The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:
The Steinway Grand Piano
Owning a Steinway piano was my life’s dream. In August 1980 we bought a new, 7-foot Steinway grand piano in Washington, DC and it was delivered to our West Virginia mountaintop at 8 a.m. one Sunday morning. The delivery men’s next job that day was to pick up a 9-foot Steinway, deliver it to the White House lawn where someone would play just the starting note of a singer’s lawn concert, and after the concert the Steinway would be returned to the store. So what’s wrong with a pitch pipe?
My piano cost $14,000 which I paid for with monthly payments from piano lessons and rent from my studio, and later, from my school job salary. The same model Steinway retailed for $38,000 a few years later. Which I don’t think is the price an owner could actually expect to get if he decided to resell it. Anyway, it’s a fabulous piano and has been a thrill to play and hear, and its sound gets better all the time. I love to play big arpeggio or chord sounds and let the pedal hang on and on until the sound fades away… I feel neglectful at times because I don’t have it tuned once a year, at least, but it holds its tune better than any other piano I ever had.
We had a surprise soon after it was delivered: Middle C stuck. If I pulled it up and played the key, it would stick again. Dave discovered the cause of the problem and made a chisel from a bobby pin and was able to carve a little bit off of a key lever and free it. Dr. Dave, thank you again!
Unlike piano tuners who use electronic machines to get the right pitches, our tuner continues to use just a tuning fork and the results are superior. I don’t understand the technical reasons why machine tuning doesn’t sound right; I can only say it doesn’t sound natural. A good tuner with a good ear gets the only result that’s “right,” and pleasing to the ear.
I need to touch music as well as to think it, which is why I have always lived next to a piano.
– Igor Stravinsky
To be continued…
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee (1931 – 2024) built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
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