Johann (Georg) Andreas Stein (16 May 1728 in Heidelsheim – 29 February 1792 in Augsburg) was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano. He was primarily responsible for the design of the so-called German hammer action. Pianos with this hammer action, or its more developed form known as the Viennese action, may be said to be appropriate for the performance of the piano music of Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven.
Life
Stein was born in 1728 in Heidelsheim in the Upper Palatinate. He died in Augsburg in 1792. He learned his trade as an organ builder from his father in Heidelsheim and from August 1748 to January 1749 as a journeyman at two workshops, those of Johann Andreas Silbermann in Strasbourg and of Frantz Jacob Spath in Regensburg. Johann Andreas Silbermann was the eldest of the four sons of Andreas Silbermann, the elder brother of Gottfried Silbermann. Stein settled in Augsburg, probably in 1750 and became a citizen in 1756 or 1757, the latter the year in which he completed his magnificent organ for the so-called Barfüßerkirche in Augsburg. In the same year he became organist at the church. According to a letter he wrote, he gave up organ building in the 1760s in order to devote himself to stringed keyboard instruments. His first contact with piano making may have occurred in the Spath workshop, not in the Silbermann workshop.
As a stringed keyboard instrument maker Stein built clavichords, harpsichords and pianos. He also built some more extraordinary keyboard instruments including the "Poli-Toni-Clavichordium" (described in the Augsburg Intelligenzblatt in 1769) that combined a large harpsichord having four choirs of strings (registration 8', 8', 8', 16') with a piano. He also built (1772) the "Melodica," a small organ in which the player's touch could alter volume; this melody instrument could be used with a harpsichord or a piano or on a separate manual of an organ or simply as a solo instrument. The importance of the Melodica, of which Stein may only have made a few prototypes, lies in Stein's own 1772 description. In that published description he expressed his dissatisfaction with keyboard instruments in general because they did not allow of expressivity in the manner of the human voice, the violin and the trombone. The 1769 description of the expressive possibilities of the Poli-Tono-Clavichordium nonetheless shows Stein's confidence in stringed keyboard instruments that in the end led him to the invention of his so-called German hammer action shortly before 1780. He also built "vis-à-vis" instruments with a piano and a harpsichord facing one another in a single case. In both the surviving examples (Verona 1777, Naples 1783), the player of the harpsichord (8', 8', 8', 16' in Verona, 8' quill, 8' leather, 4' quill in Naples) can also couple the piano action at the other end on one of the harpsichord keyboards. The Verona instrument has hand stops for engaging and disengaging the stops, in the manner of an organ or a German harpsichord, whereas the Naples instrument has knee levers in the manner of French harpsichords. Stein travelled twice to Paris and once to Vienna. He also made trips to other cities in Germany and Switzerland to deliver instruments as evidenced in his notebook. The hammer action in the 1777 Vis-à-vis is unique in Stein's oeuvre, that in the 1783 Vis-à-vis is Stein's so-called German action. Two clavichords by Stein survive, one of them, now in the Budapest National Museum, was bought by Leopold Mozart for practising while travelling. One instrument combining a piano and a single rank of organ pipes survives in Gothenburg’s Historical Museum. About fifteen Hammerflügel (wing-shaped pianos) bearing Stein's label survive, ranging in date from 1780 to 1794 (sic). The making of those of after about 1790 would have been supervised by Nannette, Stein's daughter. Of the fifteen, two are privately owned (1782 and 1783). The instrument shown above is not by Stein but probably by Louis Dulcken. Apart from the music desk, typical of Dulcken's work, the instrument has the appearance of a piano by Stein. Many such instruments built after Stein, some with fake labels, exist.