Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

STEINBACH STEINWAY & SONS 691
speed, and immediately after called upon Ries
to play it in public, with only five days for its
study. Eies naturally shirked such a task,
preferring to play the C minor one instead.
At this his master was offended, and turned to
Stein, who accepted the task, but was unable to
accomplish it, and played the C minor instead,
not satisfactorily.
Stein was an industrious composer, but few of
his vocal compositions reached the stage. He left
three operettas and a ballet, of which only one
—
' Die Fee Radiante '—came to public performance.
Also a set of Songs, a Violin Concerto,
a Grand Sonata for the PF., and a PF. Trio.
He also arranged Beethoven's Fourth and Sixth
Symphonies for two PF.s. a. w. t.
STEINBACH, Emil, bom Nov. 14, 1849, at
Lengenrieden in Baden, studied at the Leipzig
Conservatorium 1867-69, and in 1877 became
conductor of the Town Band, and in 1 89 8 Director
of the Town Theatre of Mainz. He has composed
much chamber and orchestral music and
many songs.
Fritz, bom June 17, 1855, at Griinsfeld
in Baden, brother of the above, whose pupil he
was till he went to the Leipzig Conservatorium
in 1873. In 1880 he became second CapellmeisteratMainz
till 1886, whenhe wassummoned
by the Grand Duke of Meiningen to the post
of conductor of his celebrated orchestra, and later
on became his general music-director. In 1902
he visited England with the whole of the Meiningen
orchestra, and made one of the greatest
sensations that has been caused by any musical
perfonnances within recent years in this country,
his renderings of Bach and Brahms being
specially appreciated. All the four symphonies
of Brahms were included in his programmes.
In 1902 he succeeded Wiillner as Town CapeUmeister
and Director of the Conservatorium at
CJologne. He is also well known as a composer,
chiefly through his septet (op. 7) and a violoncello
sonata. H. v. H.
STEINWAY & SONS, an eminent firm of
pianoforte-makers in New York, distinguished
by the merit of their instruments and by their
commercial enterprise, which, in comparatively
few years, have placed their firm in equal rank
with those famous older makers in Europe whose
achievements in the improvement and development
of the instrument have become historical.
Henry Engelhard Steinway (originally Stein-
WEG, see below) was born Feb. 15, 1797, at
Wolfshagen, in the Duchy of Brunswick. The
youngest of a family of twelve, at the early age
of fifteen he was the sole survivor of his famOy.
From the age of seventeen to twenty-one he
served in the army, and during that time his
natural taste for music led him to learn the
zither. On his discharge, which was honourably
obtained, from the army, bethought of becoming
a cabinet-maker, but was too old to serve the
five years' apprenticeship and five years as
journeyman which the guild required prior to
his becoming a master. He therefore went for
a year to an ii-regular
master, and then turned
to organ-building, which was free from the
narrow limits of a guild. Circumstances, however,
allowed him in 1825 to marry and settle
as a cabinet-maker at Seesen, near the Harz
Mountains, where he had been already working ;
and in that year (Nov. 25) his eldest son Theodore
was born. Steinway in a few years turned
his attention to piano-making, and in 1839
exhibited a grand and two square pianos at the
State Fair of Brunswick. Seesen being in
Hanoverian territory, the foundation of the
Prussian 'Zollverein' in 1845 brought Steinway's
hitherto flourishing business to a standstill,
and the revolution of 1848 destroyed it
entirely. The course of events now induced
Steinway to leave Germany, and in April 1849
he emigrated to New York, whither his family,
with the exception of Theodore, the eldest son,
followed him the next year. For three years
the father and the three sons, Charles, Henry,
and WUliam, worked in different New York
piano factories. In March 1853 they agreed
to unite and start in business on their own
account, and the firm of Steinway & Sons ' ' was
established. In 1855 they exhibited a square
piano in which the American iron frame principle
of a single casting was combined with a cross
or over-strung scale, forming the foundation of
the so-called 'Steinway system,' which, as
applied to grand pianos, attracted great attention
in the London International Exhibition of 1862.
Both Charles and Henry Steinway dying in
1865, Theodore, the eldest son, disposed of his
business in Brunswick and became a partner of
the New York firm. Tlieir spacious concertroom
there was built and opened in 1866.
About this time the Steinways began to make
upright pianos, and their instruments of all kinds
shown at Paris, in the Universal Exhibition of
1867, not only gained them success, but became
models for Germany, to the great improvement
of the German make and trade. Henry Steinway,
the father, died in 1871. In 1875 the
firm opened a branch in London, to which a
concert-room is attached, and in 1880 another
branch establishment at Hamburg. A. j. H.
[The first gi-and piano was made by Steinway
& Sons in AprU 1856, the upright in April
1862. In May 1876 the firm was incorporated
with a capital of §1,500,000, William Steinway
being elected president ; the capital stock wag
increased to $2,000,000 in 1891. WiUiam
Steinway, born March 5, 1836, at Seesen, remained
its financial head and prime factor in
its development until his death on Nov. 30,
1896. C. F. Theodore Steinway, born in Seesen,
Nov. 6, 1825, died March 6, 1889, at Brunswick,
was the scientific constructor to whom were due
many of the inventions which gave the Steinway
pianos their high position. The oflicers of tbe