Wang, Chenxi
(2025)
Performing the piano works of Maria Szymanowska:
considerations of authenticity, history, and gender.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Over the past three decades, Historically Informed Performance (HIP) has become increasingly mainstream. Once confined to eighteenth-century music, it now informs approaches to nineteenth-century music and beyond, presents challenges to performers. For modern pianists, such historical considerations mean that they need to be aware of issues relating to authenticity when playing nineteenth-century repertoire. Yet what kind of authenticity should one seek? In addition, scholarly attention has focussed on only a small number of male canonical figures. But the piano in the nineteenth century was mainly played by females. Does gender make a difference? How, for instance, should a modern pianist perform works by an early nineteenth-century female pianist? Should one scour manuscripts for clues left by the composer? Should one play on a period instrument? Does one need to apply earlier techniques? Or is one supposed to lead the performance with one’s own instincts and feelings? How should historical evidence inform performance? And how might a pianist demonstrate their own take on the issues through a recital?
In this performance research, I take Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) as a case study, with the aim of helping modern pianists to make informed choices when performing her repertoire by exploring the challenges faced by the modern performer of nineteenth-century piano music. Maria Szymanowska was a Polish female pianist/composer who was well received in early nineteenth-century Europe. She was one of the few successful professional female musicians, although she is hardly known today.
The research is divided into several objectives to address the aim. The first is to provide a context for Szymanowska’s musical style through her biography and social environment, offering important insights for performances. Second, historical evidence will be uncovered about the performance traditions that she may have followed, as records of her performances are not as informative as those of her male peers. Then, accompanied by reflections on authenticity as a modern female piano performer, suggestions for the modern performance of Szymanowska’s piano works will be explored through the application of my embodied learning. The final objective involves the public demonstration of the findings through two live recitals and recorded examples.
The research draws on written sources such as biographies, concert reviews, commentaries, early treatises, published scores, manuscripts, and literature on performance practice. Based on these, as a practical guide to performance, embodied learning is used to examine the application of incomplete evidence (including the examination of selected instruments and self-reflection in modern performance settings), to establish a dialogue with Szymanowska’s music. Representative examples from the recital repertoire are examined in terms of posture and movement, tempo, dynamics, tempo rubato and pedalling, to obtain some valuable insights into Szymanowska’s performance, while critically considering some aspects of the possible challenges in recitals and exploring solutions based on practical experience. Considerations of gender run through the study. And the findings will be applied in two live recitals.
| Item Type: |
Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
(PhD)
|
| Supervisors: |
Baragwanath, Nicholas
Robbins, Hannah
Pestova, Xenia |
| Keywords: |
Historically Informed Performance; HIP; Maria Szymanowska; piano; piano recital; authenticity; history; gender |
| Subjects: |
M Music and Literature on music > M Music |
| Faculties/Schools: |
UK Campuses > Faculty of Arts > School of Humanities |
| Item ID: |
80645 |
| Depositing User: |
Wang, Chenxi
|
| Date Deposited: |
09 Jun 2025 10:17 |
| Last Modified: |
09 Jun 2025 10:17 |
| URI: |
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/80645 |
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