Orphée blessé

Abstract

Orpheus wounded The institutional field of the piano contains three social worlds -the virtuoso, pedagogical and medical worlds - each of which in its distinctive way produces, manages, or denies physical pain in piano playing. A number of "risk factors" combine to increase the production of pain among a signiftcant number of professional pianists : increasing market competition, faulty technique (and inadequate teaching), expansion of the standard virtuoso repertoire. None of the social worlds of the piano have historically had to confront the problem of pain. The medical world blames pain on "misuse" ; the virtuoso world on lack of "genius" or "hard work", the pedagogical world on "bad teaching" or "lack of talent". The problem is probably exacerbated by the emotional commitment of young piano prodigies to their mother and their teacher, which leads to denial of pain or self-blame. The argument is based upon a survey of 268 New York State piano teachers, on interviews with doctors, piano teachers and pianists, on observation of piano pedagogy clinics and pedagogical conferences, and on a historical survey of hand-books on piano technique.