
During World War II, Steinway Produced Special Pianos for American Troops - curtis
https://www.steinway.com/news/features/steinway-sons-victory-vertical
======
barkingcat
The really interesting story about Steinway is that there are actually two
Steinways.

Steinway in Queens, NY, and Steinway in Hamburg, Germany.

It was two branches of the family that ran them, and got separated by the war.

Before they unified, they did do cultural exchanges of techniques, methods,
etc.

Today they are one company, but the pianos they produce have individual
characteristics owing to distinctive methods, techniques, and materials used
by each factory.

During the war, Steinway Hamburg was also forced to become an arms factory, so
there are German weapons out there made from tonewood that would have been
great pianos

[https://www.chuppspianos.com/steinway-sons-
pianos/history/](https://www.chuppspianos.com/steinway-sons-pianos/history/)

I think it's one of the great cultural integration stories, that people can
get separated and come back together even after war and terror.

~~~
tannhaeuser
The story is even more interesting in that there supposedly once was a company
called _Steinweg_ (Weg = German for _way_ ). I believe they came from the
Braunschweig (Brunswik) area which had, and still has, a long tradition of
making musical instruments (for example, _Schimmel_ is still there and
producing pianos, though not quite as expensive as Steinway's). So supposedly
Steinweg/Steinway migrated to US, then founded a piano factory in Hamburg when
they were already an US-based company. Now why they changed _weg_ into _way_ ,
but didn't change _Stein_ into _Stone_ is yet another question.

~~~
rhombocombus
Having grown up and learned music on a Schimmel they are excellent
instruments. Steinways are also fabulous pianos (undisputed by everyone), but
I would actually argue that Schimmel makes a better upright.

From a branding perspective, I guess Steinway has a better ring to it than
Stoneway (which sounds somewhat less... musical?)

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sverige
It's interesting that this was sufficient to entertain the troops. There were
enough GIs who played and enough who could sing and a book of songs they all
knew from memory.

I was raised that way, but many people my age and younger can't carry a tune,
let alone agree on common songs. My parents were musicians, though, so there's
that. Momm played the piano and even sold pianos at one point, including a lot
of Steinways. Their best market was in the Midwest 25 years ago when she was
selling them.

~~~
UweSchmidt
This is in my opinion the main reason why current music is problematic:
Without the tradition of playing for, and connecting with a small live
audience with a honest and heartfelt musical performance all everyone can do
is imitate, from the bedroom or practice room straight in front of cameras or
put in front of a manufactured audience.

Playing a song straight up is no longer possible, so performers conjure a
magical moment of connection with the audience (mixing the vocals to make them
sound as if an audience was singing in unison, or Maroon 5 taking the shirt
off at the Superbowl halftime show) or skipping any attempt at authenticity
(at the same Superbowl, the rapper driving a _car_ around the stage, just
portraying an image).

My guitar skills are quite limited, but lately I found a potential audience:
should my neighbors recruit me as a babysitter for their little child, I'm
going to see how my children's songs are going to work out for her. I can't
imagine anything but the wildest success :-)

~~~
Raffers
You really should edit "current music" to "current mainstream music"

There are fantastic things going on all over, people really trying to reach
out & put about their own little niche scenes all over the place. In fact I
had a psych band from Japan stay at mine just the other week, as they were
trying to keep the costs down.

It really isn't hard to find these local scenes or the smaller more intement
gigs with sites like bandcamp.

~~~
UweSchmidt
The problem that I'm describing is affecing all music: performers don't get to
try out their songs in a 'natural' setting nearly as often as they used to.
Music is done in the basement or in the practice room, not in the living room.
Music is performed in niche scenes, not bars or dance venues with the general
public attending.

I briefly googled 'psych band from japan' and saw a certain kind of
photography: jaded, melancholic people on artsy album covers. The kind that I
see on many event posters or in music magazines. Not terrible, but showing how
disconnected music is from the real world, living in art-space.

By all means I'm not saying it's bad, and I might give it a listen.

Still, I'm going to polish up my guitar chords and maybe compose a song for my
little neighbor. The way it's been done throughout human history.

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MisterTea
I see a market potential here: tactical piano. There's a whole group of people
who would buy this in a heartbeat and perhaps benefit from a little culture.
Then again it'll probably wind up buried under last years bug out bags next to
the 6x6 luxury military RV in the garage.

