Integrative Directions in Studying the Technique of Piano Playing and the Activities of Erwin Bach in Soviet Russia (1934–1947)
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Abstract
One of the tendencies of musical studies of the first third of the 20th century turned out to be the interdisciplinary
approach to the problems of performance. In the sphere of piano pedagogy it evolved on the basis of the “anatomicphysiological
school.” Its ideas, generated in the works of German musicians, received further development in
Russia. The activities of German pianist and pedagogue Erwin Bach during the period of his emigration in the Soviet
Union (1934–1947) has remained insufficiently studied. The places of his stay, besides Moscow and Leningrad (St.
Petersburg), were a number of peripheral cities. The present article is the first to present information on Erwin Bach’s
work in the peripheral cities of Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) and Tomsk.
The subsequent development of the positions of the anatomical-physiological and psycho-technical approaches
at the Sverdlovsk (Urals) Conservatory was carried out by instructor V. A. Guterman, a graduate of the Moscow
Conservatory, where she studied with K. N. Igumnov. She defended her dissertation “The Tactile-Motional Method of
Instruction upon Professional Maladies of Pianists’ Hands” (Sverdlovsk, 1943). Her academic advisor was surgeon,
Professor F. P. Bogdanov, and her official opponents were H. G. Neuhaus and N. I. Golubovskaya. The professional
endorsement of her dissertation was given by physiologist, academician L. O. Orbeli.
The archival documents of the Urals Conservatory (before 1945 – the Sverdlovsk Conservatory) and the State
Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region, brought into scholarly circulation for the first time, make it possible to illuminate
these little-known historical facts and update the overall perspective of the development of integrative directions in
study of musical performance.
Keywords: the art of piano playing, piano technique, an anatomic-physiological approach to piano pedagogy,
musical pedagogy in Sverdlovsk, pianist Erwin Bach in the USSR.
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References
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