Research
Updated October 28, 2020
Beginning in 1997, I have concentrated my research on Beethoven performance practice, biography, and organology with a focus on the early piano, and on the importance of these disciplines and topics for artistic research in musical performance.
At present, I am co-researcher in Maria Bania’s artistic research project “Rhetorical and Romantic affective strategies in musical performance” (University of Gothenburg), which is financed by the Swedish Research Council.
Since 2016, I have been associate researcher at the Orpheus institute in Ghent, Belgium, in Tom Beghin’s ongoing research cluster “Declassifying the Classics”.
My post-doc project at the University of Southampton (2009–2011), financed by the Swedish research council, has resulted in a number of articles and book chapters. I am presently working on my second book with results of my study.
The public defense of my dissertation on performance practices in Beethoven’s piano works (see below) was on 5 May 2007. An updated version of my dissertation was published in 2010 as Beethoven the Pianist by Cambridge University Press.
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Below follows an abstract and an errata list of my dissertation 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.
[print copies can be ordered at the Centrum för Kulturstudier, Institutionen för kultur, estetik & medier, Göteborgs universitet, Box 200
405 30 Göteborg].
The errata list below refers to the original dissertation and not to Beethoven the Pianist by Cambridge University Press (for this book you find an errata list here).
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. 333, n. 880. Omit footnote. The knee levers in Mozart’s piano are indeed inverted, as Rampe and others state, but this is inconclusive, since they are not original. 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.”Booking: tilman[at]skowroneck[dot]de or view the contact page.
Tilman Skowroneck 