PIANO

by James Barron

"Satisfying to the point of sensuousness."
-The New York Times Book Review Like no other instrument, a grand piano melds the magic of engineering with the magic of great music. Alone among the big piano companies, Steinway & Sons still crafts each of its pianos largely by hand, imbuing each one with the promise and burden of its brand. In this captivating narrative, James Barron of The New York Times tells the story of one Steinway piano, from raw lumber to finished instrument. Barron follows that brand-new piano-known by its number, K0862-on its journey through the factory, where time-honored traditions vie with modern-day efficiency. He also explores the art and science of developing a piano's timbre and character before its debut, when the essential question will be Does K0862 live up to the Steinway legend? From start to finish, Piano will charm and enlighten music and book lovers alike.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2006

Reviews

[Charlie Lovett · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I've been on a non-fiction run for a month or so now. Picked this up at a book sale for a pianist friend, but couldn't resist reading it before I gave it to him. A fascinating and detailed look into Steinway (and piano) history and building (and even performance). So many times I found myself saying—that is so cool! You don't have to be a musical genius to appreciate this book.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to imagine this book was written by John McPhee and, if it had been, it would be one of his better works.

James Barron takes the reader through all of the major stages of building a particular Steinway concert grand piano and the journey is interesting, informative, light hearted and surprising. Parts of a few chapters were merely okay/good (generally the digressive historical portions) which kept the rating below 5 stars.

I was wowed by the lack of automation and the extent of hand craftsmanship (and "feel") involved in the creation of K0862. (The manufacturing described in the book took place in 2003 but the company had already been making pianos for 150 years and the process was still surprisingly similar to the early days of Steiweg & Sons. In 2019 I suspect there haven't been many changes in the intervening period.) I don't know the first thing about music or pianos but I found the material fascinating and I felt invested in a successful outcome for the concert grand piano. Before I read this book I would have guessed that all pianos are mass produced by machines and all sound the same. I couldn't be more wrong.

I'd recommend a physical version of the book over a kindle version for a better view of the pictures at the beginning of each chapter. (I do wish the author had provided a timeline of the creation of K0862 and talked about what the employees did, or how busy they were, when they weren't working on K0862, but those are relatively minor quibbles.)

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a musician, I have a special relationship with all of my instruments. I name them based on their personalities and abilities. I take time to get to know them, figuring out the best way to play them to achieve what I want. Some are rejected because they don't feel right whereas others become favorites that I miss playing when they are no longer available. I have heard some musicians refer to them as just tools, but I know better. I have experienced that rare and intangible moment of ecstasy when the instrument becomes not just an extension of me, but a part of me. Fleeting and surreal, it is often referred to as being "in the zone," but I can only describe it as pure bliss.

My relationship with my piano—which is not a Steinway, but a roughly 30-year-old sturdy and well-made American Baldwin upright—is an intimate and personal one. I've turned to it at times of great sadness, all-consuming anger, fulfilling peace and joy, and it is always there to help me express whatever it is I am feeling. (My mother said when I was in high school she could always tell the kind of day I had by how I practiced piano when I got home.) I've explored what goes on under the lid by watching the hammers strike the strings as I play a scale. I have placed my bare foot up against the soundboard to feel the vibrations of the strings and better connect with what is beginning at my fingers and traveling through wood and metal to make music. It is capable of expressing every emotion, from great passion to tender sensitivity, is sometimes large and masculine and other times gently feminine and years of playing it has taught me just how to stroke the keys get the sound that I want. Almost every piece of music I've written has begun on my piano and it is the only thing in my life I can truly imagine not being able to live without. Piano requires your complete attention to play and years of your life to master. A piano isn't just a means to make music, it is door to another plane of existence. It is with this attitude that I approached Piano: The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand by James Barron.

