• Judith Weir
  • The Art of Touching the Keyboard (1983)

  • Novello & Co Ltd (World)

Commissioned by William Howard with funds from the Arts Council

  • pf
  • 10 min

Programme Note

The title of this music is an over-literal translation of the title of Francois Couperin’s harpsichord tutor of 1716, L’art de toucher le clavecin. It seemed appropriate for a piece which begins with the player pressing single keys tentatively, as if encountering the instrument for the first time, and ends ten minutes later with the same repeated notes marked ‘confident and relaxed’. In the interim, the music, which is in a single continuous movement, demonstrates the many ways in which the piano keys can be touched, from the gentlest of strokes to the most vicious of blows.

The Art of Touching the Keyboard was commissioned by William Howard with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain and was written in 1983.

© Judith Weir

Media

The Art of Touching the Keyboard

Scores

Score sample

Reviews

'The Art of Touching the Keyboard' is a tour de force for the solo pianist, who basically gives a little guided tour of the history of instrumental attack and articulation from the Baroque period through to Romanticism into the modern era, all using the same basic thematic and harmonic material. The piece is instructive and delightful...'
Boston Globe
18th April 2004

Discography

The Art of touching the Keyboard

The Art of touching the Keyboard
  • Label
    EVE
  • Catalogue Number
    EVE0104
  • Soloist
    Eve Egoyan
  • Released
    2004
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Merlin
  • Catalogue Number
    MRFD 891706
  • Soloist
    Peter Seivewright, piano
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Collins Classics
  • Catalogue Number
    CD14532
  • Ensemble
    Domus
  • Soloist
    William Howard / Petra Casen
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    NMC
  • Catalogue Number
    NMC D090
  • Ensemble
    Schubert Ensemble
  • Soloist
    William Howard, Susan Tomes, Petra

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