Showing posts with label Piano makers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Piano makers. Show all posts

Monday 22 November 2021

Hopkinson Pianos

In 1835 at Leeds in Yorkshire, the Hopkinson family music-selling business was established. A few years later two of the brothers, John and James had retail premises in the centre of Leeds. Nearby, the Kirk family were making pianos and it is not too fanciful to suppose the Hopkinson brothers would take some of the Kirk pianos to sell in their music shop - the close proximity would have kept transport costs much lower than buying pianos from London or Birmingham.
Elizabeth Hopkins, John and James' widowed mother had a relative working at Kirk's piano building business who's name was Edward Barker Gowland. Barker was Elizabeth's maiden name.

John, the senior brother in the business, took Edward Barker Gowland and set off to London to start building his own pianos in 1846. Edward Gowland was his workshop foreman. James stayed to manage the business back in Leeds.

In 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, the factory was employing nearly 50 men and John had patented a new grand piano action for which he won a Prize Medal! All very good publicity for the relatively new firm which by now was known as J & J Hopkinson. 

At the Great Exhibition there was some reservations about how open some of the exhibitors were about their products. Copying ideas from other makers was thought to be a nuisance. The new, patented action was kept hidden for the duration. Close inspection was thus prevented. Piano actions were notorious for misfiring under certain conditions and the more complicated the design, the more likely problems would occur. 

James came down to join John in 1856 leaving Thomas, the youngest Hopkinson brother to manage affairs in Leeds. The Piano making business continued to thrive so that in 1866 a completely new factory was built at Fitzroy Road, Camden Town.

Having seen the business firmly established at Fitzroy Road, just 3 years later John Hopkinson the senior retired to North Wales. The next generation of Hopkinsons were not so keen about piano making - one eventually moving up to Scotland, the other rather more interested in Zoology. The business was sold in 1919. 

While there was no further family involvement in piano building, the Hopkinson name  was still put on pianos for many decades. The ownership of the names passed through the hands of various makers who's output was very modest. I remember during the 1980s the Hopkinson name appearing on a piano made at Bentley's in Stroud.



©Steve Burden


Wednesday 3 November 2021

John Brinsmead

John Brinsmead began life in rural Devon and among his early ambitions was that of being a farmer! His elder brother Henry moved up to London and began building his own pianos in 1835 and for a couple of years he and John worked together. After a falling out John set up business on his own.

Increased production levels put severe strain on the site of the original factory at Chenies Street and so a purpose-built factory was opened in 1874 at Grafton Road, Kentish Town. Some 15 or so years later an extension was needed to cope with the demand created  by strong sales abroad.


The firm went from strength to strength supported by the factory at Kentish Town and the showrooms at Wigmore Street. Part of the success was due to John’s very close watch on quality control and his knack at self-promotion! This not very ‘English’ trait did not go down well with the likes of Broadwood and Collard. However, timidity does not yield rocketing sales.


1899 Brinsmead became a Limited Company managed by Horace Brinsmead - John’s youngest son. Horace set about modernising the the business and introduced 10 new models by 1900. Alas, another family fall out led to Horace leaving the firm  in 1903.


John Brinsmead died in 1908 and in the spring of 1921, the firm was declared insolvent. There had been difficulties for Brinsmead’s for at least a decade but the manager, Henry Billinghurst had even considered closure about 1912. He had made careful plans to reduce the the severity of the fallout as much as possible. 


In 1921 the name and goodwill of John Brinsmead & Sons was purchased by Walter Saville of J. B. Cramer. The further production of Brinsmead pianos was transfered to the Saville factory very close by at Castle Road, Kentish Town.


A new range of pianos were introduced with the Brinsmead name designed by one of the Cramer workers. These pianos were the same as the Cramer pianos of the time but had the Brinsmead nameplate.


Walter Saville squired a number of brand names: Justin browne, Metzler, George Russell. In 1964 the whole company was sold to Kemble & Co. 


Brinsmead Serial Nos. 


Directory of Piano Makers


© Steve Burden




Monday 18 October 2021

Young Chang


Young Chang was founded in 1956 by three brothers Jai-Young Kim, Jai-Chang Kim and Jai-Sup Kim. Initially they distributed Yamaha pianos into Korea and other parts of Asia. South Korea was becoming widely known for producing high quality musical instruments and in 1964 the first Young Chang factory was built in Seoul.

