’Resonance’ in Piano Fingering: A Historical and Empirical Study

Abstract

Resonance is one of the conceptual metaphors frequently appearing in scientific theories. Neuroscientists, for instance, explains the property of neurons to selectively respond to inputs at preferred frequencies in terms of resonance. Cognitive scientists are further extending the idea of the brain as a resonant organ. Following Gibson’s ecological theory, a dynamic notion of resonance has been employed to elucidate the interactive relationship between the organism and the environment. Such a notion of resonance is in line with the approach of distributed cognition/creativity. The resonant interaction between music and the performers, between the performers, and between the performers and the audience/the composer have often been investigated in the contexts of ensemble, improvisatory, and contemporary music performances.

Based on the assumption that the organism and the environment mutually resonate with each other via perception and action, the present paper applies such a notion of resonance to piano fingering, historically and empirically. Piano fingering, a seemingly private and individualistic process, involves the resonance not only between human participants but also between performer and artifacts across time and space. The first part sets forth a theoretical framework of resonance in piano fingering, considering historical discourse, such as piano pedagogy treatises and performing editions, as the nonhuman agents that interacted with pianists in deciding piano fingering. The second part introduces an empirical study in which piano students’ fingering decision making is investigated. In this qualitative survey study, passages were selected from Beethoven's piano works, and (often unexpected) fingering suggestions were presented to the participants in the form of performing editions with fingering notation and concert film clips with the camera zoomed in on pianists' hands. Focusing on the pianists' interactions amongst themselves mediated by treatises, scores, and films, the paper investigates the feedback loop between the pianist’s perception of fingering and fingering action at the intersection of historical discourses of piano pedagogy and current cognitive science. In so doing, it proposes to consider pianists not only as action executors but also as action observers.`