 |
 |
By Frances Martin
To improve performance and artistic outcomes in piano playing, more scientific research is needed. This is the belief of respected musician and adjunct professor of music at Monash University, Max Cooke.
In late 1998, Professor Cooke visited Berlin, where he presented a paper on 'Technique, gesture, rhythm and posture in efficient performance' at the sixth European Congress on Performing Arts Medicine and Physiology of Music. Prepared with colleague Mr Darryl Coote, the paper expresses concern at the lack of scientific evidence available to support certain techniques and piano-teaching methods.
As a music teacher and author of a number of publications on piano teaching, Professor Cooke admits that this paper includes some of the teaching principles on which he based his own work. He is anxious that his theories and methods, as well as those of other piano teachers, be scientifically verified. Although considerable research has been done since the early 1900s, little has filtered into actual practice due to the scepticism of musicians and music teachers.
A main thrust of the Berlin congress was to bring together musicians and medical researchers with a view to filling in the gaps in understanding between musicians and scientists.
Inspired by his recent attendance at the congress, and in order to address this issue, Professor Cooke intends to set up an Australian Council for Musicians' Medicine in Australia, based at Monash. He envisions the possibility of an association with the society for 'Musikermedizin', which already exists in Germany, and with another to be formed in London. This would enable the participation of English-speaking musicians and researchers.
Professor Cooke believes such a council would facilitate increased research into this often-misunderstood and undervalued musical domain. Sophisticated measuring tools now available to researchers would further assist in this endeavour. Professor John Bradshaw, head of the Neuropsychology Research Unit at Monash, and Robert Iansek, professor of geriatric neurology, have expressed interest in and support for the idea.
Professor Cooke agrees that, as in sports medicine, more attention should be paid to such things as physiological make-up, posture, seating position, arm and hand gestures, psychological factors, and 'automaticising'.
"Performance should be based on sensitivity to cultural, emotional, even 'spiritual' attitudes, but an acute awareness of physical and psychological processes enables a performer to achieve maximum results," says Professor Cooke. "We want students to be able to play with the greatest possible ease as well as the greatest possible musicianship and to achieve this, scientists and musicians need to understand each other.