Thesis submission ID 975 | created
| last updated
Hui Han Lui, Reimagining nineteenth-century piano techniques from a twenty-first-century perspective
Volumes, pp.: 1 (443pp)
Supervisor(s): Dr Antonio Cascelli and Prof. Alison Hood
Repository (online): https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/20674/
Repository (hard copy): Maynooth University Library
General specialism: Musicology
Historical timeframe: 1800-1899
Key terms, genres, instruments: piano
Abstract:
This research reimagines a selection of nineteenth-century piano techniques, specifically those by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Czerny, Ludwig Deppe, and Theodore Leschetizky from a twenty-first-century perspective. These historical techniques were studied mainly through historical treatises or technique books where instructions on physical approaches, one of the most fundamental aspects of learning playing techniques, were focused on in detail. Through this, the resulting body and hand postures, positions, and movements were observed, and the implications of these researched techniques on musical aspects such as touches, tones, dynamics, and phrasing were studied, mainly on the modern piano and briefly on historical instruments. In carrying out this study, musicological research served as the foundation, while different methodologies such as autoethnography and empirical analysis were used to extract findings from two different perspectives. A performer-based analysis from a first-person perspective was collected through autoethnography where the performer’s input, feedback, and observations were documented, while quantitative data such as motion paths from a third-person perspective were obtained through motion capture. The nineteenth-century techniques, reimagined and assimilated into modern piano playing, were showcased through the final recordings of performances where changes can be observed in aspects such as clarity, touches, dynamics, and phrasing. This thesis along with the attached demonstrations, musical examples, and recordings extends its contribution to both historically informed and modern piano performances. It provides an additional aspect to consider in the preparation of historically informed performances (HIP) and opens the possibility for modern pianists to take inspiration from historical techniques. It also helps modern pianists understand the selected nineteenth-century techniques, and make more informed decisions when assimilating them, while offering a potential solution to playing historical keyboard instruments.
Hui Han Lui, Reimagining nineteenth-century piano techniques from a twenty-first-century perspective
PhD, Maynooth University, 2025
Volumes, pp.: 1 (443pp)
Supervisor(s): Dr Antonio Cascelli and Prof. Alison Hood
Repository (online): https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/20674/
Repository (hard copy): Maynooth University Library
General specialism: Musicology
Historical timeframe: 1800-1899
Key terms, genres, instruments: piano
Abstract:
This research reimagines a selection of nineteenth-century piano techniques, specifically those by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Czerny, Ludwig Deppe, and Theodore Leschetizky from a twenty-first-century perspective. These historical techniques were studied mainly through historical treatises or technique books where instructions on physical approaches, one of the most fundamental aspects of learning playing techniques, were focused on in detail. Through this, the resulting body and hand postures, positions, and movements were observed, and the implications of these researched techniques on musical aspects such as touches, tones, dynamics, and phrasing were studied, mainly on the modern piano and briefly on historical instruments. In carrying out this study, musicological research served as the foundation, while different methodologies such as autoethnography and empirical analysis were used to extract findings from two different perspectives. A performer-based analysis from a first-person perspective was collected through autoethnography where the performer’s input, feedback, and observations were documented, while quantitative data such as motion paths from a third-person perspective were obtained through motion capture. The nineteenth-century techniques, reimagined and assimilated into modern piano playing, were showcased through the final recordings of performances where changes can be observed in aspects such as clarity, touches, dynamics, and phrasing. This thesis along with the attached demonstrations, musical examples, and recordings extends its contribution to both historically informed and modern piano performances. It provides an additional aspect to consider in the preparation of historically informed performances (HIP) and opens the possibility for modern pianists to take inspiration from historical techniques. It also helps modern pianists understand the selected nineteenth-century techniques, and make more informed decisions when assimilating them, while offering a potential solution to playing historical keyboard instruments.
Thesis submission ID 975