Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum The Danish Piano Industry - a picture journey..

In the "Which piano factory has the worst website photos"-thread, pqdtw asked me to provide information about the Danish piano industry - and I did - but it came out so "long" and informative that I've chosen to put the text in this thread, as well - hopefully to the enjoyment of my fellow PW'ers.. - So, here goes:

Well - the Danish Piano industry - what few people actually realize is that Denmark used to have quite a lot of piano factories - at some point probably around 40-50 all around the country, which, to my mind, is quite impressive considering the size of our country
- The most renowned and recognized were:

Hornung&Møller ("ø" being the Danish/Norwegian way of writing "ö") - it was founded way back in 1834, closed in 1972 and they made everything from small "pianinos" to concert grands (I myself had the pleasure of playing a 1964 Hornung&Møller concert grand which was situated in the "concert hall" of my old gymnasium (approximately high scool level for our American friends..))
Here's a Hornung&Møller concert grand (probably from around 1915-1920) that I've seen for sale by a Danish dealer (it probably needs a bit more work but then again - he's "only" charging 60000dkr (around 10000us$) for it..)


And a Hornung&Møller Minax baby grand from 1946:

Here's a very old Hornung&Møller square from 1855:


And a later Hornung&Møller upright from the 1950's:


Two other main quality Danish manufacturers that survived for over 100 years (from the 1850-60's up until around 1970-75-80) were: Hindsberg and Andreas Christensen (AC)

A small AC pianino from 1976:


A 150cm AC grand piano from 1950 which actually looks a lot like the 180cm/6' AC grand they have at our local public library here in Aalborg..


And a "classic" AC upright from around 1920..


A Hindsberg upright from the 1920's


A small Hindsberg upright from the 1960's:


And a 188cm Hindsberg grand -which was actually a copy of the Hamburg Steinway A

There were of course many other factories through the years - like this old Herman N. Petersen upright:



This 1920's Christian Winter upright:


This 1958 Louis Zwicky pianette (Danish term for a very small piano) which were very popular in Denmark in the 40's, 50's and 60's:


This Knudsen & Søn (Knudsen and Sons) 1958 upright:


This Evald Larsen upright from 1970:


And this small Brødrene Jørgensen upright from around 1975-76:


Brødrene Jørgensen means Jørgensen Brothers - actually the last surviving Danish factory - it closed its own production facilities around 1980 and started importing Polish made Calisia pianos like this one instead:


And this is an interesting fact - it wasn't Asian imports which "killed" the Danish factories - it was a mixture of declining piano sales (and we Danes don't have much space in our homes so it was mostly the very small upright pianos they produced at the very end of the line..) and the import of Eastern Bloc pianos into Denmark from the late 1960's onwards - like the Polish Calisia above but mostly very cheap Soviet pianos like the abovementioned Cherny and small East German consoles like this 1987 Zimmermann:


Also, there isn't much prestige in having e.g. an acoustic grand or upright here so the current sales of acoustic pianos amounts to VERY little..

So, now I hope, that you know something about the, imho, underrated Danish piano industry
- and as an interesting concluding fact, Seiler pianos were actually made in Denmark from 1951 to 1957 after the Seiler family had fled what was to become Western Poland and the site of the current Legnica piano factory..

Great thread!, thanks. I love stuff like this.

Regards,
Steve

Very interesting. So now there no piano maker left in Denmark?

Calin

Tyrri,

I love it too. The Hornung & Møller grand appears to have a narrow tail ... but that's probably just the angle the picture was taken from. The 1950's upright has an unusual case design ... definitely a '50s looking style.
Thanks for sharing the pictures!!

JP

No, not any "factories" but a piano builder school was founded in the small town of Egtved in Southern Jutland in 1983 to maintain the piano-building tradition - here, they also build a small 108 cm euro-console designed at the school in small quantities up until the early 1990's - this school is now owned by a piano builder who has bought the Hornung&Møller name and who recently has built one new Hornung&Møller grand piano for a conference center in the nearby city of Vejle:




And yes, JP - I think it's caused by the angle of the photo as I don't remember their tails being particularly narrow..

A very beautiful look in the interesting Danish Piano Industry !
In 1995 on Frankfurt Music-Fair, I met a very interesting man, Mr. E. Ingvor Petersen from Kobenhavn. He showed me, on the Egtved-stand, two models of new actions, for grand and uprigth pianos of his own invention. These "IPAS" actions were made of a new material, with less friction, and with a better impact of the hammer to the string.
But I never heard of more tests or a serial production ! Do you, or somebody, know more ?

Hey, Tyrri, thanks for the great pics and information. Glad you posted them.

Starting next year, I'm going to be in Denmark for a few days each month. We should get together for a coffee and talk about pianos. Send me a PM if you'd like to.

Regards,
Daniel

Thanks tyrri so much for posting these very interesting pictures and facts about Danish piano makers. I'm sure that the taller uprights and grands were actually pretty good instruments too, would love to travel through Denmark some day and try and find some of these to play.

That the Asian onslaught killed the native industry isn't surprising of course, as they'd certainly be hard pressed not to kill a lot of competition in other areas of commerce as well, but that there were actually so many makers in a nation as small as Denmark is really surprising. Was this the result of having an active music program in the Danish school system? Are the Danes, or were they, a people who just went crazy for music or music making? Were they particularly devoted to the piano? Were there any more renowned Danish pianists than the late Victor Borge? OK, he was perhaps more of a comedian who used the piano as a prop, but he could certainly play as I discovered when I went to hear him in concert back in the early 70's.

By the way I may be one of the few on here who appreciate the Danish sensibility when it comes to design. I love straight edges and angles done in select straight grained hardwoods, wonderful. I like that ultra modern look, it becomes timeless and works with many other styles.

Again tyrri, a wonderful thread, thank-you and here's to the success of Hornung & Møller. If they keep their production small and sell everything they make they should be able to prevail. Now all we have to do is re-ignite interest in music generally and piano music in particular.

Thanks, tyrri! Very nice!

This is the kind of thread we should have more of lately considering the bullying, intimidating and downright rude behavior on some of the other threads at the moment...

Thanks for the tour, Tyrri!

The pianos are beautiful, and I too like the Danish style.

I'd like one of each, please...