This thesis centers around three pianos designed and/or decorated by the Victorian artist Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones: the Priestley Piano, the Graham Piano, and the Ionides Piano. I read and interpret the Burne-Jones pianos not only as examples of the artist’s exploration of the boundaries of visual art and music, but also as reflections of the Victorian era female gender performance. Their physical forms and decorations, both designed and executed by Burne-Jones, enhance the piano as an instrument and accentuate their respective female performers. The music emanating from these pianos and the domestic space in which they inhabit prompt and contribute to the Victorian female performance of gender.

 This dissertation is a study of the consumption of the piano and piano playing in Hong Kong from the late 20th century, when the new middle-class emerged, well into the 21st century, when the general Hong Kong population, including the working class, is better educated and economically more affluent. It attempts to answer the questions: “How do people look at the piano in Hong Kong?” “Why piano playing is so popular?” and “What does piano playing mean?” The investigation of how people consume the piano aims at finding out the cultural codes given to the object and its related activities, of which give answers to the above questions; while the consumption itself demonstrates “an act of deciphering, decoding, which presupposes practical or explicit mastery of a cipher or code” in Pierre Bourdieu’s words. The ways people consume the piano and piano playing are shaped by the city’s colonial history, the middle-class’s biedermeier mentality, as well as the utilitarian atmosphere prevailing in the society (regardless of social classes). Using the piano as a ‘viewing apparatus’ to peer through society, I attempt to develop a critique in reaction to scholarship that fails to come to terms with certain aspects of the Hong Kong culture and tends to see Hong Kong as unique or, worse, victimized. / published_or_final_version / Music / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Frederic Chopin's contemporaries took note of his preference for a piano with a light escapement. They commented that his method of playing was light in touch, and that his demeanor on stage contrasted strongly with that of other performers who were outwardly expressive. Although his performances enjoyed support from some members of his society, most contemporary commentators viewed his performances negatively. His performances were seen as deficient when they were contrasted with those of others, and especially those of Franz Liszt. Some of Chopin's contemporaries saw his playing as feminine and contrasted his works with those of Beethoven, whose works seemed to them to express masculinity. Negative assessments of Chopin's works also appear in later critical and musicological literature. In 1889, the music critic Henry T. Finck suggested that the desire of French, Polish, German and Viennese audiences for what he called "aesthetic jumboism" was detrimental to Chopin's popularity. It is my thesis that smallness has been, and often still is, associated with femininity and that those pianists and authors who advocated largeness - however defined (be it 'grand,' 'healthy,' 'forte,' or 'masculine') - were afraid that Chopin's refined pianism and the "small" aspects of his compositions might be used as evidence that Chopin was not strictly heterosexual. Largeness seems to have been linked in a number of ways to heroism, and it seems that smallness was seen consequently as lacking in heroism. Thus, musicians and musicologists have criticized his works for their lack of complexity and length and for the nature of their melodies, characteristics that I show to have been associated with both size and masculinity. For example, in 1986, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger analyzed Chopin's compositions in a way that seems to me to reveal Eigeldinger's own search for complex underlying forms. This search appears to be an attempt to illustrate that Chopin was intellectually 'heroic' because he could match the organic unification that some musicologists find in the works of other great composers. While the nineteenth-century development of the piano into a powerful concert instrument undoubtedly reflected the changing nature of concert venues and audiences, since recitals moved from the salon to the concert hall, the changes in design could also been seen as reflecting an ever-increasing desire for largeness. The forcefulness and consequent loudness with which Chopin's music was played on these larger pianos might well have caused (and could still be causing) some pianists' physical problems. Jeffrey Kallberg has analyzed an array of gender-oriented metaphors in relation to Chopin's possible gender-ambiguity, wishing to remove the veil of suspicion that surrounds smallness. It is my argument that a veil of suspicion is indispensable when analyzing the language that people have used to describe their experiences with music, because they have used language to express their preferences for certain kinds of experiences. Thus I attempt to show that during the hundred and fifty years since Chopin's death, both pianists' performance practices and musicological discourse have attempted to cleanse Chopin's music from its associations with smallness and, consequently, with femininity. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004.

