all the paper feels soft.

But there are some markings and this paperclip inside of it. The paperclip has rusted and left marks on the adjacent pages, I'm not touching it. My mom confirms that the hand writing was her mother's.

I don't know how old this Czerny is, because editions from Schirmer have looked like this since 1939 or earlier. I have a Schirmer edition of Chopin Etudes (Friedheim) with a 1939 design copyright and 1967 renewal.

But I do know that this Czerny is O L D because check out this price list! They list those Chopin Etudes I mentioned for $1.50 but the price on my copy is $7.50.

I will never play these because I am notoriously rough to bindings. So when things are safer, I will pack them all up and ship them to my mom. I think she'll enjoy having them more than I will. Maybe you will enjoy this message from my grandfather's music?

Tagging @taranoelle77 because I know she doesn't get on Twitter a lot but I think she'd really like to see our grandparents in this thread. Also @SthMtnMike in case he wants to show it to her or their children.