2/6/2007
Daisuke Inoue
My dream is to own Steinway Grand piano and put in the living room of my house. It is the piano you will see at the most of concerto hall in the U.S. or the hall of luxurious hotel, and you would hear the rich harmony as you imagine pianist sitting in front of it. Light reflects on the polished black wood surface and its smooth curved body line tempts you to touch it. As you slowly pulling down the keyboard, distinctive clear tone like a diamond fills the room and you feel the energy of this thick sound. Although price is as expensive as that of Porche, the experience of playing Steinway Grand piano is not comparable to anything else for pianist and it is the first choice of the virtuoso pianist. I love this product because of its scarcity, sound quality, and its history.
All Steinway Piano is manufactured by hand of skilled craftsman. Unlike Yamaha, Japanese piano company, which produces 100,000 pianos per year, they only produce 1,500 upright and 3,000 grand pianos per year. No single same piano exists on the earth because each product is unique work done by craftsman. It requires cutting edge technology to build a piano, so building piano is like manufacturing chip of the computer. It is delicate and sensitive. Small error can result disturbing the sound wave. Even though machine can follow the instruction of human to assemble the piano perfectly, it cannot feel the music, so only the person who senses the difference of sound can create the perfect piano. They select and use the finest material such as rock maple, poplar and birch to assemble the piano from 12,000 components. Surface of the wood is painted deep black and it is polished. When I touch the keyboard, I feel the warmth of the wood.
Steinway piano generate the sound which is transparent and distinctive. When I hear jazz pianist is improvising with Steinway piano, each note sounds like diamond and I am filled with the feeling of ecstasy. If you play the several notes together, you can create the rich thick harmony. It is the sound that you like to hear while drinking cocktail. Like sommelier can infer the brand of wine from the color, smell and taste, I can judge whether it is Steinway piano or not by hearing the sound. This sound quality is only possible with Steinway piano because the design and manufacturing process is more advanced than any other piano brands. The mechanism of producing sound is like the way we produce voice. When we speak, we send the air and vibrate the vocal cords. When we play the piano, we hit the string with hummer and wooden sound board turns vibration into sound. We all have instrument in the body and want to speak with appealing voice. For the pianist who speaks the language of music, piano is extension of their body and want to speak with fascinating sound. Even though I am not really good at playing at piano, Steinway piano makes me looks better.
The reason I like this piano brand is that I know the history of the company. When I was traveling New York during this winter, I accidentally met the marketing person of Steinway at financial center in front of World Trade Center. Targeting business man who can afford such luxurious product, there were 5 expensive grand pianos lined up for display. I was curious to know how it sounds and asked her to play. She said it is the piano built by son of Henry Steinway, who emigrated to U.S. from Germany in 1851 and start building piano in Manhattan. Having strong faith in the product, she explained me the history of Steinway enthusiastically and convinced me why it is the best piano brand in the world. It is incredible that they are inheriting the tradition of craftsmanship and maintain the same quality for over century. Knowing this fact, I see the piano differently and like it more. Finally she gave me her business card. Hopefully, I will call her to contact and purchase this piano someday.
(EX) Lynch, Tim. "DSN Trials and Tribble-ations Review." Psi Phi: Bradley's Science Fiction Club. 1996. Bradley University. 8 Oct. 1997