Steinway History

It is said that Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, drafted to fight at Waterloo, made a zither on which he played patriotic songs. On leaving the army, he worked in an organ-builders' shop, where he learned the art of instrument making. In 1825 he made his first piano in his kitchen: in 1839 he exhibited two square pianos and one grand at the Brunswick Fair, and won the gold medal. To fulfill his growing orders, he took his three sons, Theodore, Charles. Heinrich, into the business.

The revolution that tore through Germany between 1848 to 1849 saw the family split: Charles Steinweg landed in New York in 1849 and sent back words of  the amazing possibilities in the New World, urging the rest of the family to follow him. Theodore stayed behind to wind down  the German business, while the others left for New York. On arrival, they changed their name to Steinway, and took up employment in various piano factories.

They formed the family firm in March 1853 and their beautifully built pianos soon gained a following. Steinway then stunned the piano world by exhibiting an overstrung square piano with a full iron frame at the great fair of the American Institute of 1855. Huge success ensued, and a massive factory was built on New York's 53rd Street and Fourth Avenue.

That same year, Theodore moved from Seesen to Braunschweig, where he too was building a successful business in partnership with George Grotrian (see p.78). On the death of his brothers he sold his share in the German business, today called Grotrian-Steinweg, and moved to join his father in New York. Theodore now at his disposal unlimited capital, experienced workmen, and the most modern factory to realize his dream of creating a grand piano that employed a string tension never before attempted. He studied metallurgy to find a proper alloy, and researched the chemistry of glues, varnishes, and other raw materials. He even returned to Germany, to meet Helmholts and hear his ideas on the physics of music and vibrating strings.

Theodore's crowning achievement was the Centennial concert grand of 1876, with duplex scale, bent rim case, cupola iron frame to hold the strings at hitherto unimaginable tensions, and an action strengthened to lift the enlarged hammer. When he died in 1876, he left behind forty-five patents and a grand piano design that could scarcely be improve upon.

William Steinway, Henry's youngest son, was employed to market the pianos. He established Steinway Hall in New York in 1871, and in London in 1876. In 1880 a Hamburg factory was opened to make pianos for the growing European market. That same year, he bought a 400-acre site in Long Island, and by 1910-sixteen years after his death-the American Steinway factory was complete.

Steinway was badly affected by the Great Depression, and production fell a staggering 220,000 pianos from 1927 to 1931. During the Second World War, the firm was commissioned to make aircraft parts and 3,000 small portable upright pianos for the forces (G.I. pianos). In Germany the factory  was taken over by the government to make dummy aeroplanes.

The Steinway family sold the firm to C.B.S. in 1972. In 1985 it was sold to Steinway Musical Properties, Inc., who brought in engineers from non-piano-making backgrounds to find the right balance between modern engineering and traditional handcrafted methods, in an effort to streamline the manufacturing process. This has not resulted in any evident modifications to the design of the pianos.