The history of the keyboard instrument MNP I 49 from the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań. the state of research

The keyboard instrument MNP I 49 from the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań has not been a subject of detailed academic studies yet, but there have been mentions of it in various types of publications throughout the years. The item is currently placed in the exhibition hall devoted to the art of the Baroque era in the Museum of Applied Arts in Poznań. It is a unique historical item in the Polish collection due to a very scarce number of harpsichords preserved in Poland. This situation is mainly a result of two world wars in the 20th century. Due to not enough available sources, the exact time of the creation of the instrument and the name of its builder were impossible to determine. The aim of the present article was to compile and arrange previous knowledge about the historical item MNP I 49. The work lists source materials and publications in which the instrument was mentioned, such as documents from the National Archive in Poznań, Raczyński Library in Poznań and National Museum Archive in Poznań. Based on the available source materials, the author was able to determine that the harpsichord appeared at the Skórzewski family’s palace in Czerniejewo before 1855.

Amplified Piano

The introduction of electronic amplification to the piano, which began as an innocent bluff by a teenage composer living in the Arctic Circle, had a devastating consequence for Tudor’s virtuosity on the keyboard instrument: it dissolved his control of escapement mechanism, opening up instead the world of feedback where a sound once activated could potentially never end. A detailed examination of Tudor’s idiosyncratic realization of John Cage’s Variations II in 1962 shows what previous scholars, as well as the composer himself, have failed to see: the specific nature of the amplified piano that was altogether a different instrument from the piano. What the new instrument presented was not simply more complexity and indeterminacy but a specific kind of complexity and indeterminacy which is reflected in how Tudor actually performed the music.

History of Piano Technique Development: Methodical Aspect

The history of the development of piano technique has been counting down since the 17th century. The most common keyboard instruments before the invention of the piano were the harpsichord, clavicord and organ. These early instruments had much lighter keys compared to modern ones. Therefore, performers could easily press the keys without feeling much resistance. With the advent of the piano, both the playing technique and the training technique for professional pianists and amateurs began to be reviewed. Musicians, summarizing their own performing experience, wrote treatises, textbooks and manuals, looking for the most effective method of mastering the technique of playing the keyboard instrument. In history, there are two schools of piano technique: the so-called school of “high lifting of fingers” and “playing with all the weight of the hand”. This work is devoted to the history of the development of these schools and methodological approaches to piano training. The views on piano technique that developed in the 18th–20th centuries, which were reflected in the textbooks of pianistsperformers and teachers, help to understand how to perform music of a particular period and what finger technique to use for a perfect interpretation of piano works of the past.

PROBE-STÜCKE By Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The Teaching and the artistic aspects of the cycle1

The article discusses the cycle of didactic pieces by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach entitled Probe- Stücke, included in one of the most important works of that composer, i.e. Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. The text, which was first published in 1753, to this day remains a valued source of knowledge about the period and a helpful support in the process of education. It seems that the cycle of compositions included with the essay is little known and there are very few sources where we can find information about it. In this respect, practical playing schools by Johann Sebastian Bach are much more popular and are used frequently in music education. It is hardly surprising as today the Leipzig cantor is duly regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of music. However, the renaissance of the creative output of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel that we observe nowadays, seems to be the right moment to pay attention of music lovers also to the collection of didactic works of that composer. They may turn out to be the key to understand his compositions and also an important element for the field of learning to play keyboard instruments. The cycle includes a complete presentation of genres, various playing techniques, articulations, ornaments, and each part represents a diffe- rent character, a different affect. Listed elements, combined with the composer’s individual style, make the Probe-Stücke a perfect material for teaching keyboard instrument playing. In the article we will find a discussion on the works in the context of the composer’s remarks included in the theoretical part of the essay. Further on the author focuses on the analysis of the compositions in the Probe-Stücke and attempts to evaluate the usefulness of the cycle for teaching purposes as well as its artistic qualities.

The Contest Piece as a Probe of Memory

At the end of the school year at the Paris Conservatory each class or studio held a contest. How a student did in the contests could determine whether or not he or she could continue in that class, advance to a higher class, or be dismissed. In the harmony contests, students would be unlikely to win any sort of prize if they could not reproduce the contrapuntal schemas suggested by patterns in the given basses or melodies. That is, a student was provided with just one of the four parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and required to complete the rest of the parts. The test typically lasted six hours, with the student shut in a room without any keyboard instrument. By being sensitive to the cues in the given voice, students could retrieve from their memories the other voices of the appropriate marches harmoniques. These were descendants of the movimenti (bass motions) taught in the Naples conservatories.

TEKNIK PERMAINAN IMPROVISASI KEYBOARD PADA LAGU KIDUNG JEMAAT NO. 375 “SAYA MAU IKUT YESUS” DI GEREJA HKI HUTAGURGUR

The purpose of this research is to add insight into the playing of keyboard instruments and what techniques can be used in playing the keyboard one of them improvised music playing techniques by playing music in whorship in the Church. The benefits of the research to explain the technique of improvised keyboard music playing in the accompaniment of processional worship at the HKI Curch Hutagurgur. Applied to this improvisation technique using the song of the Curch numbre 375 “I Want To Follow Jesus” during the procession worship at the HKI Curch Hutagurgur. The study uses qualitative research that makes direct observations and gets information from several related source. The author lifts the song “I Want To Follow Jesus”and apply it through a keyboard instrument using an improvised playing music to add some melodies that are not in the original song sheet so that the atmosphere of entering the Church is more enjoying the music. The method used for this improvised music playing yechnique through melodi scale and chord transfer called chord bridges to go to the next chord on the song I Want To Follow Jesus. In improvised playing dont have to match the writen scores, because improvisation is a spontaneous idea that is created directly unconciously and without planed.The information contained in this thesis is the method using and appliying improvised playing techniques through stages wich is explained in playing music especially in the field of instruments keyboard in the use of improvisation first know the song that will be played to in the playing of improvisation more broadly in playing the melodies wich increase through the idea appear alone on the chord song moves. Perferably inside the Church player is sick of having to practice more in music playing techniques espesially on keyboard instruments because in aChurch instrument the most importaint keyboard in accompanying Church worship.

Performer Experience on a Continuous Keyboard Instrument

On several keyboard instruments the produced sound is not always dependent exclusively on a discrete key-velocity parameter, and minute gestural details can affect the final sonic result. By contrast, variations in articulation beyond velocity have normally no effect on the produced sound when the keyboard controller uses the MIDI standard, used in the vast majority of digital keyboards. In this article, we introduce a novel keyboard-based digital musical instrument that uses continuous readings of key position to control a nonlinear waveguide flute synthesizer with a richer set of interaction gestures than would be possible with a velocity-based keyboard. We then report on the experience of six players interacting with our instrument and reflect on their experience, highlighting the opportunities and challenges that come with continuous key sensing.