Art Music for the acoustic piano has changed tremendously during the twentieth century. Some of the techniques and skills pianists need to master in order to be able to perform successfully twentieth-century art piano music include: a refined ability to discriminate varied layers of sonorities; sophisticated pedal combinations; a sometimes percussive technique; and superior control of complex metric and rhythmic passages. New combinations of patterns that require specific technical preparation pose substantial pianistic challenges. Todays pianist needs to master a variety of glissandi, chords, or single melody textures played directly on the strings inside the piano and to combine such techniques with sounds beyond the traditional piano sonorities. Besides technical preparation, pianists must also acquire sufficient knowledge of twentieth-century compositional techniques and analytical methods, as well as composers individual styles and their contributions to new ways of using the acoustic piano. This document focuses on selected twentieth-century piano compositions by Ravel, Debussy, Prokofiev, Bartk, Cowell, Cage, Holliger, Crumb, Corigliano, and Louie. These composers and their works are discussed with an emphasis on the new expressive, technical, artistic, pedagogical, and performance elements they introduce. The original technical exercises in Appendix A employ twentieth-century scales, harmonies, and progressions. These exercises will facilitate the development of technical skills related to the pieces considered here and to other twentieth-century piano repertoire. The interviews with John Corigliano and Alexina Louie provide uniquely insightful and provocative glimpses of the creative and technical issues involved with two remarkably original artistic conceptions in this repertoire. It is almost a truism to observe that much of the piano music of the twentieth century eschews convention and invents its own vocabulary and syntax. At the beginning of a new century, we are able to gain an historic perspective upon this body of repertoire. This document will lead to an increased awareness and understanding of selected twentieth-century piano repertoire. It suggests that twentieth-century piano compositions should assume an important and equal place with the more traditional music in the pianists repertoire and in the university and conservatoire curricula.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of graduated exercise at the piano on the pianist's cardiac output, forearm blood flow, heart rate, and blood pressure. Also considered were the effects of piano practice conditioning, general cardiovascular conditioning, and acute cigarette smoking on the aforementioned parameters during and after graduated piano exercise.Fifteen adult pianists participated in the study. The piano exercises consisted of bilateral scales played in eight three-minute stages. Tempo was constant within stages but increased with each new stage. Cardiac output and forearm blood flow were monitored by electrical impedance utilizing a tetrapolar electrode-placement system.FindingsCardiac output, forearm blood flow, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure generally increased proportionally to exercise intensity and returned to basal levels within a five-minute recovery period.ConclusionsStrenuous piano exercise stresses the body in general, not just the active forearm muscles.The stress load placed on the heart by piano playing can be at least as great as that produced by a brisk walk.Piano playing can generate an oxygen debt in the forearm muscles.Conditioning of forearm muscles through regular piano practice results in training effect for piano playing in those muscles.Pianists who participate regularly in quality aerobic exercise programs generally begin and end piano exercise with lower heart rates than those who do not exercise. Frequently, they increase heart rates to a lesser extent during exercise and settle into steady postexercise rates more quickly as well.Both regular piano practice and general cardiovascular conditioning gained through quality aerobic exercise contribute to increased piano-playing endurance.Acute smoking increases cardiac outputs and heart rates of pianists resulting in higher levels of cardiac work during piano exercise.During piano exercise, acutely smoking pianists require greatly increased forearm blood flows to meet muscle needs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the pedagogical and performance aspects of Robert Muczynski's Concerto No. I for Piano and Orchestra. The work targets the early-advanced level of performance, representing a tutorial step in technical and musical difficulty. Muczynski's writing offers mild characteristic tendencies in comparison to later practices within the century, but does exhibit the emergence of a variety of significant keyboard skills. Moreover, his intermittent use of atonality is ideal for a student who is not yet comfortable with this idiom. For these reasons, the concerto serves as an excellent introduction to the genre for this level of study.This investigation is prefaced by an introduction to the topic of piano pedagogy in relation to concerto study, along with a brief biographical sketch of the composer. The investigation then provides a stylistic analysis of the Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra. Each movement is examined comprehensively (by formal structure) according to inherent technical and interpretive challenges, and musical examples are offered in connection with suggestions for practice and execution.Findings reveal a cross-section of twentieth-century innovation and challenge which not only represent the unification of Muczynski's style, but also offer opportunity for growth and development in terms of keyboard performance and the application of sound musical decisions.The investigation closes with suggestions for the study of other twentieth-century concerti closely resembling this work in style, but more artistically challenging in performance. / School of Music

