Style Brillante: Piano technique in Performance Practice of early 19th century. Critical reflection

Abstract

The goal with my project was to investigate different piano traditions of early 1800s, and to find out how the development of technique 1800s interacted with,- and probably influenced - musical language (or style), in light of evolution of piano mechanics. The project was based on the analysis of the pianistic principals employed by a number of performer-composers in the early 1800s, who used technical elements both methodically (as exercises collections and/or method books) and artistically (as elements of compositions and/or performance). They absorbed the predominant technical traditions of the previous stylistic period, and at the same time anticipated the next one, thereby creating a style that has been a binding links between two stylistic epochs (Classicism and High Romanticism). Additional attention will be paid to the influence of European piano tradition on the development of Norwegian keyboard tradition, which will be centered around main presenters of Style brillante in Norway: German-Danish (Norwegian) performer-composer Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832), Liszt’s pupil Agathe Backer Grondahl (1847-1907),and Chopin’s pupil Thomas Tellefsen (1823-1874). Research of the mechanical evolution will be realised in collaboration with national and international Instrument Museums. The Western Classical Piano style did not generally undergo sudden change, but rather, developed gradually. As a result of my research, I made a conclusion that the concept of the Classical and Romantic styles is an artificial construct that has been adopted in later times to frame the music into neat historical patterns. There are various sub-genres (or styles) both within Classicism and Romanticism, with discernible periods of transition between them.