Johann Andreas Stein facts for kids
Johann Andreas Stein (born May 16, 1728, died February 29, 1792) was a very important German instrument maker. He was a key person in the history of the piano.
He is famous for designing the "German hammer action" for pianos. Pianos with this special action, or a more advanced version called the "Viennese action," were perfect for playing the music of famous composers like Haydn, Mozart, and the early works of Beethoven and Schubert.
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Stein's Life and Work
Stein was born in 1728 in Heidelsheim, Germany. He passed away in Augsburg in 1792. He learned how to build organs from his father. He also worked for other famous organ builders, including Johann Andreas Silbermann.
Around 1750, Stein moved to Augsburg. He became a citizen there in 1756 or 1757. In 1757, he finished building a wonderful organ for a church in Augsburg and became an organist there. In the 1760s, he decided to focus on making stringed keyboard instruments instead of organs.
As a stringed instrument maker, Stein built different types of instruments. These included clavichords, harpsichords, and pianos. He also made some unique instruments:
- The "Poli-Toni-Clavichordium" (1769): This instrument combined a large harpsichord with a piano. It could make many different sounds.
- The "Melodica" (1772): This was a small organ where the player could change how loud the sound was just by how they touched the keys. Stein felt that most keyboard instruments didn't allow players to express feelings as well as a human voice or a violin could.
Stein also built "vis-à-vis" instruments. These were like two instruments in one case, with a piano and a harpsichord facing each other. This allowed one player to control both instruments.
Stein traveled to deliver instruments and learn more. He visited Paris twice and Vienna once, along with other cities in Germany and Switzerland.
Two clavichords made by Stein still exist today. One of them was bought by Leopold Mozart (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father) for practicing while traveling. About fifteen of Stein's "Hammerflügel" (wing-shaped pianos) are still around. His daughter, Nannette, likely oversaw the making of those built after 1790.
The piano shown at the top of this page is not actually made by Stein. It was probably made by Louis Dulcken, who copied Stein's style. Many instruments were made to look like Stein's, sometimes even with fake labels.
Stein's Amazing Piano Inventions
The Prellmechanik Action
Stein's most important invention for the piano was perfected around 1780. It was called the Prellzungenmechanik, or "German action." What made it special was its "escapement mechanism."
In this design, each hammer was placed on top of the key. When a player pressed a key, the hammer would rise. A small hook on the hammer would then hit a special part that made the hammer fly up and strike the string. This "escapement" allowed the hammer to fall back quickly after hitting the string, even if the player kept holding the key down. This stopped the strings from vibrating too long and making a jangling sound.
Experts say this invention was a huge step forward for the piano. It gave players amazing control over the hammers, especially when playing softly. It was very sensitive to how the player touched the keys.
Controlling the Dampers
Stein might have been the first to use a knee lever to control the dampers. Dampers are small pads that stop the piano strings from vibrating after a note is played. This knee lever was an early version of today's damper pedal. It allowed the player to lift all the dampers off the strings at once, letting the notes ring out.
Before Stein, other instrument makers like Gottfried Silbermann had similar devices, but they used hand levers. This meant players had to stop playing to use them. Stein's knee lever was much more practical because players could use their knee while still playing with their hands.
At first, Stein's knee lever would engage (put down) the dampers when pressed. But his later pianos, like the one Mozart described in 1777, had a knee lever that would disengage (lift up) the dampers. This allowed for the kind of "pedaling" we hear on modern pianos.
Mozart and Stein's Pianos
The famous composer Mozart visited Stein in Augsburg in 1777 and became his friend. Mozart wrote an excited letter to his father, Leopold, about Stein's pianos. This letter tells us a lot about Stein's instruments and what Mozart liked in a piano.
Mozart wrote: "Before I had seen any of his make, Späth's claviers had always been my favourites. But now I much prefer Stein's, for they damp ever so much better than the Regensburg instruments. ... In whatever way I touch the keys, the tone is always even. It never jars, it is never stronger or weaker or entirely absent; in a word, it is always even."
He also mentioned the "escapement action," saying: "Without an escapement it is impossible to avoid jangling and vibration after the note is struck. When you touch the keys, the hammers fall back again the moment after they have struck the strings, whether you hold down the keys or release them ..."
Mozart was also impressed by how Stein made the sounding-board (the part that makes the sound louder): "He guarantees that the sounding-board will neither break nor split. When he has finished making one for a clavier, he places it in the open air, exposing it to rain, snow, the heat of the sun and all the devils in order that it may crack. Then he inserts wedges and glues them in to make the instrument very strong and firm. He is delighted when it cracks, for he can then be sure that nothing more can happen to it."
Finally, Mozart praised the knee lever: "The device too which you work with your knee is better on his than on other instruments. I have only to touch it and it works; and when you shift your knee the slightest bit, you do not hear the least reverberation."
This letter was written before Stein made his most famous "German action" piano. The piano Mozart played might have had an earlier type of hammer action, but it still had an escapement mechanism that impressed him.
Later, when Mozart moved to Vienna, he bought a piano from Anton Walter. Walter was another builder who used Stein's ideas and improved them.
The Stein Piano Family
Johann Andreas Stein started an important family tradition of piano making. His daughter, Nannette (1769–1833), took over her father's business around 1790 when he became too ill.
In 1794, Nannette and her husband, Andreas Streicher, moved the family's piano-making business from Augsburg to Vienna. They continued making pianos under her husband's name, Streicher.
In 1802, Nannette and her brother, Matthäus Stein (also known as André Stein), decided to work separately. Nannette then signed her instruments "Nannette Streicher née Stein in Wien." She made many improvements to her father's piano designs. By 1807, she had turned his smaller, five-octave piano into an impressive grand piano with six-and-a-half octaves. Her son, Johann Baptist Streicher, later joined the business. The Streicher firm stopped making pianos in 1896.
Meanwhile, Nannette's brother, André Stein, also continued building pianos. He became a master piano maker in Vienna in 1803. André Stein made excellent instruments and developed his own unique style. Some people even thought his pianos were better than his sister Nannette's.
André Stein was well-known to Beethoven. He helped Beethoven by tuning and maintaining his instruments. He even made a large horn to help amplify the sound of Beethoven's piano.
In 1828, Friedrich Wieck bought a piano by André Stein for his daughter, Clara. Clara later married Robert Schumann. Her piano by Stein is still kept in the Robert Schumann House in Zwickau, Germany, and was even pictured on a German banknote!
Many pianos made by André Stein still exist today, including grand pianos and square pianos.
Recordings made with replicas of instruments by Stein
- Ronald Brautigam. Ludwig van Beethoven. Complete works for solo piano, Vol.9. Played on a replica of Stein piano made by Paul McNulty. Label: BIS
- Alexei Lubimov and his colleagues. Ludwig van Beethoven. Complete piano sonatas. Played on copies of Stein, Walter, Graf, Buchholtz instruments made by Paul McNulty. Label: Moscow Conservatory Records
See also
- Timeline of harpsichord makers
