Effects of Rehearsal Time and Repertoire Speed on Extensor Carpi Radialis EMG in Conservatory Piano Students

BACKGROUND: Repetitive actions while playing piano may overload forearm muscles and tendons, leading to playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs), including lateral epicondylitis. METHODS: In this pilot study, surface electromyography (sEMG) activity of the extensor carpi radialis (ECR) was captured in 10 conservatory piano students while playing a fast and a slow music score selected from the individual’s repertoire, each 3 minutes long. Measurements were made at baseline and again after 2 hrs and 4 hrs of rehearsal time of the piano études. The amplitude of the sEMG signal was processed by a smoothing algorithm, and the frequency component with a non-orthogonal wavelets procedure. Amplitude of the sEMG was expressed in percent of maximal voluntary contraction (%MVC) at baseline. Statistical analysis encompassed 2-way repeated measures ANOVAs for the amplitude and frequency components of the sEMG signal (a set at 5%). The students also rated the intensity of rehearsals using a VAS. RESULTS: The ECR presented with a mean amplitude of 23%MVC for the slow scores, which increased significantly to 36%MVC for the fast scores. The sEMG signal presented a significant though small decrease of 1.9%MVC in amplitude between baseline and 4 hrs of rehearsal time and no shift in frequency, which may indicate that the rehearsals were held at a physiological steady-state and suggesting optimization or complementary muscle loading. CONCLUSIONS: These data accentuated that the loading of the ECR (as reflected in the amplitude component) was higher than that seen for computer keyboard workers. The augmented loading of the ECR and reduced blood flow to forearm muscles may be a factor in the development of PRMDs in pianists.

Printing Piano Pedagogy: Experimental Psychology and Marie Jaëll's Theory of Touch

In her 1899 pedagogy manual Touch: Piano Instruction on the Basis of Physiology, the composer and pianist Marie Jaëll (1846–1925) describes pianistic touch as a ‘polyphony of sensations’, a synthesis of vibrations that is both physical and psychical. This article examines Jaëll's recourse to nineteenth-century experimental science, specifically experimental psychology, to develop a theory of pianistic touch. Touch, Jaëll contends, necessitates a pianist's attention to haptic and aural impulses in an elusive, ‘simultaneous and successive’ process that collates the pianist's tangible sensation of the keyboard and the ineffable mental impressions conjured by sound. This braided sense of musical touch can be cultivated in performers and transmitted to listeners. Jaëll makes this assertion using a novel kind of visual evidence: fingerprints. Fingerprinting her students before and after the execution of selected piano études and treating the prints as diagnostic documents, Jaëll posits that isolating and attending to minute variations in touch is akin to attuning to the aesthetic content of a musical work. Jaëll crystallized her methodology in a vibrant collaboration with Charles Féré (1852–1907), a criminologist and one-time student of Jean-Martin Charcot. More broadly, Jaëll's treatise is a striking exponent of the era's ‘graphical method’, pioneered by Étienne-Jules Marey, which sought to supplant scientific rhetoric with ‘objective’ truth, depicted as machine-generated wave forms. The ethos that motivated the creation of such representations, propagated by an array of influential scientists including Ernst Heinrich Weber and Hermann von Helmholtz, underscores a tendency to intertwine physiology and psychology in an enterprise that quantified sensation as a fact of mechanistic causes. Jaëll's emphasis on attention – how thought modifies touch and sound – sets her theory apart from experimental psychology's more determinist premises. In Jaëll's experimental apparatus, fingerprints are not objective; rather, they index the variable haptic and sonic sensations experienced by the pianist. As a nascent theory of embodied cognition, Jaëll's pedagogy bespeaks a fluid relationship between mind and body at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Approaching new piano literature: composition and interpretation of four piano etudes

In the literature for solo instrument, etudes typically present different kinds of technical and expressive challenges. In fact, they often focus on unique and problematic aspects of performance on a specific instrument. The short group of piano etudes presented here has the same purpose, although, in some cases, it recalls writing techniques and melodic-rhythmical modules usually associated with composers and styles of both the past and present times. In this article in particular, four etudes (Scales, Expressive Fingering, Parallel Thirds and Broken Octaves) are briefly described and analyzed from both a compositional and an interpretive approach, given the case that both the composer and the interpreter were in contact during the creative and learning process of the pieces. The result of this kind of collaboration is twofold: a composition whose playability and effectiveness are warranted by the practice of the interpreter, and a performance with a better understanding of the direct wishes of the composer.

