Stein and the German action

Grand piano by Johann Andreas Stein, Augsburg 1782
Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum

The emancipation of the piano from curiosity to seriosity began with Johann Andreas Stein's instruments; his piano action had solved all deficiencies of older models and had established a distinct model with specific sound character and reliability. Stein was the example for later piano makers for generations to come.

music sample:
(excerpt) W.A. Mozart: Sonata in D major KV 311,
Rondeau: Allegro
played by Ludwig Sémerjian
Instrument: grand piano by Johann Andreas Stein, Augsburg 1788, in Germanisches Nationalmuseum

 

Without Johann Andreas Stein (1728-1792) the history of the piano might maybe never been a success story. The second half of the 18th century had produced a multitude of keyboard instruments all being capable to enable the "speciality" of the piano - dynamic grading of volume. Aside the "gravicembalo col piano e forte" by Cristofori and his imitators (Silbermann and others) there were swell harpsichords  (Shudi & Broadwood, Kirkman), the tangent piano (Späth & Schmahl), the „Cembal d’amour“ (in spite of its name no harpsichord but a special form of clavichord) and more inventions, today often only known by name.

Johann Andreas Stein, like Silbermann, was a trained organ maker. After settling in Augsburg he started his experiments with stringed keyboard instruments. He is considered the inventor of the so-called German, later "Viennese" action, where the hammer is placed on the rear end of the key itself. At first in a wooden capsule with an axle, each hammer has a protuding beak at its end. When the key is pressed capsule and hammer move upwards at first; the beak hits a bumper bar working as a hook,  setting the other end of the hammer in rotating motion to strike the strings. At this point this beak slides free from this bumper bar which releases that beak and the hammer falls back into initial position.

A first improvement of this by Stein was the splitting of this bumper bar into separate hooked strips with individual axle and spring ("movable escapement") to improve and accelerate the hammer's return. This action was very light, quick in response, and offered a wide variety of differentiation in playing.

Animation of piano action after Johann Andreas Stein

 
 

Stein and his German action: Film

Stein became famous first by one of his other inventions, the „Vis-à-vis“-grand, a double instrument consisting of two grands joined at their rear ends, one a harpsichord, the other a piano. It could be played by two players sitting opposite each other, the piano also could be played from the harpsichord side only, by a special mechanism derived from the organ. Only two of these instruments are preserved today.

In October 1777, the same year when Stein built his „Vis-a-vis“ now in the famous Accademia Filarmonica in Verona, he had a visitor.  A young man on one of his tours to give concerts and now visiting his relatives in his father's home town: Wolfgang Amadè Mozart. Mozart enthusiastically wrote in his letter to father Leopold on 17th October: „Ehe ich noch vom stein seiner arbeit etwas gesehen habe waren mir die spättischen Clavier [die Instrumente von Franz Jacob Späth in Regensburg] die liebsten; Nun muß ich den steinischen den vorzug lassen ...“ [Before I saw Stein' work my favourites were the Späthian keyboards; now I have to prefer the Steinians ...]

The climax of Mozart's meeting with Stein for sure was a performance of his concert for three harpsichords and orchestra KV 242 with the  Augsburg cathedral organist Johann Michael Demmler, Mozart himself and Stein as soloists, playing on three just finished grand pianos. When Mozart obviously designed his keyboard compositions for a harpsichord, clavichord or tangent piano before, from then on the piano represented his choice of keyboard instrument for public concerts.


 
 
 

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