The Intentions of Piano Touch Jennifer MacRitchie, *1 Massimo Zicari, *2 * Divisione Ricerca e Sviluppo, Scuola Universitaria di Musica - SUPSI, Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland 1 jennifer.macritchie@conservatorio.ch, 2 massimo.zicari@conservatorio.ch ABSTRACT For pianists, touch is a corporeal tool that can be used not only to physically produce notes on the piano, but to mediate their expressive intentions for the performed music. This paper directs attention towards the cognitive decisions that result in these performed gestures, generating different types of touch for the pianist. An open-ended questionnaire concerning piano touch technique was sent to piano tutors from European conservatoires. Written or verbal responses were required, for the latter the questions formed a semi-structured interview. Results conclude that “touch” originates in the pianist’s musical intention, an intuitive response to the timbre of sound or specific mood they are trying to project, often manifested through the use of imagery or metaphor. Connecting intention to physical gesture, along with parameters such as weight and point of contact on the finger, the main concern for pianists is control of tension within the limbs, this helping to create different types of sound. A case study was examined where a professional pianist performs two pieces of different styles with two different sound intentions. Shoulder, arm and hand motion is recorded via video-camera with a side-view of the pianist. Results show that touch is heavily based on musical context with movement and tension within the shoulder-arm-wrist system changing based on musical intention. With the basis of touch rooted in conscious musical expression, this study provides a starting point for which to explore the connection between the conscious choice of the performer and the resulting physical gesture. I. INTRODUCTION Piano touch technique not only describes how to physically play notes on the piano but is also a tool allowing the mediation of performers’ expressive intentions for the music through a personal relationship between body and instrument (Dogantan-Dack, 2011). It is suggested that the uniqueness of this relationship is pivotal for the performer regarding how the timbre of a note is produced. This kinaesthetic sensation of producing notes with a particular timbre is then tied to performers’ perceptions of these notes (Galembo, Askenfelt and Cuddy, 1998). This suggests that pianists’ own perceptions of timbre arise from more than purely the sound produced but also the ‘feel’ of how the key is depressed. Suggesting that pianists use this tactile information to control aspects of their performance, Goebl and Palmer (2008) found that pianists made a particular kinematic landmark in their movement towards the keys at the point where the finger initially touched the key, and that presence of these landmarks increased with increasing tempo. These results suggest that the tactile information present at each keystroke enables the pianists’ time-keeping. Audio information also provides a more common feedback tool for pianists, determining the properties of successive keystrokes (Furuya and Soechting, 2010), with tempo and dynamics showing correlates with finger movement properties such as finger height in note preparation (Dalla Bella and Palmer, 2008). The comparison of curved and straight fingers demonstrates another use for touch technique for controlling efficiency of movement in performance (Parncutt and Troup 2002). It is noted that curved fingers are used by pianists in order to play loud passages more efficiently, as the curvature allows an increased force to be available at the fingertip. Studying expert pianists’ arm joints as they performed “pressed” and “struck” notes found variation in the rigidity of the different joints (Furuya, Altenmüller, Katayose and Kinoshita, 2010) also noting that shoulder motion in “struck” touches helped to increase the angle of the finger relative to the key. Inter-subject differences in force profile when varying the loudness of these “struck” tones were attributed to differences in overall mass of the performer (Kinoshita, Furuya, Aoki and Altenmüller, 2007). This may confirm Dogantan-Dack’s proposal (2011) that it is this personal relationship and how the performer controls his/her whole body that makes a difference to the sound. Audible differences in the timbre produced by these “struck” and “pressed” touches were found, however, these likely arose from the finger-key noise produced before the onset of the note (Goebl, Bresin and Galembo, 2004). From the pianist’s point of view, a lot of concentration is given to producing the intended “sound”. Munoz (2007) postulates that performers create relationships between gestures and intended character, quality or even intensity of sound. In this way, the movements that performers make become a link to the intended sound of a note or group of notes. Looking at hand movements created during a professional pianist’s performances of Beethoven’s Bagatelles, Davidson (2007) discovered that various “lifts” and “flicks” occurred at the same expressive locations across performances. The function of these gestures was difficult to separate out as being either functional (purely in order to physically play the note) or expressive (a movement that adds something extra to the note or group of notes being played) but the fact that they occurred in the same place suggested that these movements were being made intentionally to express a certain feature. In terms of what information this communicates to the audience, what this expression means for the pianist and the audience could potentially be different things (Munoz, 2007). However, Parncutt and Troup (2002) suggest that the visual perception of a note may influence how the audience perceives its “sound”. Thus, the movement of the hands and body of the pianist as they approach the keys is a pivotal consideration when thinking about the produced sound and its connection to the pianists’ expressive intentions. Although current studies have shed light on the kinematics of the fingers and arm as they approach the keys, there is a missing connection between these movements and the expressive intentions that they are designed to fulfil, not to mention the pianist themselves. This study turns towards the cognitive decisions of the pianist, and how this translates into physical gestures aimed at fulfilling different sound intentions. 636