The instructive repertoire in the programs of students of the Department of Special Piano of the Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts

Background. The article discusses the experience of the teaching staff of the Department of Special Piano of the Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts. One of the innovations of the department was the use of instructive piano repertoire in the educational process for better development of piano skills among students. It has been proved that the acquisition of a technical base as a necessary basis for piano mastery is impossible without the systematic use of instructive etudes – relatively small instrumental pieces with a specific technical purpose. The correct choice of the complexity of the lessons, their compliance with the student’s level of development is a determining factor in the successful development of a pianist. Thus, an instructive piano repertoire is very useful not only at the initial stage of the pedagogical process, but is also extremely necessary at the subsequent stages of the professional pianistic education of a young musician. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to justify the need to use a number of instructive etudes for piano in junior undergraduate musical challenges, to draw the attention of students and teachers to their wider development and use in educational and concert practice. Methods. The methodology of the article is based on the totality of scientific approaches necessary to uncover problem, combining the principle of musical-theoretical, performing analysis as well as methodical and pedagogical observations. Conclusions. Statement of the main material. For the formation of the pianistic apparatus, the pupil, and then the student, needs etudes, thanks to which you need to develop strength, evenness, independence and fluency of the fingers. But the process must be complicated gradually: it is impossible to move on to mastering a more complex task, if it is simpler, it remains unresolved. It should be noted that the division of etudes into instructive and characteristic, as well as characteristic – concert and artistic is very conditional and, first of all, is determined by the level of composer skill of their authors. For the performer, any, even the simplest musical construction, should be played expressively, understood intonationally, and built dramatically. Therefore, even in the simplest and easiest etudes, novice pianists need to be tuned to the fact that this composition is highly artistic and attitude to its should be appropriate. In the subsequent educational process of mastering pianism, an accurate algorithm should be built up that allows using the huge arsenal of piano etudes to properly develop the student, to give him the opportunity to form the perfect pianistic apparatus, while instilling not only appropriate motion, but also auditory professional skills. For the formation of the piano apparatus and many auditory skills, not only schoolchildren but also students need to develop strength, equality, independence and speed of the fingers. This role should be performed by instructive and characteristic sketches. It is noted that one of the substantive dominants of the etude genre is the formularity of the musical language, the game moment, the implementation of which allows one to overcome a technical problem, which forms the basis of pianism both in motor skills and intonation. Results. The importance of the correct choice of etudes during the entire process of training a pianist is proved. Unfortunately, we often observe how the unhealthy ambitions of a teacher negatively affect students. It is necessary to adequately assess the level of capabilities of the young performer, and most importantly, with the help of correctly selected sketches, step by step, professionally develop his motor and auditory skills. In no case should students be given complex artistic etudes if their pianistic apparatus is not yet fully formed! For this purpose, the decision was made at the special piano department of the Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts: to pass instructive etudes of a high degree of complexity in junior undergraduate courses without fail.

