Research

Research permeates all activities at the Klaverens Hus. Doing research is especially important when moving on untilled land and everything remains to do such as building up knowledge banks in fields where our cultural heritage is given away to the dump faster and faster. Every new instrument that is brought into the collections is in itself a research object that augments understanding of the cultural whole. The task is to build up a structured general knowledge about keyboard instruments in order to get an efficient strategy of collecting and documenting instruments and factories, create and maintain different types of catalogues and databases, make interesting exhibitions and produce good literature in this matter, cooperate with other museums and research institutes here at home or abroad and to give correct information to the public. Thus, it is important to study every single instrument and put it into a broader research context by a research program covering the periods when keyboard instruments are found with us, i.e. from the Middle Ages and further, with special regard to the three centuries we have had factories.

Gustavian keyboard instrument culture –uniformity, variety and development in Swedish piano making c. 1770-1820
In keyboard instrument history the 18th century is a fascinating period when the three main types clavichord, harpsichord and hammer instruments were used parallel to each other . Studies of the Gustavian keyboard culture are especially rewarding since there is a richness of preserved instruments together with music by native composers and a growing trade of music imported from the large European music publishing houses. There are rich possibilities of analyzing the development of the instrument construction compared to the musical and playing qualities and relate all to the general development and social functions of music and society.

The piano in Sweden in the 19th century – industrialism and instrument construction development c. 1830-c.1890
Swedish piano making comprises more than 235 years from c. 1750 to 1987 when the last factories closed down. The totally more than 300 factories represent an important part of Swedish cultural and industrial heritage that is unexplored in all essentials. The great technical period of piano development is of course the 19th century. The project focuses upon the process of industrialization c. 1830 to c. 1890 by relating production methods and work stages to the development of instrument construction.

Instrument import c. 1820-c. 1890 with special regard to keyboard instruments
In the period 1756 to1816, there was an import ban of such musical instruments that were made in Sweden or, expressed in the opposite way: an import of musical instruments was only allowed if it was impossible to get them here in the open domestic market. After the introduction of free trade in 1816 the import of musical instruments was settled and in the same period the large music publishing companies and instrument dealers were strengthening their positions. New construction ideas came together with the instruments that left their mark on our own production. At the middle of the century a quite new instrument was introduced, the harmonium, that could not come home to a domestic building tradition. The project aims to demonstrate what was imported and how this import influenced the domestic production.

Pianos, reed organs and the industry of applied arts – instruments for festivals and every day life 1850-1885
Breakthrough of art industry at the end of the 19th century naturally affected the design of the instrument furniture part. Calling in an architect to design the instruments became common especially when it came to exhibition models that not infrequently were furnished with imaginative and luxurious decorations. The external instrument appearance followed the fashion and style of furniture. The instruments should harmonize with public settings, parlors of well-to-do families and homes of ordinary people. Piano and reed organ design in its early years is a fascinating field of research, an important part of our art industry and design history that has never been explored.

Interaction in west Swedish piano and reed organ building through influences of large factories on regional economy.
The landscapes of Värmland and Dalsland hold an exceptional position when it comes to frequency of larger and minor piano and reed organ factories. Värmland was rich of woods, sawmills and timber, the ironworks (Swedish: bruk) were many and there was an infrastructure of engineering workshops which gave important conditions of the production of musical instruments. The first established factory was J.P. Nyström in Karlstad (1865). Arvika was a centre of importance (oldest factory est. in 1888), and there were factories for longer or shorter time in Kristinehamn, Säffle and Årjäng. More in the south there were factories in Åmål and Mellerud. In the west contacts went to Christiania (now Oslo) in Norway and at the Swedish west coast Gothenburg was an important base of production. Large factories as the J.P. Nyström in Karlstad and Östlind & Almquist in Arvika on one hand drew manpower towards themselves and on the other hived off several minor and fairly large factories. The project studies how dynamic and interplay of this kind has influenced trade and industry of the region.

The inverted grand piano or the so called ‘banana grand’ made by Malmsjö 1930-c. 1945
In the 1930s and haft the 1940s the Malmsjö factory made a grand piano according to construction principles that diverge from usual piano thinking. Normally, the grand piano is wing-shaped which mirrors the form of the resonance bridge and in turn the string lengths (scaling). This model has the reverse construction with a straight resonance bridge and the hammers placed in a curved line. The usual grand piano is cross strung, while the ‘banana grand’ is oblique strung like a fan. What is obtained of a sonorous bass is on the other hand lost in the descant part. Malmsjö made this model for slightly more than ten years but it has also been made in Germany, always in a rather short period. Who was the first to come up with the idea and how did the contacts run?

Georg Bolin and the piano – our last experimenting piano maker (c. 1954 to c. 1965)
George Bolin has a worldwide reputation as a guitar builder. That he also was a pioneer of piano making is however less known. Bolin was foreman at the Hoffman piano factory in Stockholm when the model ’Akademi’ (Academy) with an adjustable soundboard, free handing from the case, and a welded iron frame was developed. After the close down of the Hoffman factory Bolin ran the production under his own name until the middle of the 1960s. Bolin also constructed other types of piano models, for example his Z and A pianos. In all models he aimed at a light and clear tone that in many ways corresponds to his guitar sound ideal.