Piano History

  • 1.  early piano tuning

    Posted 06-25-2017 11:11
    My great-grandfather, HD Saunders, was a piano tuner born in 1859 in NY, who spent most of his life in Oregon.  He traveled all over the NW on his bicycle tuning pianos. He died in 1944, but passed his craft on to his son, who has also passed away.  I am writing an article about HD, and  I would like to find out how he may have learned this craft.  I'm wondering if any of you know something about the history of piano tuning in the US.  There is a book about piano tuning history in England, but I can't find anything on US history.  Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.  And, let me know if you see his signature in any pianos you might tune.  THANK YOU.  Linda Neale

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    Linda Neale
    retired
    Portland OR
    503-452-4431
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  • 2.  RE: early piano tuning

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 07-29-2017 18:40
    One good source is Music Trade Review, most of which has been scanned and posted (1880 to 1950 or so). Your great-grandfather might have received training in a factory in NYC at that time. 

    An early textbook about piano tuning and repair was written by Quincy Norton, published in 1887: Construction, tuning and repair of the pianoforte. A similar book, written by Daniel Spillane, "The piano. Scientific, technical, and practical instructions relating to tuning, regulating, and toning," was published in 1893.

    The founding of the first national organization of piano technicians that survived (National Association of Piano Tuners) occurred in 1910. It survives today as the Piano Technicians Guild (a second national association, the American Society of Piano Tuner Technicians, was founded in 1941, and the two merged to form PTG in 1957). William Braid White was responsible for founding both of those organizations, and also organized the Society of Piano Tuners of New York in 1904.  

    There are also scanned archives of Tuner Technician Journals  from 1913 - 1957 available on this site (thanks to Paul Brown for his amazing work in scanning them - with OCR, so they are searchable).

    I hope this provides some places to begin your search.

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    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    http://www.artoftuning.com
    "We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
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