Steinway & Sons are some of the most coveted and expensive pianos in the world, it is a business that has been running for 150 years, and still producing many of the highest quality pianos per year. The production process and sound quality of the Steinway pianos will be discussed in detail and then compared to the manufacturing techniques of a more commonly known piano maker such as Yamaha. Also being considered is the future and the possibilities it holds for the classical piano.
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Henry Engelhard Steinway (Appendix fig. 1) was a German immigrant who founded Steinway & Sons in 1853. Steinway was an established master cabinet maker, and he built his first piano in the kitchen of his Seesen home in Germany. By the time Steinway & Sons was fully established, he had built 482 pianos. The first piano that was produced by the company, number 483, was sold for $500 to a family in New York. For the duration of the next 30 years, Steinway and his four sons assisted in developing the modern piano and in the process, earning themselves the ‘Grand Gold Medal of Honour’ in 1867, which recognises their excellence in engineering and manufacturing. In turn, Steinway & Sons pianos were purchased by some of the world’s greatest pianists, including royalty (Steinway History, 2011).
The first Steinway hall (Appendix fig. 2) was opened on 14th Street in 1866, containing a 2000 seat auditorium. Sequentially, it became New York’s artistic and cultural centre. In 1871, Henry Steinway died, leaving the company to two of his sons, C.F. Theodore and William. They both specialised in different areas of technicality and skill, much to benefit the Steinway image. In present day, there are Steinway & Sons factories in Hamburg and New York, as well...
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Author and date of publishing unknown, 2011. Online Factory Tour.
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Author and publishing date unknown. Steinway Hall: A Quality Piano Starts With Quality Wood
http://www.steinwaypianos.com/kb/how-it-works/woods
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Many of Frank Gehry’s early works reflect a refined manipulation of shapes and structures, whereby many of his buildings present distorted shapes or apparent structures. From the Guggenheim museum to the Walt Disney concert hall, Frank Gehry’s architecture is close to none. He cleverly plays with shapes and geometries. In this essay, I shall start with a brief analysis of Gehry’s house and the influences in the design of the house. I shall then analyze the extent to which Frank Lloyd Wright has inspired and influenced Gehry in the design of his house through a comparison with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Jacob’s house.
"Piano methods and teaching materials have never been standarized" (Akins, 1982, p.1-2) there is always something different out there. Hal Leonard, the Music Tree, Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, Piano Adventure and so on. The Hal Leonard Piano Student Piano Library starts with off- staff notation while the Music Tree starts with groups of two and three black notes. Although all the beginning books contain sim...
The main goal of the very talented English music composer and conductor Benjamin Zander was to convince his audience through his very interesting and inspirational video, “The Transformative Power of Classical Music” that ‘Classical Music is for every one’. He was not only able to keep the attention of his audience growing with his splendid performance but also was able to make them understand the depth of classical music. He chose the most beautiful piece of classical music in order to make sure that his audience love it.
first family piano. However, it was George that took the immediate interest in playing the
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- Norris, Jeremy Paul. The development of the Russian piano concerto in the nineteenth century. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1988. Print.
When Bernstein was ten years old, his Aunt Clara was undergoing a divorce and “left an old upright piano in the Bernstein house.” The close presence of the piano motivated Bernstein to take
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An article by Olof Höjer - a Swedish pianist and Satie expert. Taken from his CD: Erik Satie - the complete piano music vol. 1. © 1996 Prophone Records, Stockholm, Sweden. [Accessed 27 Dec 2013]
Being “something of an experiment” (Brown, 2007, 465), Gade explores the versatility of the piano as both an accompanying and a solo instrument, as in a symphony versus a concerto. This is echoed in Berlioz’s sentiments that “the piano can be seen in two ways: as an orchestral instrument, or as a complete little orchestra in itself” (Shepherd, 2008, 9).
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Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906-January 25, 2005) was an influential American architect who played a significant role in both understanding and creating recognizable landmarks and buildings internationally and throughout the country. With his influence as a historical architect, he has had a tremendous effect on today’s generations of architects and his legacy will live on through his inspirational buildings and works. Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a well known Dutch family who is recognized for laying out the first town plan of the Dutch settlement, known as New Amsterdam. Born in New York, Johnson often took time off of school for extended trips to Europe, causing his love and fascination with architecture. In 1928, he met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who at the time was designing the German Pavilion, and had also joined forces with the architectural historian Henry Russell Hitchcock, forming a lifelong competitive and collaborative relationship that inspired Johnson to discover his new profound love for architecture. Johnson was an influential individual within pop culture, not only with his modern buildings, but also was mentioned in David Bowie’s, “Thru These Architect’s Eyes” and appeared in Nathaniel Kahn’s 2003 documentary, “My Architect”, which highlighted Louis Kahn’s legacy of being one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. “Johnson the hedonist had little truck with the view that architecture could be a force for social good but viewed it as an aesthetic experience, a triumph of style that would dominate the skylines of corporate America. Not surprisingly, he was viewed as morally suspect by many of the austerely ascetic founders of Modernism” (The Times). Philip Johnson played a signific...