For sale last March for $160,000, one of the highest prices for a small piano in the US, the Guilderland S. Frederick Steinway was built in 1866 to a design by Carl C. Engel, a German-born firm of musical instrument makers who had a considerable reputation in Britain.
The Steinway held this distinction from 1868 until an exhibition stand, the manufacturer’s only one of its kind, of which were used in the US to promote new instrument models, was deemed “unsuitable” in 1877. This did not stop it from being copied. One of the copies was sold to Steinway himself for $20,000.
Steinway died in 1894 and the company was taken over by B.F. Hirsch & Company, whose name Steinway used from then on. It is unlikely that a work by Reinhold ever came before Steinway, since the piano manufacturer at first promoted its good looks as a selling point, and did not manufacture his piano. Reinhold wrote a song in 1850, titled “Ich trie die Klavier nicht, / Denn er ist so schön (I do not try the piano, / Because it is so beautiful),” which became a popular song that was sung at music festivals for decades. Reinhold started writing chamber music in 1857 but his contemporaries praised him for the composition of “Der Wanderer,” which was well received in Tannenbaum songs that were given to princes and dukes.
Part of the charm of the piano is the elegiac piano solo written by Paul Walter Reinhold, now a part of popular music in several languages.
Lyrics:
Ich trie die Klavier nicht,
Denn er ist so schön
Denn er ist so schön
Mit gutem Bogen.
In einem Garten steht ein Schatten,
Der will ich vielleicht segnen,
Und auf die Knie stößt der Zeit,
Und der gute Wanderer kommt auf sie.
(I don’t try the piano,
Because it is so beautiful
Because it is so beautiful
With a good bow.)
In einem Garten steht ein Schatten,
Der will ich vielleicht segnen,
Und auf die Knie st be359ba680
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