Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
THEODORE STEINWAY.
[
DEATH OP THE GREAT DEVELOPER OP THE
PIANOFORTE.
SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORK-HIS
GREAT NATURAL ENDOWMENTS.
A NOBLE CAREER.
B
Y the death of Mr. C. F. Theodore Steinway his
relatives have lost an affectionate and amiable
kinsman, art has lost a faithful and gifted disciple
and exponent, humanity has lost a true friend.
These are not extravagant statements. We pen them
deliberately and advisedly. Humanity, we repeat, has
lost a true friend. The point needs to be emphasized,
because true friends of the human race are none too
numerous. Would that from the hosts of distinguished
men of all countries many more would arise to dissem-
inate the spirit of loving kindness as it was breathed by
Theodore Steinway! He loved children. Aye, there's
the marrow of it. The great men who love children
are always the best of men, John Bright adored child-
ren; Gladstone regards them with tender solicitude;
Phil Sheridan's heart beat in sympathy with them;
Robert E. Lee would fondly watch them at play in the
streets of Richmond ; Hancock bought candy every
night on hi? way home from Governor's Island, and
suffered his pockets to be rifled of it by all the urchins
of the streets. Theodore Steinway was a widower,
and childless. His own little one died in infancy, but
his great, catholic heart was always moved to deeds of
kindness to all of tender years. Mr. William Steinway
has related to us many stories illustrative of this beau-
tiful trait in his brother's character. Mr. Theodore was
especially interested in orphans. In the month of
September last, when the brothers were together in
Brunswick, he invited the little inmates of the Orphan
Asylum of that city to a picnic in the great Summer
Garden, where they were amused at the theatre with a
specially-prepared performance of " Dr. Fausts House-
cap," afterwards being regaled at their benefactor's ex-
pense with a feast of coffee and ice-cream. At the con-
clusion of this banquet the happy juveniles sang a num-
ber of most beautiful songs, as only the highly trained
children of Germany can render vocal music. Both
Mr. Theodore and Mr. William Steinway were deeply
moved by this circumstance. Their emotion on the
occasion may be said to have been of a prophetic
nature, though at the time neither dreamed that he
would never again look upon the features of the other.
Another story. Two years ago deceased chartered a
special train from his native town of Seesen to the city
of Brunswick—a distance of thirty English miles—for
the purpose of conveying eleven hundred school-boys
and school-girls of the former place to the great Bruns-
wick Exhibition. The youngsters were conducted all
over the city, making brief stops in order to have ex-
plained to them its points of interest, and afterwards
visiting the exposition. During the entire day they
were catered to in the most lavish manner, and were
safely taken back to Seesen in the evening. All this
was done at an expense to Theodore Steinway of
several thousands of dollars, which he counted as noth-
ing in comparison with the enjoyment of eleven hnndred
children during one gladsome day. None will more
sincerely mourn over his deaath than these bright Ger-
man boys and girls, who will ever fondly cherish his
memory.
The departed gentleman's qualities of heart were in-
deed noble. Equally conspicuous were "his mental gifts
and his artistic endowments. In addition to his great
knowledge of everything appertaining to the art of mu-
sic—musical history, composition, musical instruments
—he was a magnificent connoisseur in the sister arts of
painting and sculpture. On very numerous occasions,
particularly in Germany, he has been requested by pos-
sessors of pictures and statuary to express his opinion
as to the value and authorship of their purchases.
His poetic temperament was signally illustrated in
his oratory. Like his brother William, he was a spen-
did orator, clothing his thoughts in the most flowery ut-
terances, and adopting at will, according to the occasion, a
majestic, a playful, an incisely argumentative, or a simple
style. At the funeral of his father Feb. 9,1871, Mr. Henry
E. Steinway, he delivered a speech in the German tongue
which profoundly moved his auditory, Mr. William
Steinway following with an admirable address in En-
glish. Many New Yorkers will remember his brilliant
oration of May 4th, 1872, when the completion of the
Steinway piano, No. 25,000, was celebrated at Steinway
Hall. The late gifted German song-writer, Franz Abt,
who had just landed in this country, was among the
guests, who were electrified by the eloquent address (in
German) of him who has now uttered his last words.
