The Art of Technique: Couperin Vs. Modern Piano Technique
It was a dark and stormy night-that is, in the majestic concert hall that I attended down the
main street at 7:30 PM. What I had just witnessed was a truly unexplainable miracle that I simply
cannot explain in plain and simple words because I do not know how it was done! The sheer
virtuosity of the pianist’s fingers effortlessly flying over those black and white ivories along with
thunderous octaves that seemed to be performed with no difficulties. That performance of
Chopin’s Winter Wind etude was so unforgettable because I felt so many tumultuous stirrings
of emotions which was definitely presented by a master. After that,
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In my research paper, I will compare and contrast
Francois Couperin’s views on Harpsichord technique with modern-day piano technique to see
how similar or different both are.
First of all, I would like to mention that 2017 makes the tricentennial of the second edition of
The Art of the Harpsichord which makes this book the perfect topic to write on. The fact that this
book is 300 years old may make others think that this book must be full of a lot of obsolete
information. Because harpsichords are still performed today, and little to no significant
mechanical changes have been made to the instrument, I do not think that there are many
obsolete practices on how to play the keys. However, I do think that there are many
obsolete and unnecessary ways of approaching the keyboard and sitting at it that Couperin
wrote about in that book. On page 30, Couperin states that “the distance which an adult
should be from the harpsichord is about nine thumb-lengths, measured from the waist; and
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Makes me wonder if this uncomfortable style of playing discouraged a
lot of people from continuing with the harpsichord during that time.
This method truly contrasts with pianist Jozsef Gat’s views on how he thinks pianists
should sit. On page 56 of his book entitled “The Technique of Piano Playing,” he indicates
that “a generally valid distance of the chair from the piano cannot be even approximately
determined.” That totally clashes with Couperin’s way of sitting down, but I feel that Gat’s
method is more logical because Couperin’s “one size fits all” ideology is not suitable for
humans. An analogy that shows why this is a problem is the topic of clothing. We all
know that every clothing company makes clothes in various sizes because not everyone
is the same size. If every clothing company were to create clothes that were of the same
size, we would have a lot of grumpy and uncomfortable people walking around that
would hate the idea and of course many would suggest that clothing should come in
all kinds of different sizes. In fact, I think how sitting positions at keyboard instruments
evolved into its more natural, individualized style was probably due in part to
... to give a lecture-recital to the Bach Society. Less than a week before the concert, Kraus got a phone call: Pessl had had an emergency summons back to New York and was insisting that Kraus do the recital for her. "You must be out of your mind," Kraus recalls telling her. "I've never touched a harpsichord." But she finally agreed and after the harpsichord was delivered to her house, something extraordinary happened. After five hours' practice every day for a week "I realized that this was my instrument. I had always felt inhibited at the piano, because I had never really conquered the problem of using my arm weight properly, but at the harpsichord I felt no inhibitions: its technique involves only the fingers, and good fingers I always had." After the concert Kraus's only thought was to get a harpsichord for herself. "I even gave up smoking to make a down payment."
Due to the different eras between the Harpsichord and the Piano, a significant difference in their design, function and role is presented. In order to understand how each instrument developed, an analysis of each era needs to be provided first.
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson is taking place in Pittsburg because many Blacks travelled North to escape poverty and racial judgment in the South. This rapid mass movement in history is known as The Great migration. The migration meant African Americans are leaving behind what had always been their economic and social base in America, and having to find a new one. The main characters in this play are Berniece and Boy Willie who are siblings fighting over a piano that they value in different ways. Berniece wants to have it for sentimental reasons, while Boy Willie wants it so he can sell it and buy land. The piano teaches many lessons about the effects of separation, migration, and the reunion of
This paper will explore the life of the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was considered one of the greatest composers of all time. He created amazing, famous compositions that made a big impact in today’s world. He went through rough times like many people do, the loss of his parents and finding a way back to the old routine was not an easy task. Bach came from generations of musicians and was given a religious education which is something that played a big role in his life when becoming a musician. We will analyze and learn the significance of some of his great compositions, the stories and what inspired him to compose music.
The modern piano is an odd mix of instrument types; it’s both a percussive and a string instrument. When a key is pressed, a hammer strikes a string, which produces the note. We know that percussion instruments such as drums were made as far back as we have discovered written documents and probably long before. However, it is more difficult to determine exactly what the string instruments were like. We have some documentation found in the Bible that speak of harps and lyres, but there is no concrete knowledge of tuning or the style of music played; we can only guess at it using what few written sources that survive. However, we have drawings of the lyres and harps that were used. The harps used by the Assyrians for example, were held or hung against the player’s chest while he played which also enabled him to dance or walk easily during ceremonies. Conversely, the Egyptian harps were made in a variety of sizes and were either set on the floor or a stand. The player stood or crouched to play it during more intimate settings. (Blom 8) The Greek lyre however was plucked compared to the harp’s...
