The Golden Age of the Piano refers to a "

golden age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

" extending variously from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century during which composing and performance on the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

achieved notable heights; or to the decades between roughly 1890 and 1920, in which pianos were manufactured and sold in great quantities, particularly in the United States. Among the artists associated with the Golden Age of the Piano are

Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all ...

Glenn Gould Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...

Wanda Landowska Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in t ...

Myra Hess Dame Julia Myra Hess, (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was an English pianist best known for her performances of the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann. Career Early life Julia Myra Hess was born on 25 February 1890 to a Jew ...

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

Alexander Brailowsky Alexander Brailowsky (16 February 1896 – 25 April 1976) was a Russian-born French pianist who specialised in the works of Frédéric Chopin. He was a leading concert pianist in the years between the two World Wars. Early life Brailowsky was bor ...

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

Josef Hofmann Josef Casimir Hofmann (originally Józef Kazimierz Hofmann; January 20, 1876February 16, 1957) was a Polish-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor. Biography Josef Hofmann was born in Podgórze (a district of Kraków), in Aus ...

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poeti ...

, and

Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (; July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist who, at the age of 23, achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold Wa ...

. The term is also used to describe the decades in which the piano became ubiquitous in U.S. middle-class households and certain types of public spaces. "The end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century has often been called 'The Golden Age of the Piano, Randy Rowoldt wrote in the ''Small Home Gazette'' in 2018. "In an age before radio and television, and in a time when only the wealthy could afford a record player, the piano was a sign that a family had achieved middle-class respectability." Hundreds of piano manufacturers were founded between 1880 and 1910 to serve the burgeoning market. In 1892, for example, the country's total estimated production was 100,000 pianos, most made by manufacturers in and around New York City and Boston. The arrival of the

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

in the early 1900s and

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (an ...

in the 1920s exerted steadily growing pressure on piano makers. Total U.S. sales for the industry peaked around 300,000 in 1924, representing roughly $100 million in revenue ($ today) and decreased steadily thereafter. In the final year of the

Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the U ...

, piano makers sold an estimated 115,000 instruments.

Notes

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External links

* Documentary:
The Golden Age of the Piano
(1993, directed by

David Dubal David Dubal (born Cleveland, Ohio) is an American pianist, teacher, author, lecturer, broadcaster, and painter. Musician and painter Dubal has given piano recitals and master classes worldwide, and has also judged international piano competitions ...

) * Video:
When was the Golden Age of Pianos?
(2019, LivingPianosVideos) * Article:
What Killed The Golden Age of Piano?
(2020, John Aschenbrenner) * Article:

(1995, ''Piano & Keyboard'', Jeffrey Marcus) Piano