randy and i watched this last night and loved it. it's a documentary about the making of a steinway piano. they followed one piano (a nine foot concert grand - L1037) from cutting down the wood in the forest to rolling it out onto the showroom floor.
it was fascinating to watch. i've already been heavily indoctrinated by randy that steinways are the best pianos out there, but we were both even more convinced of the fact after watching this documentary. almost the entire process is done with hand tools. the technicians that make each part have been trained extensively and each part is carefully inspected throughout the process. i loved all the shots of the factory. it feels like you've been transported back one hundred years, with hand tools like planes and chisels hanging all over the place.
i think that my favorite part about the whole movie was seeing the men and women who make steinways. i had imagined a bunch of musicians working at the steinway factory, but really, it is a bunch of burly craftsmen from the bronx and queens, most of who have been working there for years. they have a lot of immigrants with thick eastern bloc accents. one guy was hand planing part of the piano and said that he had brought the plane with him from (insert name of eastern bloc country that i can't remember here) in 1969. awesome. these guys were true artisans.
last night i dreamt about randy and i going to the steinway basement in new york and picking out a nine foot concert grand. some day.
it was fascinating to watch. i've already been heavily indoctrinated by randy that steinways are the best pianos out there, but we were both even more convinced of the fact after watching this documentary. almost the entire process is done with hand tools. the technicians that make each part have been trained extensively and each part is carefully inspected throughout the process. i loved all the shots of the factory. it feels like you've been transported back one hundred years, with hand tools like planes and chisels hanging all over the place.
i think that my favorite part about the whole movie was seeing the men and women who make steinways. i had imagined a bunch of musicians working at the steinway factory, but really, it is a bunch of burly craftsmen from the bronx and queens, most of who have been working there for years. they have a lot of immigrants with thick eastern bloc accents. one guy was hand planing part of the piano and said that he had brought the plane with him from (insert name of eastern bloc country that i can't remember here) in 1969. awesome. these guys were true artisans.
last night i dreamt about randy and i going to the steinway basement in new york and picking out a nine foot concert grand. some day.
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