Johann Andreas Stein
Encyclopedia
Johann Andreas Stein, (Heidesheim, 16 May 1728 - Augsburg
, 29 February 1792) was an outstanding German
maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano
. He was primarily responsible for the design of the so-called "Viennese" fortepiano
, for which the piano music of Haydn
, Mozart
, and the early Beethoven
was written.
. He settled in Augsburg
, where he also served as an organist.
He built not just pianos, but other keyboard instruments, some of them of novel invention. One extraordinary instrument, called the "Poli-Toni-Clavichordium" (1796), combined a large harpsichord
having four choirs of strings (registration
8', 8', 8', 16') with a piano. He also built (1772) the "Melodika," a small organ in which the player's touch could alter volume; thus it stood to regular organs much as pianos do to the harpsichord. He also built "vis-à-vis" instruments, with a piano and a harpsichord facing one another in a single case.
Toward the end of his life, Stein's business was largely taken over by his daughter Nannette (see below). Pianos with his name after 1790 are held to be Nannette's work, as Stein was himself too ill to build instruments by this date.
Latcham (see Grove reference below) calls this invention "a breakthrough in the piano's history;" it "offer[ed] the player a remarkable control of the hammers, especially when playing softly, and [wa]s astonishingly responsive to the player’s touch."
, but Silbermann's device required the use of the player's hands to work, and thus could only be deployed during pauses in the music. Stein's device was controlled by a knee lever, pushing upward on the lower surface of the instruments, permitting the full equivalent of modern piano pedaling.
and Paris
. The enthusiastic letter that Mozart wrote to his father Leopold
is informative concerning Stein and Mozart's own preferences in pianos.The letter is very widely quoted. The following translation, by Emily Anderson
, is taken from Broder 1941:
This letter dates from slightly before the Stein action was fully perfected; presumably, the version that Stein had developed by 1777 was good enough to impress Mozart at the time.
During the years following his move to Vienna (1781), Mozart made enough money to buy a fine piano, and he bought one not from Stein, but from Anton Walter
, a Viennese builder who followed Stein's principles. It is not known whether Mozart actually preferred Walter's pianos to Stein's, or simply wanted to buy locally rather than having an instrument shipped all the way from Augsburg.
(Augsburg, 1769 - Vienna 1833) was a skilled builder, and continued the family business under her husband's name, Streicher. The Streicher firm built pianos for Beethoven and played an important role in the technological development of the piano. Run by family members, it endured until 1894, still making (much larger) pianos with the basic action design from Stein.
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, 29 February 1792) was an outstanding German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. He was primarily responsible for the design of the so-called "Viennese" fortepiano
Fortepiano
Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. It was the instrument for which Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven wrote their piano music...
, for which the piano music of Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, and the early Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
was written.
Life
He learned his trade in part at the Silberman workshop in Strasbourg (1748–9), working for Johann Andreas Silbermann, nephew and pupil of the great instrument maker Gottfried SilbermannGottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.-Life:...
. He settled in Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, where he also served as an organist.
He built not just pianos, but other keyboard instruments, some of them of novel invention. One extraordinary instrument, called the "Poli-Toni-Clavichordium" (1796), combined a large harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
having four choirs of strings (registration
Disposition (harpsichord)
The disposition of a harpsichord is the set of choirs of strings it contains. This article describes various dispositions and gives the standard notation for describing them....
8', 8', 8', 16') with a piano. He also built (1772) the "Melodika," a small organ in which the player's touch could alter volume; thus it stood to regular organs much as pianos do to the harpsichord. He also built "vis-à-vis" instruments, with a piano and a harpsichord facing one another in a single case.
Toward the end of his life, Stein's business was largely taken over by his daughter Nannette (see below). Pianos with his name after 1790 are held to be Nannette's work, as Stein was himself too ill to build instruments by this date.
