Edmund Schnabel

Biography

Edmund Schnabel was born in Zeitz, Germany, on November 14, 1850, into a musical family, and was described as a very expert and eminently qualified member of the piano-making craft. In 1875 he was the practical member of Schnabel, Hintz & Lambert, founded at 136 Elm Street, New York, in the building where Behning & Sons had originally started; the firm's first pianos drew notice among musicians for their excellence and originality. After Hintz departed, Schnabel and Lambert continued as Schnabel & Lambert beginning the following May, making a name for themselves before dissolving some years later through financial mismanagement, though all debts were honorably settled. In these instruments Schnabel introduced several significant scales, achieving near-perfect uniformity in overstringing with no noticeable 'frogs' or 'breaks,' a result attributed to his knowledge of acoustics and fine musical perception of sound and timbre. He also introduced case-structure novelties later reintroduced elsewhere in the trade as new. In 1877 he accepted a position with Wheelock & Company, remaining with the firm from that year forward.

Highlights

• Practical/technical head of Schnabel, Hintz & Lambert (1875) and later Schnabel & Lambert, praised for excellent 'scales' and near-perfect overstringing uniformity
• Introduced numerous novelties in case structure and other mechanical departments later adopted across the trade
• Joined Wheelock & Company in 1877 after Schnabel & Lambert dissolved through financial mismanagement

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 275, 276.

Public domain.