When in 1985 the Aeolian Piano Company came to an end, Young Chang purchased the rights to use the brand name ‘Weber’ and in the following year established the Weber Piano Company. The practice of using old, respected European-sounding names to increase sales of pianos has been part of the long history of the piano trade. For whatever reason, the Weber subsidiary was sold to Samsung America in 1987.


Needing extra capacity for producing iron frames, Young Chang opened a foundry at Tianjin, China in 1988. The project there was further expanded a few years later when they opened a complete piano manufacturing complex. The Chinese facility allowed Young Chang to start serving the lower-end of the piano market.


Joseph Pramberger, a former head of manufacturing from Steinways joined the company in 1995. He brought many innovations to piano design at Young Chang, including an improved action and an asymmetrically tapered soundboard. The Pramberger Platinum series - incorporating some German action parts from Renner - was Young Chang's top-of-the-models range for three years. 


In 2018 Hyundai acquired Young Chang in 2006, renaming the company HDC Young Chang.


Tuesday 18 November 2014

Kawai

Kawai
The Japanese culture greatly values respect and honour. Kiochi Kawai established the Kawai musical Instrument Research Laboratory in 1927 but for him, manufacturing pianos is not just about business, it is more the pursuit of dreams and destiny. 

By 1935, production reached 85 pianos per month. Due to the War production was suspended from 1937 - 1948. Within ten years of production resuming, Shigeru Kawai, having taken over the business from his father, set about to 
to be among the first to embrace modern scientific aids and technology to transform the piano making process.

The traditions of philosophy and the joining of mind and spirit, all throw their weight behind the push towards perfection. Kawai pianos have developed their own actions using ABS carbon for some of the action parts. Their painstaking research has been rewarded with a unique result which stands up well to the stiff scrutiny of purists who prefer the more standard and accepted traditionally-made actions.

In 1999, the elite range of Shigeru Kawai Pianos was launched. These extraordinary pianos are built by the best of Master Piano Artisans. These technicians seek to elevate their work - making it more of a mystical quest. The role of Master Piano Artisan is to present the artist with an instrument of inspirational and limitless possibilities.

Having had the privilege of tuning one of these very special pianos, I can only praise the workmanship and acknowledge the pursuit of excellence in piano manufacture. I look forward to tuning many more of them!

Good to know that even the standard range of Kawai Pianos is impressive. They are always well put together and convey the essence of the Kawai philosophy.

Thursday 28 August 2014

Bentley Pianos

The ‘Grover’ name was associated with instrument making in London since the eighteenth century and in 1906, branching out a little from family tradition, Douglas W. Grover began making pianos. 

Since London was the centre of piano building at the time, any thought of moving production to the west country would have been considered foolhardy. However, in 1910, Douglas’s wife went to stay with friends in Gloucestershire to recover from an illness. This meant that each weekend, Douglas caught the train down to Stroud. In a short while, he took to the rather more idillic setting of the countryside and decided that he could make his pianos in Stroud.

In 1911, moving into an old Cotswold Mill at the village of Woodchester just outside Stroud he established the Stroud Piano Company.

Launching a new, overstrung model in 1930 and sold as a Bentley piano. This ‘Bungalow grand’ as it was called, was an instant success - its distinct casework and moderate size was perfect for the piano-buying home owner of the time. The company changed its name to the Bentley Piano Company. 

In 1938, the Woodchester Mill was virtually destroyed by fire but despite the rivalry between fellow piano makers, rivals and suppliers were willing to help at such a time of need. One company who manufactured woodworking machinery, sent the next available of each machine required. Within a week of the fire, production had begun in premises just across the road and in 9 months, output was up to the level before the fire. 

From at least the late 1960s, Bentley’s made their own actions. The use of plastic for some of the action parts might have cut production costs, but the long-term life of these crucial parts, proved to be a less than satisfactory. During the mid 1980s the action-making operations were brought to a close and the Langer actions (made by Herberger Brooks) were fitted to their pianos. These, better actions improved the piano noticeably.  

