I happen to own a Honda Odyssey van. I wouldn't have a minivan, except that I'm also a harpist and need a vehicle that size to cart my harp around in. Luckily, the harmonium will just fit. So, a week ago Tuesday, my partner and I jumped in the van, and drove from northern New Jersey out to Suffolk County on Long Island to inspect and hopefully buy the instrument. A 75-mile drive, partly through New York City. Took the George Washington Bridge: an hour to get across. I-95 in upper Manhattan and the south Bronx: a little like driving through Hell. Rain. Heavy traffic until half-way out the island. Finally arrived at the owner's location. Inspected the instrument and decided to buy it. Put it on a piano dolly and took it out to the van. Route: along the edge of an in-ground swimming pool, being careful not to drop it in! Down a couple stairs; turn; down another stair; across the lawn in the backyard. Through a gap in the fence, which the owner had just created for this purpose. Over the concrete curb at the bottom of the fence. Through some undergrowth at the side of the house. Around to the front; across the front lawn; finally--onto a paved walkway!---and then, arriving at the driveway and into the van. The harmonium is not light, but also not as heavy as I expected it to be; so the two of us were able to wrangle it into the van.
The owner is a retired guy, very friendly, who isn't a musician himself but collects instruments. He also tried to sell me a little melodion--I didn't even look at it; it had been painted white--and also a reed organ that was buried behind years of clutter in his garage. I was actually somewhat interested in that but it was not accessible at that moment and I had no more room in the van, so I passed up that offer!
Off we went. Lunch at a local Friendly's restaurant. Not there 20 minutes when the previous owner walked in--he had found part of the feeder bellows and brought it to us. (He emailed me later--still a couple more parts missing which he will put in the mail.) Uneventful drive home (if driving from L.I. to N.J. through Manhattan can ever be uneventful).
The first thing I did when we got home was to move the harmonium out of the van and onto the front porch. Got out the vacuum cleaner and spent a couple hours cleaning it out as best I could. It had been a wildlife sanctuary--probably a nest for squirrels--and was full of nut shells and torn up (chewed up?) styrofoam swimming pool "noodles." Once I was confident that it was clean enough (and vermin-free enough) to be in the house, we brought it in to its new place in the music room, where it just fits.
I have no illusions about the size of the task in front of me and the steepness of the learning curve. I also don't have a lot of free time in my life. So I expect this restoration to take months, probably even years. This blog will help keep me on the project, however, and I hope to make steady progress, even if it's slow.
First baby steps: we had already unscrewed the hinges on the top lid, so it can easily be lifted off, just as the music rack can be. I'm desperate to clean up the keyboard, but removing the keys will require removing a wooden frame above them; and removing that frame will require removing the stop pulls. I started on that project yesterday. The back of each stop pull is connected to a metal lever with a 1/2" (approx.) wood screw with an (approx.) 1/8" round head. The slot on the head is very narrow. Had to file down a screwdriver to fit. The screws are screwed through the lever into the wood of the back end of the stop pull, and after 165 years don't want to budge. I got three of them unscrewed; put each stop pull, screw, and felt washer in their own ziplock bag and labeled them so that I know exactly where they go when I put them back. The fourth screw I came to wouldn't budge; finally broke the screw head. Yikes! My first minor casualty! But even I know that this is a minor problem, easily fixable, and that even if I replace this one screw, I don't think I've compromised the antique value of the instrument too much.
But, of course, I stopped right there! Need to consult with whoever might have some advice about working with these screws!
As I did this work, right there in my music room, it became clear I need a real work space. My partner has agreed to make space for me in the basement (which is his realm and his workspace) so that I can disassemble and work on parts of the harmonium. As may not be surprising to my readers, the construction of the harmonium is somewhat modular: the entire upper action (keys, reeds, stop action) can be lifted out and unfolded via a series of hinges. So I think my next step, once the work space is available, is to take out the upper action and move it to the work space. That done, in my mind, the restoration can proceed in these large steps:
- Upper action
- Keys and key action
- Stop action
- Wind supply
- Case
As far as I can tell at the moment, the keys and stop action are all basically intact and just need cleaning and rust removal. I expect the reeds will need no attention at all. The feeder bellows will have to be rebuilt but the rest of the wind supply mechanism appears to be intact. The case is in reasonably good shape, and I think may never have been refinished; so it just needs to be cleaned and maybe waxed.
What an adventure! Thanks for coming along!
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