by Jeffrey Bell-Hanson

Rita Benton wrote in her 1969 introduction to Daniel Spillane’s History of the American Pianoforte, “Instrument making is a legitimate and important aspect of music history, but one that musicologists sometimes overlook or underestimate. Because it relates to the practical rather than the theoretical, and to the crassly commercial rather than the idealistic, professional historians may find it less than appealing as a subject for research.”

The tension between the artistic goal of the piano maker, the industrial means of its pursuit, and the financial necessity of selling the product to as many people as possible has been much on my mind as I have learned about the various manufacturers who have survived 150 years or more in the piano business, and many more who did not. The American piano industry, already known for its innovation and high standards, became especially dominant in the world market during the first world war, when German and French firms diverted their production to war materials. American firms, by contrast, flourished by gaining official designation as an essential war industry. They achieved this end by appealing to the Victorian values that they had used to sell pianos for nearly seventy-five years—that music was an essential part of the warp and woof of our social fabric. It helped solidify the family and allowed us to rear children in a way that would build their sense of patriotism and solidarity with the American community. Most important was that the piano was recognized as the central component of American musical life.

This wartime triumph must have seemed like a crowning victory for an industry that had long enjoyed storied success. That success was inspired by the sincere idealism of the industry leaders in the nineteenth century. Yet that idealism alone could not have sustained their remarkable achievements. They also needed mechanical ingenuity, a spirit of innovation, capital, acute business acumen, good marketing and remarkable discipline to survive the ups and downs of the world economy, the growing competition from other sources of music and entertainment, and endless rounds of corporate acquisitions. Most of the companies making pianos in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century have not survived into the twenty-first. Many became little more than a name on a fallboard decades ago, with little or no relationship to an original maker. Most eventually ceased to exist.*

Of the 295 US piano makers documented by Alfred Dolge in his 1911 book, Pianos and Their Makers, only Steinway, Baldwin, and Mason and Hamlin are still actively making pianos today.  Of these three, only Steinway and Mason and Hamlin still make them in the United States. Some of the other names still appear on pianos, but are made abroad by other firms under trademark contracts. Mason and Hamlin has been, during its history, owned by various corporations. Steinway survived as an independent company the longest, but was recently sold to a Wall Street hedge fund.

My purpose is not to lament the changes in the piano industry that have caused Baldwin to produce its pianos in Asia, or have consigned the Henry F. Miller and Sons name to the history books. There are still wonderful instruments being made all over the world today, whatever name appears on the fallboard. This is a cause for celebration—that Bartolomeo Cristofori’s invention has, in a little over 300 years, become a centerpiece in a world-wide musical tradition, has inspired great masterpieces and the emergence of great artists, has provided countless jobs, created immense wealth, and enriched the lives of untold millions. It is a triumph not just of art or of industry or of business, but of all three, working, so to speak, in harmony.

*For an interesting account of a dynamic period in the history of piano making in the United States, see Craig Roell’s The Piano in America, 1890-1940 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989).