In 1989, another fire hit the Woodchester factory - this time destroying about 40% of the production area. Just 4 years later, in 1993, the Bentley Piano Co. Ltd. was acquired by Whelpdale, Maxwell & Codd of London.


Directory of Piano Makers

©
Pianology

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Piano-making in UK.

Once again the less-than-perfect state of new pianos has been highlighted this week. This week, I have seen or worked on 4 pianos not yet 2 years old that have needed extra technical attention before they can be considered satisfactory. Nobody likes hearing the same old moan time and time again, but the customer has to live with the reality of their choice of piano. Most of these keen pianists are paying good money and are at a loss to understand why their pianos are not as good as was expected.

I have been reading Alastair Laurence's book Five London Piano Makers, and I am sure I have detected in the book, hints of a similar mood of disappointment. He says in his introduction, "The near total collapse of British piano making means that there seems to be little likelihood of those fascinating centres of musical workmanship - the small piano factories - ever being seen again on these shores."

Anyone who has worked in a piano workshop will know something of the atmosphere of constant and affectionate labour over the many apparently lifeless components of a piano. Workers feel a strange and invisible force urging them towards the later stages of repair work - that stage when the piano is touched with the magic of creativity and is now finished! Maybe in other professions, something of the same drive is at work, but wherever there are pianos and music, the mixture is intoxicating.

The fact that there are fewer 'centres of musical workmanship' in the UK is partly due to the poor standard of piano produced during the late 1970s. Piano makers were now competing with imported pianos from the far east which, frankly, were better. Cost cutting meant, the fine finishing of the pianos was cut to a minimum, thus bringing forward the eventual demise of the industry.

Alas, many of the cheaper imported pianos are as less-than-perfect as was the case in the UK in the late 1970s. The best we can do is to make good what we can and hope that one day finesse, better reliability and the positive feedback that should follow a piano purchase will be rather more common than it is today. Let us hope that the tide of piano-making doldrums might be on the turn! 

Whether what remains of the piano industry in the UK can get its act together strongly enough to meet the challenge remains to be seen. I share Alastair Laurence's finishing word of hope: "With luck, a new, younger generation of piano makers here will help to ensure the survival of piano-making skills in Britain throughout the twenty-first century." 

We have work to do!


The Piano World

© Steve Burden
Pianology
  

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Collard & Collard

The history of Collard & Collard begins around 1760. The story starts with a Music Publishing Company called Longmann & Broderip who dabbled in making pianos. Muzio Clementi, whose many compositions were published by Longmann & Broderip was interested in having a piano-making facility and, being wealthy, he invested in the piano factory and brought in his associates F.W. & W.P Collard to manage it. 

Clementi traveled widely and sold Pianos along with his compositions.
Orders were sent back to London from wherever Clementi visited - he was a very shrewd businessman. At this time, the company was called Clementi & Company. 

F.W. Collard introduced improvements to their pianos, on the strength of which, they took a significant share of the market. When Clementi died in 1832, the firm became known as Collard & Collard. By this time the pianos were solidly built by craftsmen and had a proven reliability.

The Diary of a Nobody  was published in 1892, written by George & Weeden Grossmith. This charming book is a classic of English literature, telling the story of a Mr. Charles Pooter and describes mundane life in late Victorian England. One anecdote involves a new cottage piano - bought on the three years' system, manufactured by W. Bilkson (in small letters) from Collard & Collard (in very large letters). Collards were by this time at least a well-known household name.
Collard & Collard had established themselves as makers of good quality and reliable pianos. They continued to be popular well into the early 20th century. In the late 1920s the piano trade was having to adjust to the harsh realities of very poor sales. Many long-established makers had to close, those whose 'names' were deemed to have value were bought by the stronger of the surviving companies.
Collard & Collard was eventually bought by Chappells.


Directory of Piano Makers

© Steve Burden

Sunday 11 August 2013

Bosendorfer Pianos - The Early Years

 There were many piano builders in Vienna in 1828 when Ignaz Bosendorfer began building his pianos.  At 19, Ignaz Bosendofer began an apprenticeship with the organ & piano builder Joseph Brodman.

When he was 34 years old he took over the Brodman workshops and set about improving their pianos. The Viennese pianos were traditionally mellow in sound with a light and easy touch of the action. Improving the construction allowed for heavier strings and a stronger action, thus making the tone much more like that of the modern piano. 

