Conrad Graf (17 November 1782 in Riedlingen, Further Austria – 18 March 1851 in Vienna) was an Austrian-German piano maker. His pianos were used by Beethoven, Chopin, and Robert and Clara Schumann, among others.
Life and career
Graf began his career as a cabinet maker, studying the craft in his native Riedlingen in south Germany, in what was then Further Austria. He reached the status of journeyman in 1796 and migrated to Vienna in either 1798 or 1799. In 1800 he served briefly in an all-volunteer military unit, the Jäger Freikorps, then became apprenticed to a piano maker named Jakob Schelkle, who worked in Währing, then a suburb of Vienna. When Schelkle died in 1804, Graf married his widow Katherina and took over the shop.
The Graf family had two children listed in census records: Karalina Schelklin (born 1802), from Katherina's previous marriage, and Juliana Graf (born 1806). Katherina died in 1814, and Graf did not remarry.
It is not known how Graf developed his style or methods for building pianos. None of the pianos of his teacher Schelkle survive, and the surviving early Graf instruments are not much different from his fully mature ones. As Wythe says, "Graf's style appears to have emerged fully developed out of an apprenticeship with an obscure provincial maker."
The early 19th century was a period of ferment in piano building; Wythe describes the work of contemporary builders as "a volatile blend of traditional craftsmanship and new technology, carried out in an atmosphere of intense competition." Graf was successful in this milieu. By 1809, he was employing ten workers. In 1811, he relocated from the original suburban location to new quarters in the (more expensive) central city. In 1824 he was appointed as Royal Piano and Keyboard Maker to the Imperial court in Vienna.
By 1826, the increasing demand for his pianos had led Graf to adopt methods of mass production, an area in which he was a pioneer. (Earlier, the building of pianos took place in small workshops.) He purchased the "Mondscheinhaus", a formerly fashionable dance hall at 102 auf der Wieden, and converted it into a piano factory, removing the chandeliers and other accoutrements. A report from 1835 indicates that the factory had 40 employees, who were "organized in eight divisions, each specializing in a particular job" (Wythe). Many of the workers lived in the same building, which included ten apartments. Between 1827 and 1831 Graf built two additions to his factory, adding a total of over 1000 square meters.
Graf's firm eventually produced over 3000 instruments during his lifetime. As the Grove Dictionary notes, the instruments "show a remarkable degree of consistency and may be categorized as a series of models", presumably as a consequence of Graf's mass production methods. The lower cost of factory-produced instruments led in the 19th century to widespread ownership of pianos by the middle class
In 1835, Graf won a gold medal for his pianos in 1835 at the first Viennese industrial products exhibition. His pianos were often owned and played by celebrated musicians (see below).
In 1840 Graf retired and sold the firm to Carl Stein, who was the grandson of the famous piano builder Johann Andreas Stein.
Graf's business was successful enough for him to become an art collector, and he amassed an extensive collection. From Josef Danhauser he commissioned in 1840 the famous painting Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano (shown below), which shows Franz Liszt playing to an imagined gathering of his friends. The instrument portrayed is a Graf.
During his retirement Graf served as a volunteer for a businessman's association, the Niederösterreichische Gewerb-Verein ("Lower Austrian Industrial Association"), which he had helped to found in 1839. He died 18 March 1851 at the age of 69. His will left sizeable bequests to charitable causes.
Graf's pianos
As was typical with the pianos of his day, Graf's instruments use rather little metal reinforcement. The only metal structural part was the gap spacer, which reinforced the structure at the gap where the strings cross over the action; otherwise, their construction was entirely of wood. The stringing was straight (that is, all strings parallel, instead of the bass strings crossing over the treble as in modern pianos). The range as C′–f′′′′ or g′′′′. There were from three to five pedals, which other than the standard damper pedal could also include the soft pedal, bassoon stop, piano and pianissimo moderators, and janissary stop).