I've always been aware of the mechanics that go into the 88 keys. I notice if a hammer is off-center, or if the humidity has made the wood loosen ever so slightly creating annoying rattles. I am on the phone with my tuner the second a key starts to stick or when the tell-tale wavering in a note tells me that its regular tuning is required. But I never much thought about what goes into making all of that work correctly in the first place. Barron's book has completely changed all that.

It takes a year to make a Steinway grand. It takes even longer to season it and nurture it into the piano that the Steinway name is known for. Thousands of parts and pounds of pressure have to be combined ever so perfectly to ensure that the piano will play correctly, and yet there is is still something else required, a 'je ne sais quoi' that gives it the true character of a great piano. What is it that creates this? Not even the makers know. They create the same wood pieces, from the same kind of trees, using the same processes developed over 100 years ago and yet, every piano is different. And every pianists reaction to it is different. This is what I found most fascinating about the the story of K0862. It is unique. Just as every pianist will play its keys in a different way, it will sound them different from all other pianos that bear the same name and case.

This book isn't just about the making of one piano, but of the history and evolution of the instrument and an American company of German immigrants whose legacy is not only permanent improvements that are a part of every modern piano, but a name of distinction and quality that is becoming all too rare. Barron relays the precision required to fashion the instrument's many pieces, but also the human side of piano-making when telling the story of the many workers who are a part of the construction of the instrument. I enjoyed every part of the book, not just as a piano lover, but also as a story lover.

[Hugo Demets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vanuit mijn interesse om pianostemmer te worden heb ik dit boek met bijzonder veel plezier gelezen.

In het boek volgt New York Times journalist James Barron, zelf een amateurpianist, hoe piano K062, een “concert grand” Steinway, wordt gemaakt, vanaf het kappen van de bomen tot het bespelen van het instrument op het podium. Ondertussen passeert de familiegeschiedenis van de Steinways, hun verdiensten in Duitsland en de VS (o.a. in de Burgeroorlog), de geschiedenis van het piano-maken, waarbij Steinway tientallen innovaties doorvoerden, en de sociaal-economische omgeving van de laatste twee eeuwen. De arbeiders en voormannen die de piano’s maken, vooral migranten die niet schuw zijn van zware arbeid, vinden in het bedrijf een nieuwe familie en komen in het boek ook aan het woord. Het feit dat een pianocomponenten uit heel Amerika en Europa komen, deed me wegdromen om al die herkomstplaatsen eens te bezoeken.

Volgens het zelfde procedé ligt ook een documentaire gemaakt, “Note by Note: The making of Steinway L1037”, die is integraal te zien op YouTube. Met het bekijken van die documentaire in een uur leer je evenveel als van het boek, maar dan mis je wel de meesterlijke vertelstijl van de auteur, die je de houtkrullen op de fabrieksvloer doet ruiken.

[Jaclyn Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love the piano & want to know how it is made along with some of its history & the history of the most elite piano brand - then this book will interest you. The average reader will most likely find less of interest.

Written with a newspaper or magazine column style, Barron brings to life the Steinway factory & it’s workers. Heavily descriptive, & almost tediously so at times, your senses are tuned to the place the book describes. The photographs included are wonderful but it would help to have even more pictures - perhaps of certain parts so you could visualize at times what he’s talking about. There is a diagram of the piano parts at the back of the book that I wish I had known about early on!

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book in 2 halves. One chapter follows the making of a piano (K0862) starting with selecting which trees to fell, and the next deals with the history of the Steinway company, then the piano again etc. I think it would have flowed better if the book had been split into those two halves. But even so it makes an interesting, in depth read.
The only downside for me is the poor quality of the images in the paperback edition I have. They look like quick computer printouts.

[Kristi | Hidden Staircase | · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read for anyone interested in the Steinway company history, or how they hand-make each piano. I really enjoyed the history and gained a new appreciation for the craftsmanship. Each piano really is a piece of art.