At this gathering Mr. William Steinway spoke in Eng-
lish, and carried off a good share of the oratorical
honors of the day. Fresh in the recollection of the
citizens of New York, also, is the great peace festival
of April 10, 1871, held at the conclusion of the Franco-
Prussian struggle, when 65,000 men marched in the
civic parade. On the evening of that day Mr. Theodore
Steinway attended the great meeting in Liederkranz
Hall, and made the occasion memorable by a won-
drously beautiful deliverance, spoken in his native lan-
guage. The annals of the Liederkranz and Arion so-
cieties teem with his triumphs as an orator.
This great and good man was born at Seesen, near
the city of Brunswick, Germany, on the sixth day of
November, 1825, and was therefore in his sixty-fourth
year when the King of Terrors so suddenly overtook
him. Of his early youth we know enough to be able to
say that the boy was, in a very real and distinct sense,
the father of the man. While barely in his teens he
was remarkable for closely studious habits, great power
of concentration of thought, and decided originality.
The oldest son of the late Henry E. Steinway, his
earlier history is closely interwoven with the develop-
ment of his father's business career. At the age of
eight years Theodore received his first instruction in
music, and for six years thereafter was a constant at-
tendant of the celebrated high school of the Jacobsohn
Institute in Seesen. When fourteen years old he had
acquired great fame as a piano-tuner, being able to
tune a grand piano with surprising celerity and accur-
acy. At this time, too, he had developed wondrous
ability as a pianist. His touch was superb, pointing un-
mistakably to a soul a flame with fire from the altar of
Apollo. His skill in piano-forte playing, and his acute
musical ear were utilized by his father, under whose
conscientious training he perfected himself in the art of
piano building. In August, 1839, Theodore distin-
guished himself by exhibiting and playing three pianos
—one grand, one three-stringed and one two-stringed
square, exhibited by his father at the State fair in
Brunswick, with the celebrated composer Albert Meth-
fessel as chairman of the jury, who, besides granting to
Mr. Steinway, Sr. the first premium, bestowed the high-
est encomiums upon the tone and workmanship of his
pianos. Dr. Ginsberg, director of the Jacobsohn Insti-
tute, himself a thorough scientist, manifested deep in-
terest toward young Theodore, carefully guiding his
scientific education, and placing at his disposal the
Jacobsohn library and lecture room, the latter contain-
ing all the acoustic and scientific apparatus known at
that period. In return Theodore assisted the teachers
and professors of acoustics and mathematics in their
lectures and experiments. Here it soon became clear
to him that a piano in reality is a physical instrument
for the production of sound. But the realization of this
early conceived conviction was destined to be delayed
for several decades, when, as matured inventor and cre-
ator of the new system of building pianos, he finally and
totally abandoned the old school of piano making,
which depended entirely upon autodactic usuages, and
tenaciously adhered to contradictory systems, unable to
stand before the application and tests of scientific
principles.
In May of 1850 the elder Steinway and his family,
with the exception of Theodore, immigrated to this
country. The young acoustician and artist remained
behind to carry to a settlement his father's business in
Seesen. In 1852 he married, and decided to abandon
his hitherto cherished idea of winding up the business
and joining his relatives in New York. At this period
the social and political conditions of Germany had vastly
improved, and with them Mr. Theodore's business, which
became so extended and prosperous that in 1859 it was
removed to the city of Brunswick, where within a few
years he built up a large and lucrative concern, the re-
putation of which extended all over central Europe. In
1862 he met his brother Henry, junior, at the World's
fair in London, where Steinway & Sons were awarded
a First Prize Medal for their pianos exhibited on that
occasion. In May, 1864, with his wife he made a trip
of pleasure and recreation to New York, when the
whole family—father, mother, five sons and two daugh-
ters—-were for the first and the last time reunited. In
March, 1865, great private misfortunes fell upon the
287
family, the second son, Charles, succumbing to an at-
tack of typhoid fever while on a visit to Brunswick,
and the third son, Henry, who had been ill for several
years, dying in New York. These misfortunes were
the direct cause of Mr. Theodore's removal to New York,
for though himself in affluent circumstances, being the
sole possessor of a lucrative piano manufactory, his
loyalty and devotion to his aged parents, and to his sis-
ters and brothers, outweighed all other considerations.
