The Musical Body: Gesture, Representation and Ergonomics in Musical Performance

Anne-Noëlle Bailly-Bouton (University of Toulouse), Piano Postures at the Beginning of the 19th Century in France: Consistency between Instruction and Depiction While many portraits of pianists before their instruments are known, it seems that there has been no study about whether they match the description of piano posture in contemporary tutors. My research has yielded quite surprising results: on the one hand, we find portraits depicting the different ways of playing the piano-forte at that period and matching the various instructions. On the other hand, some portraits depict attitudes that do not match the instructions found in any of the tutors, showing: a non-performing pianist before an instrument, pianists playing their instrument in an extravagant way, pianists playing their instrument in a way deformed by the painter or sculptor. Thus, musical iconography is very useful. First, it shows that some of the instructions found in tutors, and which could seem unreal, are actually represented in pictures. Secondly, they prove that the instructions given by the authors of tutors were followed and show a variety of performance practices during that period. More than that, musical iconography can point to different ways of practising the piano-forte: differences between the amateur and the professional performer, but also differences between the private sphere, where the accomplished young lady takes great care of how she plays in society, and the public one, where concert artists play beyond conventions, with passionate gestures, whether or not their behaviour is caricatured by the painter. Alexandra Balandina (Athens), The Empowerment of the Upper Hand in Tombak Playing and Navid Afghah’s Two-Hand Technique Navid Afghah, one of the best tombak players in contemporary Iran, has developed a breakthrough playing technique called do-dasti or do-sedā-i (lit. two-hand or two-sound technique), where each hand has much independence of movement in terms of the rhythmic structures, playing techniques and sound impressions.