88 Keys: The Making of a Steinway Piano

88 Keys: The Making of a Steinway Piano by Prato, Rodica. hardcover edition. ISBN: 0073999772883.

From the selection and preparation of the raw materials to the fine-tuning and finishing of the final product, 88 Keys follows the creation of a piano in the Steinway and Sons factory in Long Island City, New York - a process that has changed little in the one hundred years that Steinway, the worlds premier piano manufacturer, has been in business. An introduction relates the history of the piano and traces the history of the Steinway itself. The story then follows step by step the creation of the concert grand piano from 12,000 individual parts. The exquisitely detailed and beautifully-rendered drawings set the tone for the dignity and care with which the ultimate grand piano - the only one in the world still made by hand - is crafted. Hardcover.