Where the music plays
In the fall/winter 2020 issue of the LfA magazine, everything revolves around the topic of sustainability. Our author Stefan Ruzas and photographer Manuel Nieberle met Hans Krinner in Gaißach, Upper Bavaria. At his new production site, the instrument maker produces brass instruments by hand in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
When Ayano Miyajima explains why she is now training to become a master trumpet maker, the Japanese quickly falls into the Bavarian language: "Vui", she says, or "fei", "spuin" and "zwäife". No doubt, Miyajima has arrived in the free state. She trained with Hans Krinner, a sought-after instrument maker who is also immensely popular with professional musicians: from the Munich Philharmonic to LaBrassBanda and the German Armed Forces Music Corps.
"What we do is manual labor and that's why it doesn't go any faster. You can't just bend the thin gold brass with machines."
Hans Krinner
Around 120 trumpets, trombones or flugelhorns are to be built in the new company building between Bad Tölz and Lenggries in 2020. Depending on their size, Krinner and his employees will build up to 40 hours on a single instrument. Which is why one instrument can cost 3,000 euros and more. "What we do is handmade and that's why it doesn't get any faster. You can't just bend the thin gold brass with machines," says Krinner. "When bent by hand, the material simply remains denser and that is of course good for the sound. A bass trumpet, for example, consists of 50 parts. The most important part is the bell, a blank made of gold brass that is first poured with water and then cooled down to minus 86 degrees in a special refrigerator for at least five hours so that it can be bent.
In the past, this was done with poisonous lead, but this is also part of the climate change at Krinner. In November 2019, he moved his business from the Tölzer Musikhaus in the middle of the city to the Gaißach industrial park - with the help of an eco-credit from the LfA. Because it was all about keeping the air clean and noise protection.
Read the complete profile of Krinner Instrumente construction in the Autumn/Winter 2020 issue of LfA Magazine. The German version of the main contents of the issue are also available online at lfa.de/magazin.
Since 2016 Storyboard produces the magazine of LfA Förderbank Bayern. Published twice a year the magazine informs about news and funding opportunities of the LfA. The main topic of the autumn/winter 2020 issue is sustainability.
