2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Aspects of Technique in the piano music of the 19th century

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16520079
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Aesthetics/Art history
Research Institution	Kyoto University
Principal Investigator	OKADA Akeo Institute for research in humanities, associate-professor, 人文科学研究所, 助教授 (70243136)
Project Period (FY)	2004 – 2005
Keywords	piano / European music / technique / 19th century / piano education / music education / body training / virtuoso
Research Abstract	Technique ist the keyword to the understanding of the 19th century music. This century was possessed by the idea of progress by means of technical inventions. One of such examples is the prevalence of the piano etude, exercises, uebungen etc. In this research we collected and analysed many piano books published in the 19th century. The idea of strengthening finger-muscles by means of mechanical training was the product of this century. While at the beginning of the 19th century the systematic methode still lacked (Cramer, Clementi, Czerny etc), in the latter half of it many systematized finger-drills were published like Pischna or Hanon.