[Amy Roebuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite authors for years was Tracy Kidder (Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren), who was one of the first I read who wrote non-fiction that read like fiction. Now, there are many such books, and authors. I've found another--James Barron, author of Piano: the making of a Steinway Concert Grand. He carries us along through the Steinway factory, and through the process of the building of one piano, K0862--actually the main character in this story. It was absolutely fascinating--everyone from the first Heinrich Engelhard Steinway to Henry Z., and all the amazing people in between... everything from the purchase of the hard maple and Sitka spruce to the final factory tuning, and the fate of this concert grand. The rim, the keyset, the sostenuto monkey... all terms I had never heard before, but will never forget.
I felt as if I was in the Steinway factory, as privileged to witness this work and artistry as I would be to attend a private concert at which K0862 was played.

[JDK1962 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it, but it probably spent as much time on the people assembling the piano--and the history of the company--as it did on the piano itself. Probably because it's easier to write about people than about a large, intricate machine (the quote that writing about music is like dancing about architecture comes to mind).

A side note (ha!), I was having a hard time visualizing what he was writing about, so I went onto YouTube to see if I could find something to set the scene. I found the equivalent to this book, an hour-long documentary Note By Note: The Making of a Steinway Piano that showed the locations (and some of the people) mentioned. Want to see a team actually spreading the glue and bending the rim? It's there.

[Edwing · Rating 4 out of 5]

The making of a Steinway concert grand is a book written by James Barron about the beautiful detail of how the Steinway piano is made. It goes into deep description about great material and beautiful craftsmanship precision of the piano, the book shows clear explanations of how the piano works, it also shows pictures of the piano. I really liked how the book goes in depth since I love music and always wondered some of the story of the piano, though they were mostly talking about the piano all the time. Something I didn’t like it was way to technical and a lot of drama between the character, also the piano is treated like a character, also the main. Overall I loved this book, I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Kasandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tremendous and fascinating detail about Steinway manufacturing and history, but not being skilled at 3-dimensional rendering in my head, I'd have loved lots more pictures and diagrams. Still, to learn that the gold lettering of the Steinway logo is real gold leaf, and that it's applied after some lacquer and before more layers of lacquer (the gold repels the lacquer so it doesn't stick) was really neat. If details like that delight you, you'll love this, but if you aren't really into pianos, you'll probably be bored. Loved it.

[RustyShack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bland infomercial which (strangely) makes clear that Steinway basically hires unskilled people off the street to build their pianos and pays them so poorly that several have second jobs and turnover is high.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, easy language

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a musician but I love music and to read how a piano is crafted was not only interesting but surprising.

[Wei Gao · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazed at how my profession has so much in similarities with the making of a steinway concert grand

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

PIANO, by James Barron, is an intimate look at the making of a Steinway concert grand piano and all of the varied pieces, parts and hands that go into making it. Barron followed a single piano on its journey from pieces of wood and metal to its home on the stage at Metropolitan museum, allowing the reader to see along the way not only the intricacies of any single instrument, but also the varied history of Steinway & Sons and the people whose lives have been dedicated to the future of this art form.

PIANO is an interesting read, if a little slow at times. Diagrams would have been helpful, especially for those of us who are not as familiar with the insides of a piano as our author. Aside from the technical language and tracing of the process of the making of a piano, Barron also explored the history of Steinway & Sons and showed how the company is an indelible part of American history and culture. The company followed the ins and outs of America's industrial growth, coming close to peril at times, and far exceeding everyone's expectation at others. Barron also brings us face to face with the individual workers who built this specific piano. They each have a unique story of their own, one that cannot be separated from the piano's.

I had the pleasure of meeting the author at Steinway Hall, where he spoke about the book and the events in his life that led to his writing it. He got distracted as he signed the title page for me: The inscription reads "To Elizabeth, with for wishes. James Barron" That simple moment of lapsed attention is exactly the kind of nuance that gives each Steinway piano its own personality.