In October 1865, he arrived.with his wife, in New York, at
once entering as full partner in the business of Steinway &
Sons, and assuming the duties of scientific director of the
factory, to which he devoted his whole inventive genius
and energy, his brother William, as before, conducting the
mercantile and financial affairs of the firm. In 1866, at
the suggestion of the latter, Steinway Hall, the splendid
acoustic properties of which are well known and appre-
ciated by artists and musicians, was erected.
Unfettered by other duties and cares of any kind, and
with every advantage at his disposal, Mr. Theodore
Steinway's inventive genius began to unfold. His first
efforts were directed towards constructing upright pianos
able to withstand the effects of the severe North Amer-
can climate as well as the grand and square pianos did.
A deep-rooted (and well founded) prejudice, chiefly
caused by the wretched wooden French uprights, which
would fall to pieces within a short time after their im-
portation, and by the poor American imitations of these
French models, existed at this time, all over the coun-
try, against upright pianos. Theodore Steinway's up-
right pianos in Germany had achieved a high reputa-
tion there; and he had brought with him to America the
flower of his highly skilled Brunswick workmen. These
formed the nucleus of the department of men trained by
him to make upright pianos in New York. Even after the
construction of the most superior upright pianos, match-
less in tone, touch and durability, many obstacles had
to be overcome, chief of which was the opposition of
the workmen, who, educated to make grand and square
pianos, were disinclined to give attention to the making
of uprights. But Theodore, whose energy and per-
severance were equal to his skill, was not to be check-
mated; the newly constructed upright pianos were in-
troduced and appreciated, and shortly afterwards were
generally preferred by the American public to the square
pianos, fully two-thirds of the 80,000 piano-fortes made
now annually in the United States being upright pianos,
and all these being in a greater or lesser degree imitations
of the systems inaugurated and patented by Mr. Theo-
dore Steinway. Thirty four patents were between 1866
and 1883 granted by the United States to this great in-
ventor, in connection with which no less than sixty-two
claims relate to upright pianos. Shortly after the in-
troduction of the upright piano, Mr. Theodore's atten-
tion was also turned to the grand piano, the most
natural and perfect stringed instrument in existence.
The U. S. patent granted to Henry Steinway, Jr., De-
cember 20th, 1859, for the overstrung system, followed
upon the vast improvements in tone and durability of
grand pianos achieved in comparison with the old par-
allel string system in grand pianos of other makers.
While the total tension (pull) of the strings in a Euro-
pean grand never exceeded 20,000 pounds, Steinway &
Son's grands already averaged 25,000 pounds of strain.
Meanwhile piano strings of steel had been greatly per-
fected, and Mr, Theodore's scientific tests on testing ma-
achines of his own constructing had convinced him that
the tension of the strings in a grand piano might be
doubled, and the beauty and power of tone vastly aug-
mented, provided the power of resistance to this in-
creased pull of the strings could be secured in the archi-
tecture and construction of the piano. The obstacles
were almost insuperable. The cast iron frames cast for
all piano manufacturers in ordinary foundries were not
firm and reliable enough to withstand such an immense-
ly increased strain. Mr. Theodore in the spring of 1869
went to Europe and carefully studied the latest achieve-
ments of the steel and iron industry there (in the fall of
the same year going also in Egypt and witnessing the
ceremonies of the opening of the Suez Canal), return-
ing to New York in the fall of 1870, and finally succeed-
ing in producing a steel casting invariably withstand-
ing a crushing strain of upwards of 5,000 pounds per
square centimetre. Ordinary cast iron will break under
one-half of such a pull.
Steinway & Son's splendid exhibit of grand, upright,
and square pianos at the Paris Exposition of 1867 was
under the personal superintendence of Theodore Stein-
way, His inventions, as shown on that occasion, espec-
ially those relating to the compression of the sound
board and the regulation of its tension to the pull of the