In the piano world, high quality speaks for itself - the rugged reliability of Bösendorfer pianos won the admiration of virtuososFranz Liszt, known for his formidable technique found it difficult to find a piano that could withstand his vigourous playing - until friends suggested he try a Bosendorfer Piano for his recitals.
Using a Bosendorfer, he was impressed to find at the end of the recital, the piano was undamaged! This sensational moment established the Bosendorfer Piano's reputation and their long association with Franz Liszt who wrote, “The perfection of a Bösendorfer exceeds my most ideal expectations...”
Bösendorfer Pianos were soon exported to the rest of Europe and overseas so that Bosendorfer became the best-known of all Austrian pianos.
About 1860, Ludwig Bösendorfer succeeded his father in carrying on the business and moving to a new factory in New Vienna. Bösendorfer had to move again ten years later to cope with the growing demand for Bosendorfer Pianos.
Directory of Piano Makers

© Steve Burden

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Bechstein Pianos - A short History

Carl Bechstein had a firm grasp of piano making while still a young man, he also had an acute understanding of how to use publicity to further his business. His first grand piano was built in 1856 - a piano on which Hans von Bulow gave a concert playing Liszt's piano sonata. This concert earned the Bechstein Piano universal praise, and thus Bechstein became a piano-making force to be reckoned with!

The following year, Hans von Bulow is believed to have written that, "Bechstein is, in my opinion, the foremost maker of grand pianos in Germany, although he has built only three so far..." In 1861, still seeking to further the cause of Bechstein Pianos, he wrote to Klindworth insisting that the Bechstein Piano be properly demonstrated at the upcoming International Exhibition in London.

Sure enough, at the 1862 London Industrial Exhibition, Bechstein was awarded the English Grand Prix. The pianos were described as "distinguished by outstanding freshness and breadth of tone, quality of play and uniformity of the different registers..."
The Bechstein Piano appealed to the musical elite and to numerous Royal Households. In 1881, a Bechstein Piano was sent to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. In 1885 what was to become the largest dealership in Europe was opened in London. During the early years of the 20th century the list of royal clients grew to include the tsars of Russia and the royal families of Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Austria and Denmark.

The annual production from the Bechstein factories grew steadily. In 1900, annual production was about 3,700 pianos. By 1910, this had increased to about 4,600. 

Bechstein Pianos still have the something of their 'freshness and breadth of tone'! The build quality is legendary and even today, many pre 1900 Bechstein Pianos are thought worthy of total rebuilding. The Bechstein Piano deserves its status as one of the foremost Piano Makers of all time.
 

Monday 24 June 2013

Tuning a Piano

The job of tuning a piano is one of the most traditional of trades and is done now as it always has been - a few simple tools and a good ear! Some of the earliest pianos are lovingly preserved in museums and private collections. One such piano dated from around 1811 appeared on eBay recently! 

Tuners from the early years of piano history would be fascinated to see an App that does most of the skilled part of their job, so easily available to anyone with a smart phone! (At the dawn of piano history, even the telephone was a piece of
science fiction.)


Back in the 1970s & 80s, before piano tuning aids were widely available, it was not uncommon to meet people who tried, with the help of a book, to tune their own pianos! A few tune-your-own-piano books were written and might still be found in libraries. Hopefully, they are no longer in print! Clearing up the mess after some DIY Piano Tuning sessions were mildly amusing! In one case, the would-be tuner felt the tuning pins were far too tight for him to turn - and so WD40 was used to 'loosen' them up! The sad result was a written off piano! If it were not such a skilled trade, DIY Tuning Books might have become permanent Best-sellers.
Sorry for the quality of the picture - the light was very poor.

This label was stuck to the inside of a piano which dates from the 1920s - when pianos really were tuned 4 times a year. These or similar labels are no longer stuck to the inside of pianos! 

Back in the golden decades for piano tuners, to be busy the whole year round, only 3 months of work would be required to set the ball rolling, as it were. After that, it was just repeat business - easy money! How many pianos have been tuned 4 times a year since the 1920s is impossible to know, but it would be interesting to calculate the amount of money that would have been spent on just tuning a piano 4 times per year.

