Research
Dissertation - Abstract - Errata - New projects
During the last decade I have concentrated my musicological research on Beethoven performance practice. The public defense of my dissertation was on 5 May 2007.
Beethoven the Pianist: Biographical, Organological, and Performance-Practical Aspects of His Years As a Public Performer. Ph.D. Diss. Skrifter från Institutionen för musikvetenskap, Göteborgs universitet nr 84. Göteborg: Göteborg University 2007. ISSN 1650-9285. ISBN 978-91-85974-00-9.
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Abstract
Modern performance practice research has accepted the traditional picture of Beethoven as a rough pianist, impatient with his instruments. This picture is not altogether accurate: modern ideas about Beethoven’s pianism are influenced by anecdotes dating from when deafness had begun to impair his playing. A revision of this picture is necessary for approaching Beethoven performance practice with confidence. This study reviews Beethoven’s formative years and his career as a keyboard virtuoso in order to show how his musical development was influenced by his teachers, contemporary theorists and various keyboard instruments.
The development and decline of Beethoven’s pianism is described by analyzing the contemporary reports. His opinion of fortepianos is juxtaposed with other contemporary judgments and with modern organological findings. His treatment of his Érard piano from 1803 is studied in detail. The result is a revised picture of Beethoven the pianist showing his development from an impetuous young musician into a virtuoso in command of many musical resources. At the peak of his powers, Beethoven was able to play exceptionally well on his fortepianos and the public response was unanimously positive. Not until the early years of the nineteenth century did Beethoven’s pianistic powers decline.
Two selected topics are discussed that were special for Beethoven’s pianism; his legato and the performance of his trills. We know less than is often assumed about the influence of the 18th-century keyboard tutors on Beethoven’s style. The influence of Beethoven’s teacher Neefe, however, is clear in some notational details.
Two conclusions provide help in performing Beethoven’s piano music and a starting point for further studies in this field. First, playing Beethoven on historical pianos is a representative choice that reflects Beethoven’s professional practice. Second, his expressive notation was designed to indicate his personal style to a reader used to traditional notation. For understanding this notation, 18th - century conventions generally still apply.
Errata, February 20, 2007
p. 52, n. 112: add “accessed November 2006.” p. 57, n. 123: add page nr. 96. p. 70, line four: parenthesis, change into: “or perhaps, to Ludwig’s ambitions.” p. 84, n. 207: Rosetti and Rößler are one and the same person. p. 112, n. 316: delete “convincingly.” p. 144, second line, second §: correct 1780s into “1870s.” p. 149, n. 431: add “Broadwood grand piano.” p. 156, line 16, penultimate word: change into “unfortunately.” p. 174, beginning of line five: add “the.” p. 194, seventh line from below: delete “resulted.” p. 197, third line: close parenthesis. p. 216, second line: delete “p. 98.” p. 218, line 6: “bridge.” p. 226, line 12: “completely.” p. 229, line 9: change “eight” into “eighth.” p. 324, first line: separate “Czerny” and “to.” p. 334, line 7: “notes.” p. 334, line 17: delete “which.” p. 337, music example, change to bass clef in lower system. p. 339, n. 886: begin first sentence with “however” and delete “as well” at the end. p. 352, fourth line from below: trill sign in parenthesis is stretched too far apart. p. 381, line 6: insert “that” before “belong.” p. 386, fourth line from below, last word: “right-hand.” p. 408, Beethoven Briefwechsel reference: change into “Brandenburg, Sieghard.” p. 417, third reference: change into “Pollens, Stewart.”New projects
Beethoven and technology
I have proposed this project in search of several postdoc and research assistant positions: it investigates Beethoven’s technical understanding on the one hand and his interest in mechanical devices, in the development of technology, in new inventions and the exploration of the world on the other. It is based on a close analysis of important Beethoven sources, especially the conversation books. The procedure I envision would consist of a collecting phase, a phase of background studies for clarifying the fragmentary parts of the collected data and for establishing a theoretical framework for their presentation, and a writing phase.
In response to reading up on the background of musical technologies, and following the recommendations by the Swedish research council, a re-shaped plan has emerged in early 2008 as a possible alternative:
Musical technology in Beethoven’s Vienna
Responding to new cross-disciplinary research in organology, the history of technology and aesthetic studies in music, this is an investigation of four areas of musical technology in Beethoven’s Vienna and their inventors. These areas are the development of piano design and manufacture; the construction of hearing aids and sound-amplifying devices for musical instruments; the construction of mechanical instruments; and the development of the metronome. Based on sources on Beethoven, who was an active part of these developments, I will analyze for what reasons inventors became involved with their projects, how they interacted with each other and with Beethoven, and how their projects were realized.
The research method is based on source studies. The point of departure will be Beethoven’s letters and his conversation books. Other contemporary sources and the surviving artefacts will be a vital complement.
The results will clarify our picture of how important developments in musical technology happened in Beethoven’s circle, and what they embodied. They will provide information about the aesthetic, technical and social stimuli that - at an important stage of their history - gave momentum to the development of the selected four categories of musical technologies. An important side aspect of this study is the evaluation of the vast amount of Beethoven sources, thus contributing to Beethoven research as well.
Johann Andreas Stein’s Phase II piano actions
I have launched a second cooperative project proposal in organology. The following text is an excerpt of the proposal (the division of Stein’s production into Phases is based on Michael Latcham’s studies on Stein).
The project proposed here focuses on those piano actions by Stein that belong to Phase II. The regional interest of this kind of piano is given through the 1781 claviorgan in the Göteborg Stadsmuseet, which is extremely valuable from an organological viewpoint.
A larger Scandinavian interest is given by the 1783 Stein grand piano, part of the collection in the Ringve Museum in Trondheim (inv. no. RMT 771), which contains a similar action and is, similar to the claviorgan, too unique for being restored into a playable state. Two of altogether six surviving Phase II Stein actions are located in Scandinavia, while the instruments containing these actions are not designated for restoration, because of museum policies and because of the special interest of the instruments.
The general interest lies in the fact that we have still so little experience with the action that helped to make Stein’s fame, and especially with this action in its early form, from the time when Stein just had become a celebrity. Everything that has been said about his pianos in general applies specifically to the instruments from this period: They feature technical solutions that clearly differ from the Silbermann tradition while not denying its influence in some features – so Stein’s production, as represented here, was a deliberate step in a new direction; they represent at least four years of his production, which was large; they are, however, in some crucial features different from his later models.
The project consists of three phases: the first task is to make an inventory of measurements and an analysis of the various deviations of Stein’s actions in the early pianos. The outcome of this first phase will be published in English in the form of one or several specialized articles (this is the main reason why this proposal is drafted in English). The second task is to build faithful models in order to establish the best manner of production and to provide models that, in a third phase, can be tested in practice and through computer simulations.
The outcome of the study should provide data and models that serve for designing and planning workshop-produced actions after Stein with specific predictions regarding functionality, touch and tone production. This outcome ought to be a first step in the direction of constructing a whole copy of a Phase II Stein fortepiano.
