André Teixeira

The belief that imagination’s engagement and emotional connection with what I play enhance my performance propelled me to do this research. However, these are not systematically integrated in instrumental practice. Thus, it seemed to me that the twentieth century theatre director Konstantin Stanislavski’s ‘system’ would be the perfect basis for such a quest. The starting point were acting techniques from his first book "An Actor Prepares": the "given circumstances", imagination-related ("supposed circumstances", “inner visions”, "magic if”) – and emotion-related ("emotion memory", "sensation memory", "surroundings"). Partly supported by existing literature, these techniques were linked with the instrumentalists' work and tested out in a self-case study through three interventions. The process consisted of making video recordings of the 'before' and the actual interventions, which were guided by the filling out of intervention forms designed by me. The techniques were applied on three distinct piano passages of Richard Strauss’ melodrama for narrator and piano "Enoch Arden". Furthermore, I did interventions’ reports to provide more palpable insights about the experience, namely the effects of each technique on the performer. The outcome was evaluated through a questionnaire filled in by a group of listeners, comprising musicians and non-musicians, and by me. The responses generally show that the techniques were effective. However, the recordings were perceived as very similar. Also, the listeners’ perception sometimes differed from mine. Nevertheless, the reports allow us to conclude that these techniques might affect the performer’s focus, creativity, self-confidence, knowledge about the works and also self-knowledge.

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3.3 The acting system of Konstantin Stanislavski as applied to piano performance, by Andrea V. Johnson

In this dissertation Johnson addresses performance anxiety, physical tension in performance, interpretation, and stage presence, and, by adapting Stanislavski’s acting techniques to piano practice, develops sixteen activities to help higher education piano students dealing with it. The activities involve concepts like attention, round-table analysis, imagination, subtext, emotion memory, among others. Moreover, Johnson investigates Stanislavski’s influence on American piano pedagogy in the first half of the twentieth century.

It is important to refer that Johnson approaches elements from the whole ’system’ and not only from the first part, unlike me.

As previously mentioned, this dissertation (and the one I will discuss later) helped me formulating my interventions’ forms. Therefore, despite being further developed in the next chapter (where I explain the interventions’ layout), I should highlight the most relevant aspects for the design of my forms:

The ‘Activity 9: Adherence to the Score’ (pp. 148-151) was inspiring to set out the ‘given circumstances’ and ‘imagination’ forms. It proposes, for instance, listening and comparing different recordings (from different periods), investigating the composer’s life, answering six fundamental questions about the musical character of the piece: Who? When? Where? Why? For what reason? How? (p. 150), which are further discussed later, or more imaginative things, like collecting images of clothing style, paintings from the time period, and pictures of iconic architecture and buildings constructed in the time period (p. 151).

The ‘Activity 1: Developing a Positive Inner Monologue’ (pp. 128-131), which suggests that focusing on the dramatic images and words which are programmed into your interpretation of the piece instead of listening to the negative, random, or anxious thoughts (p. 129) helps dealing with performance anxiety, and the ‘Activity 10: Subtext’ (pp. 151-153), particularly the ‘instructions’ section, were also useful to draw the ‘imagination’ form. The latter’s purpose is to create and instill your musical subtext—a continuous series of mental images that accompany the piece of music to be performed. (p. 151)

At last, the ‘Activity 11: Emotional Connection’ (pp. 153-155) influenced the creation of the ‘emotions’ form. Johnson explains that the images and characters you create for your piece must be enlivened by memories of your own lived experiences (p. 153) We are instructed to recall the mental and physical sensations that surrounded that experience. Close your eyes and visualize yourself in the situation. Recall the sights, smells, and other physical sensations of this emotion memory. (…) Within your emotional recall, identify a visual image that represents that memory. (pp. 154, 155)

These particular ideas were incorporated in my form and complemented by the acting coach Gareth Sommers’ definition of the sensory receptors: sight, taste, touch, pressure, itch, thermoception, sound, smell, proprioception, tension sensors, pain, balance, stretch receptors, chemoreceptors (vomit reflex), thirst, hunger, time (Dr Gareth Somers: Acting Coach, 2021).

In the video on the right, Sommers summarizes Stanislavski approach to emotions and emotion memory.

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