~~~
dctoedt
> _tactical piano_

That'll be next to be advertised on some of the cable-TV channels, right up
there with tactical flashlights and tactical sunglasses!

~~~
em-bee
below the tactical bagpipes...

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opwieurposiu
IBM made M1 carbines (short rifles) for the war. They are very collectable now
among gun/computer nerds.

[http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticle...](http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1494)

~~~
grimjack00
There's also the 1911 pistols made by Remington Rand and Singer:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1911_pistol#World_War_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1911_pistol#World_War_II)

~~~
steverb
I was actually issued a Singer manufactured .45 in the US Army in 1990. It
still fired just fine.

We switched to 9mm not too long after though.

------
ummwhat
I literally learned nothing about what makes their wartime piano different
from their usual piano.

~~~
Jonnax
It's a luxury brand writing a fluff piece to sell more expensive pianos.
Though they have another page with more info:

[https://www.steinway.com/news/features/victory-
verticals](https://www.steinway.com/news/features/victory-verticals)

"identified by their military colors (olive drab, blue and gray), absence of
front legs (deemed too delicate for the battlefield), and durable shipping
crates."

~~~
jmiserez
This link should be the actual article link, much longer than the original and
not a fluff piece.

There's also more info there on how they differ from regular pianos, i.e.
special wood treatment, different materials, extra handles, etc.

------
jdietrich
Perhaps a more interesting story is the Rhodes electric piano - initially
invented by Harold Rhodes as a miniature piano to allow wounded servicemen to
engage in music therapy lessons at their bedside, it became an iconic sound in
jazz, rock and pop.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/arts/harold-
rhodes-89-inv...](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/arts/harold-
rhodes-89-inventor-of-an-electronic-piano.html)

On a somewhat less cheerful note, a large proportion of sound recording and
broadcast techniques wee pioneered by the Nazis. Hitler and Goebbels deeply
understood the power of radio as a propaganda tool, so the regime invested
heavily in technologies that would allow their voices to be heard across the
Reich. They developed the first practical tape recorder[1], an extremely low-
cost AM radio receiver[2] and an array of improved microphones, amplifiers and
loudspeakers. The modern era of sound recording really started in 1945, when
seized German technology and emigrant German engineers made their way to
Britain and America[3].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetophon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetophon)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder#Commercializatio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder#Commercialization)

~~~
joezydeco
The story of post-war magnetic tape recording is really really interesting. It
dovetails into the history of silicon valley with the creation of AMPEX and
all of the companies and engineers that sprung out of there.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampex)

Ray Dolby was once an AMPEX engineer, as were Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn
(Atari).

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bamurphymac1
Wish this were a real article. I’d love to know how they kept them in tune
after being airdropped / jostled around supply lines.

~~~
rtkwe
> In 1941, the first "Victory Vertical" was dropped by parachute, complete
> with tuning equipment and instructions.

Above is from the posted article, in a less fluffy piece [0] someone else
posted in these comments their transport crates included: "a set of tuning
tools, instructions, spare parts, and sheet music consisting of light
classics, Protestant hymns, sing-along tunes, and boogie-woogie numbers"

Basically they didn't try, they provided the tools to tune and repair them and
counted on the fact that there'd be a number of mechanically minded people
where ever these went (for repairing more normal army equipment) that could do
a passable job of keeping them working.

Heck, with a drafted army there's a decent chance on bigger bases for there to
be someone who's actually who's worked on piano's in some capacity before.

[0] [https://www.steinway.com/news/features/victory-
verticals](https://www.steinway.com/news/features/victory-verticals)

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furgooswft13
I was thinking they dropped Steinway D's instead of bombs in Looney Toon Wars
II

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skykooler
How do you build a piano to be airdropped?

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Might be the shipping crate rather than (or in addition to) the piano itself.