Pedagogical system of piano technique evolution in the works of M. Moszkowski

Statement of the problem. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the pedagogical system of piano technique evolution which developed in the works of an outstanding Polish composer, pianist, teacher and conductor M. Moszkowski. Under consideration are pedagogical principles of the musician, his extensive editing work. Under analysis is the instructive pedagogical repertoire of Moszkowski: “School of double notes” op. 64, “A Book of Scales”, which outlines the fingering principles of the musician, etudes op. 72, 78, 91, 92, a collection of compositions “The Master and His Pupil” op. 96 and “Technical sketches” op. 97. The arsenal of techniques used in these works is rich and diverse, which emphasizes the artistic advantages of these compositions. The value of M. Moszkowski’s pedagogical system in the evolution of piano technique and development of a young pianist is defined, since the pedagogical works of the composer can still serve as a good help for middle and high school students of music schools and colleges. The purpose of the article is to reveal the value of M. Moszkowski’s pedagogical system in the evolution of piano technique and development of a young pianist. Methods. The methodological basis of the study is the unity of scientific approaches, among which the most important is a functional one, associated with the analysis of the genre as a typical structure. Results. The study of M. M. Moszkowski’s piano etudes became a significant contribution to the development of West-European art of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The analysis of etudes allowed highlighting a free choice of figurative and stylistic priorities, tendency towards small size, focus on a certain type of technique, expressiveness of technically virtuoso tasks, use of simple forms, artistic diversity, prevelance of light mood and moving pace. These piano exercises are clearly presented as an integral part of Moszkowski’s pedagogical method, as well as the specifics of the author’s performance style. Moszkowski’s etudes are a kind of bridge between virtuosity skills and bright images, they help not only improve the technique but also develop student’s musicality. Undoubtedly, this approach provides a solid foundation in all areas of piano performance. Moszkowski’s etudes are less difficult to study, they have technical value that can be quickly acquired, but at the same time they are sustainable and program. Sometimes Moszkowski treats the etude genre very freely: as a substitute for another genre (Two miniatures op 67) as part of the dilogy cycle (Caprice-etude and Improvisation op. 70) and others. These works are little used in modern performing practice. At the same time, they represent a very interesting material that clearly reflects the distinctiveness of musical language of late romantic pianists, to which Moszkowski belonged. Conclusions. Special attention should be paid to the composter’s great contribution to the enrichment of the instructive piano repertoire. Unfortunately, pedagogically orientated works are not so often performed in today’s educational practice. Only 15 virtuoso etudes from op. 72. are widely used. It would be very useful for young musicians to get acquainted with numerous etudes of the composer, since they are of unquestionable interest from the viewpoint of the development of both technical skills and figurative thinking of students. This publication is intended to attract the attention of teachers and performers to wider mastering of piano etudes by M. Moszkowski, which would greatly enrich modern piano repertoire. Unfortunately, many piano compositions of the composer, which were created with a pedagogical purpose, are not used widely enough in educational practice today. Many of them are aimed at the development of elementary piano skills necessary for the development of a young performer: five-finger position, scale sequences, and chords. They are very important, that is why they are described in easy etudes, systematizing the basic forms of virtuosity. Such compositions of Moszkowski take the performer from the basics to the tasks of the highest virtuoso difficulty. His pedagogical system allows us to gradually and systematically improve pianism. The piece must be learnt in a certain sequence: mastering the musical text; playing in the tempo specified by the composer; analysis of the content of the work. Indeed, the performer should be able to divide the work into certain stages, especially if it concerns etudes – to strive for the maximum clear statement of the technical task, excluding anything that could hinder its accomplishment.

Pitch-class analysis: Some aspects of IC5 and IC1 design in Gyôrgy Ligeti's piano 'Études'

This paper investigates pitch-class organization in Gyorgy Ligeti's Piano Études, focusing on the organizational design of particular interval classes. In the etudes, IC5 and IC1 are generative in constructing materials in different dimensions and at different surface levels. Additionally, the unfolding of pitch classes initiates ascending and descending circles of fifths, at small-scale and large-scale structural levels alike, illuminating the prominence of the fifth in Ligeti's work, which harks back to the common practice period.

Searching for the Plot: Charles-Valentin Alkan's Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15

In the early nineteenth century, the piano étude was conceived as an outgrowth of the eighteenth-century exercice, perpetuating the idea of mechanical virtuosity devoid of any poetic meaning; but it was also shaped by the Romantic pièce de caractère. Drawing upon the context of Parisian musical life in the 1830s (notably the reception of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony), this article discusses Charles-Valentin Alkan's piano études Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, op. 15 (Paris, 1837). This work shows how virtuoso idiomatic figures can act as genre markers, thereby allowing the encoding of a specific extramusical meaning. It further addresses the issue of the privileged understanding between the composer and his performer that goes back to eighteenth-century tradition.