Magic Piano – Revival of old Piano Traditions

In the past 12 years, the Bern University of the Arts HKB has been engaged in a wide spectrum of research into piano rolls as source documents of the art of interpretation of composers and pianists in around 1900.

Factsheet

  • Lead school Bern Academy of the Arts
  • Institute Institute Interpretation
  • Research unit Performance and interpretation
  • Funding organisation SNSF
  • Duration 01.04.2020 - 30.09.2022
  • Project management Dr. Thomas Gartmann
  • Head of project Simon Gertschen
  • Project staff Dr. Claudio Bacciagaluppi
    Sebastian Bausch
    Dr. Manuel Bärtsch
  • Partner Burgergemeinde Bern
    Swisslos/Kulturförderung Graubünden
    Agentur Webbear
    Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana Lugano
    Festival Musiksommer am Zürichsee
    Gymnasium Hofwil
    HKB Hochschule der Künste Bern
    Hochschule für Musik – FHNW
    Hotel Waldhaus Sils
    Konservatorium Bern
    Stiftung Künstlerhaus Boswil
    Museum für Musikautomaten - Sammlung Dr. h.c. H. Weiss-Stauffacher
    Neidhart Grafik
    Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen

Situation

Its research results have been presented at international symposiums, in doctoral theses, anthology volumes, articles and on CDs. The sources, data, findings and results of this research are now intended to be communicated to a very broad public by means of concerts, discussions and workshops, but most of all by letting them engage with the topic themselves. Our main goals are to get people to listen more keenly, and to play more freely, in order to become acquainted with “interpretation” as a discipline of its own.

This project contributes to the following SDGs

  • 4: Quality education

Publications