I just finished it. It should’ve been subtitled “Manufacturing a Thoroughbred” because that’s exactly the feeling you get as you accompany a single piano throughout it’s entire manufacturing process, debut, break-in and maturity. When you read about it’s launch into the big-time world of concert halls, you expect it to either snort competitively like Seabiscuit or raise a leg and flex its keys into an adorable smile like a cartoon character. You are pulling for K0862 by the end.
Writing with the technical execution of a long-time NY Times reporter who happens to be a talented amateur pianist, the book’s author Barron weaves all the expected threads of company history, family biography, piano creation and evolution, Steinway-specific anecdotes featuring musical greats, and more into a single compelling narrative. And since this narrative’s thread is the creation of this piano, by the time you are done, it has ceased to be simply a piano - it is culmination of many people and long history and tradition.
Well done; I recommend it. I don’t play piano and have no clue about woodworking but found it fascinating and easy to follow.
Thanks for the recommendation - I’m always on the lookout for books like that. Have you read ‘The Piano Shop on the Left Bank’, which is about an American journalist in Paris rediscovering his love of playing? A delightful introduction to the history and manufacture told by a true enthusiast.
I’ll be reading the Barron as soon as it comes into the library.
Yep - I read it. Good book - the way the author describes it, he first had to prove himself worthy enough to be a customer, then got welcomed into this fascinating world of that lovely Parisian shop. It is mentioned in Piano…
We just laid my 130 year old piano to rest after a recent move left it with one broken and two bent hammers (well, it’s sitting in the living room, but will never be repaired).
Having dabbled a little in tuning (I’ll put notes in tune with themselves, but rarely try to tune notes in relation to each other), I’m always a little in awe at the power ‘under the hood’ of even an upright.