James Parakilas ends his history of the piano, Piano Roles (Parakilas et al., 2002), by suggesting that there has never been an ideal piano. However, Steinway pianos come pretty close, and so it is a joy to see this official guide to their pianos. Often known by name – not just the formal trade model names but nicknames – Steinway pianos are as distinctive now as ever, above all at concert and high performance levels, in a world where Yamaha and Waldstein and many other makes compete in specialist and general domestic markets. Just as printed books and manuscripts have their own specialist bibliographical and historiographic designations and taxonomic indicators, so indeed do pianos (once we get to this specialist): in this case the “decal” or trademark stencils and other marks imprinted on the pianos (famously above the keyboard but also and/or alternatively on the soundboard or the belly of the instrument), and these help immeasurably to identify and date the instrument itself. Such pianos, too, attracted numerous patents (Steinway & Sons have 126 listed here), and are (and need to be) classified by type, model, scale, and many other characteristics.
This work, then, is in part a labour of love, and in part a guide to piano technicians and technologists worldwide, as well as dealers and performers. As background, Heinrich Steinweg (1797‐1871) went from Germany to New York in 1850 and with his sons he worked as a piano maker there. The partnership started in 1853 with its well‐known emphasis on experimentation and research and quality. Steinway (he had Anglicised his name) kept a diary from 1861 to 1896, and wrote business letters in abundance between 1862 and 1895 (not reproduced in this official guide, but clearly drawn upon). Between 1852 and 1859 they produced square pianos, developing a distinctive piano scale on and for them (for instance, the square grand was a seven‐and‐a‐quarter octave work of 88 notes, over strung with two straight bass bridges and agraffes throughout – these anchor the piano strings at the tuning‐pin end).
More famously they produced grand pianos as well: readers are taken through the seven basic sizes in five families produced between 1856 and the present (in this case, 2010) – information is given of scale modification, octaves and length, bichords and overstringing, production intervals (some came from Hamburg as well as New York). After that come the uprights (1861 to the present, showing comparable inventiveness), pianos made for use with player mechanisms (such as pianolas) and others regarded as unusual (for instance, with experimental plates, longer strings, celluloid panels, soundboards in unexpected woods, and painted keyboards). As a series of commentaries on this, we also have a cross‐reference listing of style numbers by year, model letters again by year (these were introduced in 1878 with serial numbers and have been used in Steinway catalogues since), production by years (tabulating scales and octaves, noting exceptions), and piano identifications. As noted above, the decals or trademark stencils are of critical importance in identifying Steinway pianos, and pages 55‐102 are devoted to them: they come as stencils or metal or ivory plaques, paper transfers or marquetry or inlaid brass, and a representative selection is shown in full‐colour page‐size illustration (again from the 1850s to the present day).
The chronology of Steinway & Sons is of particular interest: the original partnership founded in 1853, constant development (and recognition through the award of prizes) after that, the eponymous Steinway's death in 1871, a branch in London by 1875, a high point in the 1880s with what was then regarded as the definitive concert grand piano, contraction during the Depression, up to the 1980s when kits were being shipped to Hamburg, right up to 2010. The emphasis in this chronology is on the technology: a typical entry is “1904 […] last FF Upright with I plate, No. 90627 (recycled number) F1190: 7¼ octaves; 4'5½”; cast capo d'astro bar for notes 27‐88; no in catalogues or price lists” (FF is a model letter, and capo d'astro a type of agraffe). In this way the technical information elsewhere in the official guide can be put into time‐sequence and act as a valuable checking device for dealers. Later sections of the guide display the patents (1857 to the present, such as the 1878 upright repetition hammer butt), the steel wire sizes (i.e. the number of notes strung in each wire size, a generous section of scale studies (grand pianos given the counterpart of a full bibliographical description in the style of Fredson Bowers – type and family, factory name, scale, plate notes and strings, cases and history, the last incorporating notes from factory log‐books and other sources).
Alfred Brendel is said to have said that his playing changed when Steinways entered his life. Other famous owners and performers include Glen Gould and Thomas Edison, Paderewski and George Gershwin, while one grand was named after John Lennon (a limited edition produced in 2010). Recently (early 2012) Billy Joel has been closely associated with Steinway advertising, as their websites reveal. By 2003 (the firm's 150th anniversary) there were branches throughout the world, and interest in Steinway pianos has grown over the years. Brendel's Schubert, Ashkenazy's Chopin, or Diana Krall's jazz sound equally distinctive on them. At the highest level of performance and piano maintenance, emphatic preferences emerge, yet this is natural. Stepping back, the Amadeus Press is an imprint, established in 1987, of the global music publisher Hal‐Leonard, itself based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since the 1970s and going back as a firm to the 1930s. The Hal‐Leonard list covers all kinds of music and includes the music of artistes like Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd and Miles David. The Amadeus Press itself specialises in classical music and opera, and, among its numerous publications (e.g. Mahler, Bernstein, Shostakovich, musical notation), The Art of the Piano (Dubal, 1995) and Music for Piano: A Short History (Kirby, 2004) may appeal to readers of this review. But back to the official guide itself: a valuable contribution to the highly specialist reference library of piano technologists and dealers, but also a musical and historical insight into the work and achievement of a remarkable company. An index would have helped, but not necessarily to the technology which is at the heart of the book.
