All in Music

It was pure coincidence that I was recently reading A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for a Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner, especially since I read about Henry Z. Steinway's death just as I was getting to the part of the book which talked about him. I found the book to be a quick yet entertaining read, especially since it dips into related topics such as the history of the piano, the artistic goals of tuning, and descriptions of how a piano is manufactured. As the title implies, the book centers around a particular piano, a Steinway which was labelled CD 318. Hafner tells how the piano was made during WWII and explains how it and Gould were finally brought together.

The last person named Steinway to run the Steinway & Sons piano company died last Thursday. Henry Z. Steinway was the great-grandson of Heinrich Steinweg (later Steinway). Coincidentally enough, I happen to be reading the part of the book A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (by Katie Hafner) which describes how Steinway & Sons came to be. More on the book after I've finished reading it.