Tone Moves: A History of Piano Technique

by Luca Chiantore

In this book, Italian-born pianist and scholar LUCA CHIANTORE sets out to examine the transformations undergone by piano technique, and how this overall history relates to the performative customs of those pianist-composers whose works we today consider the core repertoire of so-called Western classical music. The author illustrates the diversity of their bodily approaches to the keyboard, exploring their respective biomechanical inquiries amidst increasing hand and arm involvement in piano playing and the emergence of often contrasting pedagogical theories. The result of intense, rigorous research, Tone Moves contains an impressive amount of documentation, including a vast number of theoretical works which had never before been studied thoroughly. Through all this, the author narrates a “history” that uncovers crucial parallels with the past three century's aesthetic revolutions. Chiantore spins a tale of widespread, lasting changes, a searching narrative brimming with strong personalities often steering in opposite directions, all in all an avowal of the stunning diversity of options available when expressing ourselves through an instrument. * * * Musician and musicologist Luca Chiantore is a prominent figure in today's piano world, especially within the Ibero-American scene. His books and articles on performance and his tireless activity as a piano teacher and scholar are well known in leading universities worldwide, while his challenging concert projects—alongside composer and producer David Ortolà, as Tropos Ensemble, and performing his solo In-Versions—have been acclaimed in major venues in Europe and the Americas.

1120 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 15, 2020