7 ms·

During World War II, Steinway Produced Special Pianos for American Troops

140 points by curtis 7y ago

ummwhat 7y ago
I literally learned nothing about what makes their wartime piano different from their usual piano.
- Jonnax 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    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.
- hluska 7y ago
  There’s more info here: https://www.victoryvertical.com/ https://www.victoryvertical.com/
furgooswft13 7y ago
I was thinking they dropped Steinway D's instead of bombs in Looney Toon Wars II
MisterTea 7y ago
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.
- rzzzt 7y ago
  Including vertical take-off and landing capability.
- dctoedt 7y ago
  > 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 7y ago
    below the tactical bagpipes...
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  For an extra several hundred dollars will you sell me some brackets I can use to mount it on the roof rack of my bro'd out Tacoma?
  - C1sc0cat 7y ago
    And the mounts for the 50 Cal and GMPG on an adapted door mouth for the page turner.
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  I am now imagining the Chieftain reviewing it on youtube :-)
jdietrich 7y ago
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-inventor-of-an-electronic-piano.html https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/arts/harold-rhodes-89-inv... 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#Commercialization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder#Commercializatio...
- joezydeco 7y ago
  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).
sverige 7y ago
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.
- spunker540 7y ago
  Back when recorded music was still nascent, live amateur music was much more commonplace.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Also a drafted army tends to have people with a wider range of skills.
- UweSchmidt 7y ago
  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 :-)
  - resters 7y ago
    > current music is problematic The piano and guitar are still alive and well, as are things like the following: https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://www.apple.com/ios/garageband/ https://www.apple.com/ios/garageband/ https://www.wwbw.com/Hohner-32B-Instructor-Melodica-H71932.wwbw https://www.wwbw.com/Hohner-32B-Instructor-Melodica-H71932.w...
bamurphymac1 7y ago
Wish this were a real article. I’d love to know how they kept them in tune after being airdropped / jostled around supply lines.
- MikusR 7y ago
  " "Victory Vertical" was dropped by parachute, complete with tuning equipment and instructions."
- cesarb 7y ago
  I wondered the same thing, but the article mentions "[...] dropped by parachute, complete with tuning equipment and instructions", so I'm guessing the soldiers had to tune it themselves using that tuning equipment (and these instructions were probably "how to tune this piano").
- rtkwe 7y ago
  > 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
barkingcat 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    And then there is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotrian-Steinweg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotrian-Steinweg
  - rhombocombus 7y ago
    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?)
- 7y ago
opwieurposiu 7y ago
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?idarticles=1494 http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticle...
- grimjack00 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    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.
skykooler 7y ago
How do you build a piano to be airdropped?
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Might be the shipping crate rather than (or in addition to) the piano itself.

140 points by curtis 7y ago

ummwhat 7y ago

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

Jonnax 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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.
hluska 7y ago
There’s more info here: https://www.victoryvertical.com/ https://www.victoryvertical.com/

furgooswft13 7y ago

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

MisterTea 7y ago

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.

rzzzt 7y ago
Including vertical take-off and landing capability.
dctoedt 7y ago
> 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 7y ago
  below the tactical bagpipes...
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
For an extra several hundred dollars will you sell me some brackets I can use to mount it on the roof rack of my bro'd out Tacoma?
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  And the mounts for the 50 Cal and GMPG on an adapted door mouth for the page turner.
C1sc0cat 7y ago
I am now imagining the Chieftain reviewing it on youtube :-)

jdietrich 7y ago

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-inventor-of-an-electronic-piano.html https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/arts/harold-rhodes-89-inv... 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#Commercialization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder#Commercializatio...

joezydeco 7y ago
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).

sverige 7y ago

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.

spunker540 7y ago
Back when recorded music was still nascent, live amateur music was much more commonplace.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Also a drafted army tends to have people with a wider range of skills.
UweSchmidt 7y ago
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 :-)
- resters 7y ago
  > current music is problematic The piano and guitar are still alive and well, as are things like the following: https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://teenage.engineering/products/po https://www.apple.com/ios/garageband/ https://www.apple.com/ios/garageband/ https://www.wwbw.com/Hohner-32B-Instructor-Melodica-H71932.wwbw https://www.wwbw.com/Hohner-32B-Instructor-Melodica-H71932.w...

bamurphymac1 7y ago

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

MikusR 7y ago
" "Victory Vertical" was dropped by parachute, complete with tuning equipment and instructions."
cesarb 7y ago
I wondered the same thing, but the article mentions "[...] dropped by parachute, complete with tuning equipment and instructions", so I'm guessing the soldiers had to tune it themselves using that tuning equipment (and these instructions were probably "how to tune this piano").
rtkwe 7y ago
> 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

barkingcat 7y ago

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 7y ago
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.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  And then there is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotrian-Steinweg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotrian-Steinweg
- rhombocombus 7y ago
  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?)
7y ago

opwieurposiu 7y ago

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?idarticles=1494 http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticle...

grimjack00 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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.

skykooler 7y ago

How do you build a piano to be airdropped?

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Might be the shipping crate rather than (or in addition to) the piano itself.