Rhythm and the Performer’s Body

Numerous studies of expressive timing use quantitative measurements to reveal and compare ways in which performers realize rhythmic and other notations given on the score, implying that expressive performances creatively inflect elements of musical structure. This study offers an alternative, speculative account of expressive timing in performance based on the complex, dynamic structure of a performer’s gestures as coordinated in the performance of the second étude from Chopin’s Trois nouvelle études and Godowsky’s first paraphrase-study of that étude. Impactful and nuanced temporal fluctuations of two recorded performances are explained in terms of the approach to crafting expressive bodily gestures codified by the piano pedagogue Abby Whiteside. Suggesting that Godowsky’s paraphrase realizes through composition several expressive possibilities latent in Chopin’s score, this chapter also highlights some ways that analyses, representations, and interpretations of rhythm and timing in performance could benefit from taking into account the expressive structure of the performer’s body.

Sunnyside, 1927–1933

This chapter looks at Beyer's life in Sunnyside Gardens in the late 1920s. Sunnyside Gardens was the center of Beyer's social life. Friends in Beyer's community during this time included not just social worker Bertha Reynolds and Beyer's niece Frida—who lived with Beyer for some period around 1930—but also the influential piano teacher Abby Whiteside, and Reynolds's cousin Erdix Winslow Capen, who was also a frequent visitor to the community. Her friendship with Reynolds seems to have brought her into a world of political activism and engagement with social and racial issues of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Beyer's political engagement during this period embraced both national and international developments, and she and Reynolds were active in the Town Hall Club, an important cultural and political center in Manhattan.