Piano sound phenomenon in English-language scientific discourse

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The process of achieving an aesthetically appealing and artistically true piano sound has long been a subject of research for musicians. In recent decades, domestic performance practice has relied on this issue mostly on the professional literature created back in the Soviet period. But the process of integrating Ukrainian musical education and performance into the European and world cultural space requires the study of alternative sources, primarily English-language ones, that reflect the experience of performers in different countries of the world, as well as correlations and the introduction of relevant terminology into scientific and practical circulation. Analyzing recent publications, we established that the phenomenon of the piano in general and piano sound in particular is considered from different points in the works of J. Parakilas (2000), E. Hiebert (2013), V. Raad (1977), G. Fitch (2016a,b; 2022), Shen Li and R. Timmers (2021), M. Keane (2013), Chuan C. Chang (2009), I. Masters (2021), and others. The purpose of this article was to study the approaches to the phenomenon of piano sound available in the English-language scientific literature. For the first time, a number of Englishlanguage sources dedicated to the phenomenon of piano sound have been included in domestic scientific circulation. Systematic and comparative methods, as well as terminological analysis used in the study, made it possible to distinguish different contexts, in which the phenomenon of piano sound is presented in scientific discourse: performance-practical, psychological, historical, organological (due to the structural features of the instruments). Research results. One of the approaches to the study of the piano sound phenomenon is the study of the history of the piano, its place in European culture and its social functions, as in the work of J. Parakilas (2000), where the author describes the history of the functioning of the piano during the 18th–20th centuries. The sound of the piano in the historical, stylistic and organological contexts is considered by I. Masters (2021), who investigated the structural and sound features of the London and Viennese pianos (second half of the 18th century) and their influence on the specifics of the piano texture, structure of themes, articulation and stroke palette of the works of pianists and composers of the London and Vienna schools. A purely performance and practical perspective is found in Chuan C. Chang’s book (2009), which covers most aspects of piano playing. Another example of a purely practical approach to the study of piano sound is the articles by G. Fitch (2016a,b; 2022), where he considers the process of creating an aesthetically pleasing sound. Another perspective on piano sound and playing is interdisciplinary, where musicology interacts with acoustics, psychology, and physiology (Keane, 2013; Li, & Timmers, 2021). Conclusions. A review of professional sources shows that the piano sound in the modern English-language scientific discourse is considered as a complex multifaceted phenomenon. The main and special concepts describing the sound of the piano are “tone”, “voicing”, “layering”. The first two terms have an ambiguous interpretation: some authors understand the quality of the instrument’s sound as the result of the performer’s actions, others as a certain manner of playing, and others as, first of all, the character of the sound determined by the design and technical condition of the instrument.