Other innovations are the expanded instrumentation and different combinations of instruments Berlioz uses. Berlioz viewed instrumentation as a science , and wrote an extensive treatise on it, revised by Richard Strauss, entitled Treatise on Instrumentation. Berlioz added instruments sometimes previously used in opera such as multiple harps, the English horn, small clarinets, cornets, and bells. He also used multiple ophicleides, which are now replaced by tubas. These were in addition to the regular instruments, and thus increased the orchestra size to about ninety musicians. In order to accomplish this feat, he had to hire musicians from several different orchestras around Paris, and made arrangements to have extra room secured around the stage.
?Kate Chopin.? Gale Group (1999): n. pag. Online. Galenet. 4 April 2001. Available FTP: www.galenet.com/servlet/SRC
“Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!” a quote from Frederic Chopin. Similar to Chopin, a copius amount of musicians utilized their instruments of choice in order to express their emotions or feelings. During the Baroque Period both the clavichord and the harpsichord reigned as the most popular keyboard instrument of choice. However, by the end of the Baroque Period the piano had replaced both keyboards as being the most popular and widely used (Verotta). The piano has been derived from the harpsichord and the clavichord which had evolved continuously through the combined effort of keyboard makers.
Every person has a past, every race has a heritage, and every family has a legacy. In Wilson’s play, four protagonists, Boy Willie, Berniece, Doaker and Wining Boy are all wounded by their traumatic pasts’ and have only have one reminder of their family history – the piano. During the beginning of the play, Wilson describes the setting and illustrates a piano that is dominating the parlor and gathering dust in the Charles’ home. The piano is covered with carvings of events and “mask-like figures resembling totems.” Wilson then begins to describe the carvings as “graceful” and rendering a “power of invention that lifts them out of the realm of craftsmanship and into the realm of art.” Nevertheless, to the Charles’ family, the piano is not just an ornately carved piano but rather the only symbol of their family legacy; the only way to understand the piano is to go back to the period of slavery. In the play, Doaker begins to reveal the family history to Boy Willie and explains the significance of the piano. During the slave period, Boy Willie and Bernice’s' grandfather's (Willie Boy) was owned by a man named Robert Sutter. Sutter had traded their grandmother and uncle for the piano as a present for his wife, Miss Ophelia. After getting tired of the piano, Miss Ophelia missed her slaves so much, Sutter made Willie Boy hand-carve the faces of his wife and son's faces all over the piano. However, Willie Boy didn't end there; he carved all of his ancestors onto the piano and “all kinds of things that happened with [the] family.” Miss Ophelia became ecstatic when she saw the piano, because “now she had her piano and her niggers too.” When she looked at the carvings in the piano, she could see all the faces of the slaves she missed and the...
In this paper I will present two differing views on the topic of the design argument. In particular, I will explain William Paley's view supporting the design argument and Bertrand Russell's view against the design argument. After a presentation of the differing views, I will then evaluate the arguments to show that William Paley has a stronger argument.
Adding notes, increasing the already-rich sound, and going from taking up lots of space to scientists now working on making pianos on your phone that don’t sacrifice anything, the piano has changed greatly yet not too many changes have been made. Though the piano is one of the world’s most popular instruments, not many people know it’s origins and the changes it had to go through to continue to keep us entertained. Although the piano has gone through so many changes it has still always kept one thing, and that’s the endless possibilities it
There have been many things that described people throughout history. One of the most dominant ways was the style of clothing. Through cultural preference and materials available there is consistency as well as diversity in clothing. Though clothes in the Middle Ages were somewhat primitive compared to today’s garments, the quality clothing had no effect on the people’s freedom of expression through fashion.
During the Baroque Age, many changes took place in the instrumental music area. This type of music became very popular and just as important as vocal music, with many new mechanical and technological developments taking place. The keyboard, strings, winds, and percussion were used to produce instrumental music. Among these instruments, the keyboard was a major one used for solo music and “basso continuo” (a musical notation used to signal chords, non-chords, and intervals in connection to bass notes) parts. The keyboard also was involved in an abundance of instrumental literature during this time. The three types of keyboards that existed were the organ (mainly used with church music and solo accompaniment), the clavichord (produces sound by the striking of a medal wedge against a string when a key is pressed), and the harpsichord (contains two keyboards and a sound that produces “quills” when the strings are plucked due to a key being pressed). G.F. Telemann, J.S. Bach, and G.F. Handel were three men that had a major impact on the development of keyboard music in the Baroque Age. With their superior musician skills, they left behind many pieces of music that we play and listen to today.
The piano—originally known as the fortepiano or pianoforte—is one of the most globally recognized instruments in history. Its unique timbre distinguishes it from preceding keyboard instruments and even from modern keyboard instruments that attempt to imitate it. The pianoforte has made many changes and contributions to music, which can be seen through how it came to be, what composers first thought of the instrument, and how it affected orchestral music.
2. While studying traditional writing from the past may lead to too much analysis of the