Piano Profile: Rocky Mountain Grand
Built especially for Joe Onofrio III of the Onofrio Piano Company of Denver, CO in 1999, this Baldwin grand is truly one-of-a-kind. The design of the piano was inspired by the local scenery of the stunning Rocky …
Photo Essay: Peter Gabriel at Red Rocks
Around the same time I inadvertently went on a blog posting hiatus in September, I had the opportunity to go to Denver, CO, both for work and to visit family. I didn’t plan for extracurriculars beyond said work and family, so it was a pleasant surprise when my co-worker called with the following invite:
Him: Hey, whatcha doing tomorrow night?
Me: Uh. Hanging out with my family? I think? Why?
Him: Well, we have 4 tickets to go see Peter Gabriel at the Red Rocks tomorrow, but there’s only 3 of us. Would you like to come and be our fourth?
(I must be honest here, I am not terribly familiar with Peter Gabriel’s ouevre because his dancing claymation chicken video freaked me out in the ’80s and I never bothered to pay a whole lot of attention to him beyond that. Anyways.)
Piano Profile: Shoninger Upright
Make and Model: Shoninger Upright
Serial Number: 3079
Founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1850, the B. Shoninger Co. (later the Shoninger Piano Co.) produced this beautiful rosewood upright in 1885 — the year the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor.
Built during the era when pianos were the centerpiece of home entertainment, this full-size upright — a height no longer in production by piano manufacturers — epitomizes craftsmanship. The case is full of intricate, decorative woodwork, especially in the cutout-laden front and lower panels. Conveniently, each leg contains a music storage cupboard (hey, it’s easier than standing up and getting it out of the bench, right?). Also distinctive is the sizeable lid ornament containing a carving of German philosopher Johann Wolfgang van Goethe’s face.
Piano Adventures: The Head Injury Edition
Note: Piano Adventures is a regular feature highlighting the quirky aspects of my daily life as a piano technician, from the paradoxical challenges of working with inanimate objects to the characters I meet.
A couple of weeks ago, I was tasked with teaching someone how to replace a broken piano string.
Piano wire is quite stretchy, a fact a lot of people are not aware of because most people never have a reason to experiment with stretching steel. When a piano is at its designated tension, a piano wire is generally at 60% of its tensile strength. So, theoretically, if a piano is well-maintained at the proper pitch, a string should never reach the 100% point at which it will break. However, “should not break” and “will not break” are not the same thing.
Piano Dumping, Part 2
In reading reactions to the New York Times article on the rise of throwing old pianos away, I was struck in particular by this Letter to the Editor published in the Syracuse Post-Standard, as well as this article proclaiming that We are Witnessing The Second Great Piano Die-off.
A common thread between the two posts seems to be a pervading sense of alarm that pianos will soon be obsolete due to our wired society in which these hulking acoustic instruments no longer seem to fit.
There is no question that advances in technology, especially devices that allow us to enjoy music in a passive (listening-only as opposed to actively playing) way, have drastically changed the position of pianos in the average American household.
Through the 19th and into the 20th centuries, prior to the advent of the phonograph, the piano was the main source of entertainment in people’s homes. After all, the piano, the most versatile of instruments except for its lack of portability, provided recreation in the form of listening to, playing, and singing along with music. A piano could be the melody, the harmony, the accompaniment, or all of the above all at once. The popularity of pianos was reflected by the number of piano manufacturers that existed in the United States, which numbered well into the hundreds into the early 1900s, then plummeted due to the quadruple-whammy effect of the record player, the radio, the Great Depression, and World War II. Today, the number of piano manufacturers in the US can be counted on less than one hand.
Piano Pushing!
Can’t get enough of pianos and piano technology? Check out these books and DVDs!
Books
Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization by Stuart Isacoff
Did you know that equal temperament, now the standard system of tuning for pianos, was once thought to be an affront to all that is good and holy? Neither did I, until I read this fascinating book that covers the journey and riddle of equal temperament, tackled by religious leaders, Greek mathematicians, Isaac Newton, and a brilliant Chinese scholar.
A Natural History of the Piano by Stuart Isacoff
While I haven’t yet had the opportunity to read this book, I have read numerous reviews that describe it as an engaging declaration as to why the piano is the greatest of all instruments ever. That is all I needed to hear to recommend it to you, my fellow piano nerds.
Piano Profile: Sojin Studio Upright
Note: Piano Profiles is a regular feature highlighting unusual models of pianos that I encounter in my work as a technician. All piano ages and manufacturer details come courtesy of the Pierce Piano Atlas. Make …
Piano Dumping, Part 1
Note: This is the first post in a series in response to the recent explosion of articles and posts on the value and lifespan of pianos.
A few weeks ago, a New York Times article on the increased frequency of pianos being consigned to the dump created quite the brouhaha on the internet.
My Google Alert for “piano” exploded as a multitude of other news sources provided their own commentary on the issue, along with the reactions of the general public as they started discussion boards and wrote letters to the editor with their own opinions on how pianos that have reached the end of their life spans should be treated. Weeks later, follow-up articles, blog posts, and published letters to the editor on the issue still pop up on my Google Alert with regularity.
The prevailing responses have been of horror, blaming adults for quitting the piano lessons of their youth, decrying the barbarism of shoving pianos backwards into a dump, lamenting our fast-paced society that throws anything away at the drop of a hat, and filled with plaintive wails of,
“WHY CAN’T THEY BE DONATED TO [insert worthy non-profit organization here]?!?!?!”
I have witnessed said horrified reactions numerous times, most recently when a person banged on the door of the piano shop where I work and wanted to know if he could have the piano sitting outside by the back dumpster.