Some of this imaginary pot of money - no longer spent on piano tuning - has been spent on the digital piano which has established itself as the low-maintenance alternative to the traditional acoustic piano.  

But thankfully, whatever happens in the world of technology and the digital piano, there are still genuine, old-fashioned Piano Tuners, willing to tune your piano (up to 4 times a year). There is still nothing quite like a traditionally-tuned, acoustic piano!

© Steve Burden

Sunday 3 June 2012

Piano Brochures

Brochures about New Pianos are littered with adjectives that imply a superiority of tone, craftsmanship, build quality, choice of materials, the range of models... on and on!

The unfortunate would-be buyer, has to learn a sort of code before coming close to making a decision. Then, when the piano is delivered, the tuner often has to 'iron out' the niggles and tweak the odd misbehaving notes before the customer feels he has made the right choice.

The most difficult part about using words and pictures to describe a piano, is that every piano is so different. Tastes are different. The process of choosing a particular piano is a deeply personal thing. Any attempt to narrow the decision down to a particular piano by simply reading a brochure, is doomed to meet with disappointment.

In a glossy brochure, references made to the piano maker's art, is little more than part of the overall intention to impress the reader. What does it really mean? Great skill and patience are essential to build a piano but building a piano is also an art. Craft, experience and a profound love of the work are the special ingredients needed to produce that spark of inspiration for the piano buyer. 

What buyers really need to know is that their choice will match their expectations.

As a tuner, I come across many new pianos. Sadly only a few of them get my 'thumbs-up' vote. This is not because I do not like new pianos, but because I am often disappointed myself with the condition of the piano when I get to tune it in the customer's house.

If I were spending serious money on a piano, I would feel justified in having high expectations - Isn't that what the brochures are trying inspire in the buyer? 

A while ago, a customer who bought a top name 'silent' piano, to replace a piano that was rather old and definitely inferior, said she regretted ever buying the new one! Why? Because it was not what she led to believe it was. This is not a customer who will go about saying she was 'completely satisfied' with the piano. 

Another customer bought a high-end and expensive piano. After the free tuning, she was less than overwhelmed with it - only to be told by the tuner/technician that she was being too fussy! 

Piano makers seem not to care about their pianos once in the hands of the retailer. Pianists are the buyers and users of pianos - if the goods supplied are poor, the demand will soon drain away. In the Piano Trade, we have a lot of work to do!  

The Piano World

© Steve Burden

Thursday 26 April 2012

Piano Makes

Jane Austen mentions a Broadwood piano in at least one of her novels. In her day, pianos were objects of status and the ability to play was proof of a refined education. These things no longer carry the same significance though of course, the dynamics of status are still with us. The objects desired today are smart phones, expensive cars and the latest technological gadgets! 

The Broadwood name is known only to pianists who probably were told long ago that Broadwoods were the best English-made piano. However, such a high opinion of Broadwood Pianos was not universally held - years ago, I remember an elderly tuner say, somewhat unflatteringly: "Ah yes, Broadwood Pianos! The bass is very broad, and the treble very wooden!"    

Quirky English names on elderly pianos can be amusing - especially as in the business world have to be catchy or striking in some way. How about the following: Thompson & Shackle; Jarrett & Gouge; Skerrett; or Dunmo, Ellis & Hill; Duck, Son & Pinker; Dale Forty; Green & Marsh; Wallis Harris; Witton & Witton.


This Macintosh piano has absolutely nothing to do with Apple Computers and 
I do not imagine that Apple Mac will ever dabble in making acoustic pianos. This is an inexpensive piano made in Edingburgh. Straight strung, over damped, rather tired now, but with a decent enough tone and quite tuneable.

Even when new, this sort of piano was never brilliant, but clearly, they were built well enough to last a very long time.  

Uncomplicated and honest, pianos like these, never pretend to be more than what they are, they just continue doing what they were built for - making music! Thousands of makers put together pianos like this and proudly put their names on the fall-board. Sadly, most are now entirely forgotten. 

There was an old German maker called 'Lubitz' but you don't often see a Lubitz piano here in the UK. One might think a firm called 'Lubitz' made toilet spares!
© Steve Burden 
Piano World