Full Description
The professional piano tuner has been around for two centuries or more yet to many, the job they do has often been seen as mysterious and unusual. Who are they? What made them become piano tuners and how were they trained? Has the job changed much over time? Is piano tuning a man's job, an art, craft, science or simply a mechanical task carried out by a non-musician? Has technology made the piano tuner redundant or is there still a demand for their skills and knowledge?
In this book you will read about the piano tuner's fascinating role in the musical world, be it the humble tuner trying to keep Mrs Smith's old beast going for another year or attending to a glossy nine-foot Steinway concert grand for a famous or rather fickle artiste. But read also about how the piano itself - once described as an orchestra in the front room - enhances the quality of life for so many. Included in this book - which is the first ever published history of piano tuning - is a highly engaging overview of the piano itself, its inventor and transformation from the eighteenth century to present times.
Complete with 200 photographs to truly bring the text alive, this fascinating book is a must for anyone interested in the piano, music, traditional crafts, trades and social history.
Contents
Introduction
- page 5
Brief
History of the Piano and its Inventor - page 8
England's
First Piano Builders - page 11
The
Piano's Place in Society - page 18
The
First Piano Tuners - page 34
The
Independent, Factory, and Music Store Tuner - page 44
Piano
Tuning and the Blind - page 61
Certificates and Colleges - page 85
Through
the Years: The Piano Tuner's Working Life - page 97
