There is an article on the BBC about a surplus of ropey old pianos in the West – but in mainland China they are making new ones as they want their kids to learn to play them whereas in previous days playing the piano was not allowed as it was a “dangerous subversive Western instrument” (Overseas Chinese kids are forced to at least try and learn to play the damn thing, whether or not they can…)
Camden Town in London was the heart of the piano-making industry in the UK, with around 100 small-scale factories and workshops, employing 6,000 people at its height in 1920. New York was the hub in the US. Between them they churned out a flood of pianos to meet the burgeoning demand.
The piano was hugely popular across northern Europe too, especially in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany – home of the Bechstein.
“Every home had to have a piano,” says Alastair Laurence, chair of John Broadwood & Sons, the only UK piano maker from the era still in operation.
BBC News – Will your piano end up in the dump?