The Prellmechanik action
Stein's most important innovation, his piano action, was perfected around 1781. This is the so-called Prellmechanik with escapement. In this arrangement, each hammer was mounted on top of the key, with the head on the end closer to the player, a traditional arrangement in German pianos of Stein's day. The hammers were like small, asymmetrical levers, with the hammer head far from the fulcrum, and a small upward-facing hook ("beak") on the other side of the lever, much closer to the fulcrum. When the player depressed the key, the whole hammer assembly would rise. The beak would engage an escapement hopper attached to the keyframe. The escapement hopper pulled down on the beak as it rose, in turn causing the hammer (the other end of the lever) to fly upward and strike the key. The escapement hopper was hinged and sprung; this permitted the beak to move downward past it as the key sank back to rest position.Latcham (see Grove reference below) calls this invention "a breakthrough in the piano's history;" it "offer[ed] the player a remarkable control of the hammers, especially when playing softly, and [wa]s astonishingly responsive to the player’s touch."
Pedal-controlled dampers
Stein may have been the first to produce a fully functional damper pedal, in which the player can lift all the dampers from the strings. Such a device had been devised by Stein's predecessor Gottfried SilbermannGottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.-Life:...
, but Silbermann's device required the use of the player's hands to work, and thus could only be deployed during pauses in the music. Stein's device was controlled by a knee lever, pushing upward on the lower surface of the instruments, permitting the full equivalent of modern piano pedaling.
Stein's acquaintance with Mozart
Mozart visited and befriended Stein in Augsburg in 1777, during the (unsuccessful) job-hunting tour that took him also to MannheimMannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The enthusiastic letter that Mozart wrote to his father Leopold
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
is informative concerning Stein and Mozart's own preferences in pianos.The letter is very widely quoted. The following translation, by Emily Anderson
Emily Anderson
Emily Anderson, OBE was a British Foreign Office official and scholar of German.She was born in Galway, Ireland, the daughter of Alexander Anderson, president of Queens College Galway. Ms Anderson was educated privately and won the Browne Scholarship in 1909 at QCG, where she received a B.A. in 1911...
, is taken from Broder 1941:
- This time I shall begin at once with Stein's pianofortes. Before I had seen any of his make, Späth's claviers had always been my favourites. But now I much prefer Stein's, for they damp ever so much better than the RegensburgRegensburgRegensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
instruments. ... In whatever way I touch the keys, the tone is always even. It never jars, it is never stronger or weaker or entirely absent; in a word, it is always even. It is true that he does not sell a pianoforte of this kind for less than three hundred guldenAustro-Hungarian guldenThe Gulden or forint was the currency of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1754 and 1892 when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the...
, but the trouble and the labour which Stein puts into the making of it cannot be paid for. His instruments have this special advantage over others that they are made with escape action. Only one maker in a hundred bothers about this. But without an escapement it is impossible to avoid jangling and vibration after the note is struck. When you touch the keys, the hammers fall back again the moment after they have struck the strings, whether you hold down the keys or release them ... He guarantees that the sounding-board will neither break nor split. When he has finished making one for a clavier, he places it in the open air, exposing it to rain, snow, the heat of the sun and all the devils in order that it may crack. Then he inserts wedges and glues them in to make the instrument very strong and firm. He is delighted when it cracks, for he can then be sure that nothing more can happen to it. Indeed he often cuts into it himself and then glues it together again and strengthens it in this way ... The device too which you work with your knee is better on his than on other instruments. I have only to touch it and it works; and when you shift your knee the slightest bit, you do not hear the least reverberation.
This letter dates from slightly before the Stein action was fully perfected; presumably, the version that Stein had developed by 1777 was good enough to impress Mozart at the time.
During the years following his move to Vienna (1781), Mozart made enough money to buy a fine piano, and he bought one not from Stein, but from Anton Walter
Anton Walter
Anton Walter was a builder of pianos. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time".-Life:...
, a Viennese builder who followed Stein's principles. It is not known whether Mozart actually preferred Walter's pianos to Stein's, or simply wanted to buy locally rather than having an instrument shipped all the way from Augsburg.
The Stein piano dynasty
Stein was the founder of an important piano-making dynasty. His daughter NannetteNannette Streicher
Nannette Streicher née Stein was a German piano maker, composer, music educator and writer.-Life:...
(Augsburg, 1769 - Vienna 1833) was a skilled builder, and continued the family business under her husband's name, Streicher. The Streicher firm built pianos for Beethoven and played an important role in the technological development of the piano. Run by family members, it endured until 1894, still making (much larger) pianos with the basic action design from Stein.