Steinway

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Steinway

German-U.S. piano manufacturing firm. Henry E. Steinway, born Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (1797 – 1871), was trained as an organ builder in his native Germany and began building pianos in 1836. He and most of his family followed one of his sons to the U.S. in 1850. After working for other piano firms for several years to learn the American business, in 1853 father and sons founded their own company in New York City, which came to dominate the market. In 1865 he brought to the U.S. the sons who had kept the German business going. He himself became involved in research and development, and his improvements set the standard for the modern grand piano.

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American firm of piano makers. It was established in New York in 1853 by Heinrich Engelhard Steinway (Steinweg) (1797-1871). Its success was based initially on overstrung, iron-framed instruments - square pianos from 1855, grands from 1859 and uprights from 1863; in the first decade annual production reached 2000. Steinway's eldest son C. F. Theodor (Theodore) (1825-89) advanced technological and design innovations still further, giving the player control over a tone of unprecedented volume and richness; his brother William (1836-96) consolidated the firm's commercial position (with marathon virtuoso tours and exhibition appearances, endorsements from Berlioz, Wagner and Liszt, European court patronage etc). A Hamburg branch opened in 1880. Steinway pianos have continued to dominate concert platforms since World War II.

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		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more