Orientador: Jonatas Manzolli, Mikhail Malt / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T15:52:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cervini_Lucia_D.pdf: 8294885 bytes, checksum: 388b537070b6754849347a33ba308558 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Esta tese situa-se no âmbito da reflexão teórica aliada à prática interpretativa. O estudo aqui reportado foca a Música Espectral no que tange à interpretação pianística. O objetivo do trabalho foi, através da obra Territoires de l'Oubli de Tristan Murail, elaborar uma concepção interpretativa. Três aspectos foram abordados para este fim: a incorporação da noção de Continuum, a idéia de Processo e o aporte da Escuta. Através destes três elementos procurou-se traçar uma revisão do referencial teórico a partir de artigos do compositor Tristan Murail associados a textos específicos de Hugues Dufourt, Joshua Fineberg, Philippe Leroux, Jérôme Baillet, Nicholas Cook, dentre outros. Para desenvolver as idéias ligadas à prática interpretativa, utilizou-se de apontamentos realizados no Atelier de Piano Contemporâneo com a pianista Martine Joste, de Master Class com a pianista Dominique My, além de entrevista com o próprio compositor. Da interação entre referencial teórico e imersão interpretativa foi possível levantar aspectos analíticos dos processos que compõem Territoires e cujo enfoque convergiu para a realização musical. De forma análoga aos mecanismos de síntese sonora, a pesquisa decompôs os processos constituintes da obra para reintegrá-los na concepção de uma interpretação / Abstract: This thesis connects theoretical framework to interpretative perspective. It discusses Spectral Music in the context of piano performance. This research aimed to develop an interpretative conception for Tristan Murail¿s Territoires de l'Oubli. Three aspects were studied along this goal: incorporation of the Continuum notion, study of the Process idea and the importance of sound perception. In line with these three points, there is a theoretical review covering articles from the composer Tristan Murail to texts from Hugues Dufourt, Joshua Fineberg, Philippe Leroux, Jérôme Baillet, Nicholas Cook, among others. To elucidate issues on piano performance, this text presents notes of the Martine Joste¿s Contemporary Piano Atelier and a Master Class with the pianist Dominique My and also an interview with the composer himself. From the interaction between theoretical perspective and interpretative immersion, it was possible to analyze aspects of Territoires processes converging to a musical realization. Such as a sound synthesis method, the piece constituent processes were analyzed to be re-integrated in a performance conception / Doutorado / Doutor em Música

The lecture recital was given December 5, 1971. A discussion of Beethoven's 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120 included the circumstances under which the work was composed, analysis of the composition, and controversial opinions on the Variations. The piece was then performed by memory. In addition to the lecture recital three other public recitals were performed. These consisted entirely of solo literature for the piano. The first solo recital was on April 12, 1970, and included works of Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. Part of the preparation included the writing of program notes of a historical and analytical nature. The second solo recital, on January 31, 1971, consisted entirely of sonatas by Beethoven, Chopin, and Prokofiev. The final solo program, on August 11, 1972, included works by Bach, Schumann, and Granados. All four programs were recorded on magnetic tape and are filed, along with the written version of the lecture material, as a part of the dissertation.

Frank Martin, while assimilating many of the features of serial technique, found other of its features incompatible to his temperament. The Eight Preludes for Piano mark a point of decision regarding these features. While rejecting the twelve-tone row, he extracted prime cells from the octatonic scale and subjected them to the serial approach. One of these cells, G-flat - F - A - A-flat, evokes the B-A-C-H motive. In view of Martin's admiration for Bach, this similarity is probably not accidental. In any event, this four-note motive permeates the preludes and binds them into a coherent and unified set. Along with some evidence of partial form in the preludes, the concept of continuous variation is the compelling force molding the overall form. Martin disdained atonality on personal and artistic premises. Despite their contemporary textural qualities, the listener perceives c-sharp as a tonal center for the set. Tempo, rhythm, and texture contrasts and complementation between the preludes reveal an obviously preplanned format for the fulfillment of set unity. The consummate knowledge of pianism demonstrated in the preludes places them as a major contribution to twentieth-century piano literature.

Difficulties are encountered in any discussion of Copland's style, for his works cover the spectrum from harsh, dissonant works to folk music. To avoid the task of defining a style which encompasses this array of vastly different pieces, a sharp distinction is frequently made between the abstract and popular works. However, Copland has repeatedly objected to such categorization, claiming that he composed from a single vision. A careful examination of his total output proves the validity of his claim. Many common characteristics are found throughout works from all categories and time periods. These traits include a basic economy of materials, emphasis on thirds, consistent method of development, use of declamation, jazz-influenced rhythms, cyclicism, and a slow/fast/slow sequence of movements, as well as within single movements. This document uses the Piano Sonata as a model of Copland's style, for it exemplifies these characteristics more clearly than any other major piece for piano. By making numerous comparisons with other works, Copland's single vision is revealed.