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The pianist: His manual technique, his mental technique (an annotated translation)
Abstract
This document is an annotated English translation of a portion of Le Pianiste: Sa Technique Manuelle, Sa Technique Cerebrale, by Raymond Thiberge (1880-1968). In this treatise, published in 1967, Thiberge explains his lifelong work regarding piano technique, the musician's mental process, and the teaching of music and general subjects. Thiberge formed his theories of physical co-ordination for pianists partially by experimentation with concert pianists, including Gieseking, Caland, Breithaupt, and Cortot. Totally blind by the age of nine, he pioneered the use of palpation to aid the diagnosis of a music student's technical problems. He believed that most technical difficulties are due to defects of mental and physical use, not lack of talent. He attempted to describe a "whole-body" method of piano technique which differs from "arm weight" and "finger strength," which he called "pressure transmission." Chapters include "Muscular and Articular Maneuvers," "Principals of Mental Technique," and "Incorrect Pedagogical Conceptions." An early result of Thiberge's study of mental use during sight-reading and aural training was a primitive teaching machine, called Auto-Professeur, produced in 1912. As the first pedagogy professor of Paris' Ecole Normale de Musique in 1925, Thiberge founded his own Institut Pedagogique in 1931. This was one of the first schools in Western Europe that combined general and music education, as Thiberge believed this policy was of evolutionary importance for mankind. In 1934, he produced two films, one on piano teaching, the other on the formation of thought in younger children, in which he anticipated some of Piaget's findings over thirty years later. There are similarities in Thiberge's work to that of F. M. Alexander's (1869-1955), with regard to the psycho-physical process in activity. Significant differences exist as well, and further comparison of the work of both educators would be of value. In an age when repetitive stress injuries are becoming the norm for many musicians, a greater understanding of works such as these may become essential for career survival.
Subject Area
Music education|Psychobiology|Occupational safety|Biographies
Recommended Citation
Sigers, Pamela Karen, "The pianist: His manual technique, his mental technique (an annotated translation)" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9538654.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9538654