This vintage book contains a detailed guide to playing the pianoforte, with information on everything from finding the right notes to playing legato and staccato. "The Visible and Invisible in Pianoforte Technique" will be of utility to both beginner and more advanced students, and it would make for a worthy addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: "The Meaning and Purpose of Technique", "how to Use the Piano-Key", "The Physical of Key-aspect of Technique", "Accuracy of Tone, and the Link between Music and Technique", "How to Use Limb and Muscle", "The Physiological Problems", "The Physiological Details", The Finger and how to Use It", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with its original artwork and text.

This vintage book contains a guide to the rules and general principles of playing the piano. Originally taken from Matthay's digest “The Visible and Invisible”, it offers the new player a summary complete with simple explanations and expert tips. “An Epitome of the Laws of Pianoforte Technique” is highly recommended for those with an interest in either the piano or pianoforte, and it would make for a fantastic addition to musical collections. Contents include: “Introduction”, “Preamble”, “The Problem of Pianoforte Training”, “The Problem of Education in the Art of Tone-Production”, “The Problem of Muscular Education”, “The Final Problem: The Union of Execution With Conception”, “Conclusion, and Summary”, etc. Tobias Augustus Matthay (1858 – 1945) was an English pianist, composer, and teacher. He was taught composition while at the Royal Academy of Music by Arthur Sullivan and Sir William Sterndale Bennett, and he was instructed in the piano by William Dorrell and Walter Macfarren. Other notable works by this author include: “The Act Of Touch In All Its Diversity: An Analysis And Synthesis Of Pianoforte Tone Production” (1903), “The First Principles of Pianoforte Playing (1905)” and “Relaxation Studies” (1908). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Disability and Music Performance examines discriminatory social practices in music conservatoria, orchestras, music festivals and music competitions, which limit disabled people’s access to music performance at a professional level. Of particular interest are the disabling barriers that musicians with an intellectual, physical, sensory or neurological disability—or an acquired brain injury—encounter in the world of Western classical music, both as students and as professional performers. This book collects data in the form of semi-structured interviews and video and audio recordings to explore the voice, concerns and suggestions expressed by musicians with disabilities. It examines their perceptions of both inclusive and discriminatory practices in music institutions as well as the representation of, and audio-visual recordings by, key musical figures with disabilities. Its findings aim to contribute to the wellbeing of musicians with impairments by challenging disabling social practices that see them as inferior. This publication offers performers, teachers and researchers new perspectives for exploring some of the most common social dynamics in encounters between normative audiences, musicians and music critics, and musicians with disabilities. It invites the reader to recognise disability as a rightful identity category in music performance and to dismantle the disabling barriers that limit the participation of disabled people in music-making.

The Romantic pianist - the solo pianist who plays nineteenth-century piano music - has become an attractive figure in the popular imagination, considering the innumerable artworks, literary works, and films representing this performer's seductive allure. Dreams of Love pursues a wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach to understanding the romantic pianist as a cultural icon, focusing on the role of technology in producing and perpetuating this mythology over the past two centuries. Sound recording and cinema have shaped the pianist's music and image since the early twentieth century, but these contemporary media technologies build upon practices established during the early nineteenth century: the influence of the piano keyboard on early telegraphs and typewriters, the invention of the solo recital alongside developments in photography, and the ways that piano design and the placement of the instrument on stage structure our viewing-listening perspectives. The concept of technology can be broadened to include the performance of gender and sexuality as further ways of making the pianist into an attractive cultural figure. The book's three sections deal with the touch, sights, and sounds of the Romantic pianist's playing as mediated through various forms of technology. Analyzing these persistent Liebesträume and exploring how they function can reveal their meaning for performers, audiences, and music lovers of the past and present too.

This volume explores the mutually beneficial, but occasionally uneasy, relationship between sound art and music. It reveals how practices and theories associated with these art forms frequently result in corroboration, and contains chapters from both practitioners and theoreticians who work in areas where innovative synergies between sound art and music can be identified. Although practice and theory are inseparable, discourses surrounding practice are elusive but informative, and, as such, are given particular recognition and exploration in this volume. Taken as a whole, the book provides a snapshot of contemporary research across a range of sound art and music disciplines, showcasing the variety, scope and scale of this exciting, if bewildering, area of study.