[Miguel Baquiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

GRET

[Marks54 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that traces the production of a top of the line Steinway grand piano from start to finish. It is perhaps the ultimate example of "craft" production, where all of the instrument is hand made and virtually no efforts are made at rationalizing production. The story is an interesting one and is well told. The background information on Steinway as a company.

How the company has tried to adapt to changes in the musical world -- and in the business world -- is as interesting a story, but one which receives little attention here. I appreciate how authors must delimit their scope, but all of the rich discussion of how Steinway grands are made would be even more interesting when compared to some other pianos that have a more rationalized production process. Yamaha and Kawai come to mind as examples. How these firms interacted around Steinway's Boston Piano line initiative would provide the basis for another interesting book, which I hope someone takes the time to write.

[R Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fulls of facts and beauty. The journey of the 565,700th Steinway ever made begins in March 2003, workers shaping hard maple into the piano's rim and ending with the young instrument traveling the country in a concert fleet before replacing a retiring grand at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book will likely not appeal to non-musicians, but it should. You'll come away with an appreciation of the steps that go into assembling a Steinway grand piano, a process taking nearly one year. By the final chapters the piano seemed alive, quiet in its youth and eager to make music, and I found myself hoping for a good fate -- a long life with an eventual big sound, being broken in respectfully by musicians and being cherished and ... played!

I applaud the author for peppering the story with rich histories of both the Steinway family business as well as a wonderful homage to the workers on the factory floors who take great pride in breathing life into wood. As one worker profoundly says while buffing the final piano surface, "You look at a tree, and you could never imagine a piano."

[R Fontaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As per NYTimes book review: James Barron of Times tells the story of one Steinway piano, from raw lumber to finished instrument. Barron follows that new piano-known by its number, K0862-on its journey through the factory, where time-honored traditions vie with modern-day efficiency. He also explores the art and science of developing a piano's timbre and character before its debut, when the essential question will be answered: Does K0862 live up to the Steinway legend?

[Maggie Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, I give this 4.5 stars. It's really a very interesting book -- if you know a fair amount about the piano and the music written for it. I suspect that someone who hasn't spent much time around a piano would find this a lot drier than I did, having spent my whole life around pianos. Anyway, it was really interesting for me to learn about all the work (and there's a LOT of it) that goes into making a concert piano. This was the highlight of my week!

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Follow a Steinway grand piano from its beginnings as pieces of lumber to its triumphant career (which I won't disclose, to avoid having to click "spoiler alert").
I found this book a little dry, especially in the first half, which concentrates on the piano's construction. Once the piano quits being lumber and becomes a musical instrument, the author generates some suspense about what will happen to it, which I found effective.

[Mim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's not for everyone but if you have ever played the piano, have ever seen a grand piano, or listened to piano music, this might be for you. Absolutely fascinated me to read about how a concert grand is made. I loved that we get to "meet" the individuals who make the piano. As I would stop reading and look at my own piano. This book made me realize what an amazing machine a piano is. I, also, like the history of the Steinway family.

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book so interesting. The background information about the Steinway family--how they got into the piano business and have lasted through the years--was great. Some of the parts about building the piano were a little vague. I would have loved some detailed drawings so I could look at what he was talking about. Overall a great read.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pace was a bit too slow for me, and some of the technical details were belabored. Perhaps a bit more disappointing because I really wanted to like this book before I started reading it. Overall, it was still enjoyable though and the book brought back memories of piano lessons growing up.

[Andrew Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you love the piano, this is a book for you. The author follows a Steinway from the trees to the concert hall. Fascinating.

[John L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly dry, but for some reason or another interesting. I woule like to visit the Steinway factory in Queens. Lots of work in making a piano.

[Dude]

Working on it now, just started today.

This book is well written. The font is also nice on the eyes.

[Tracey]

786.21 Barron, 2006 - SDMB March Reading Thread - Le Ministre de l'au delà & Ginnie gave 3 stars

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always love the piano, now I know how they're made and a good bit of their history too. Recommended for piano lovers.