Pearly playing: the origins of the French piano
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Résumé
For a long time, the French school of piano playing was dominated by le jeu perlé - ‘pearly playing’. Practised by such illustrious figures as Camille Saint-Saëns and Marguerite Long, it involved a technique that placed great importance on playing with a single finger, and phrasing based on clear articulation and great economy in the use of the pedal.
The research project “The origins of French piano” brought together a group of pianists from the Paris Conservatoire, the Haute école de musique de Genève and the University of Montreal. Based on written methods and documents, sound archives and historical footage, students and teachers threw themselves into the task of rediscovering the past method of playing music by Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy and Ravel, in a process that lasted several months.
This film tells the story of this joint venture.
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