Who was Otto Ortmann?

[PaulNaud]

He published two books, " The Physical Basis of Piano touch and Tone (1925) and The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique (1929).
Ortmann's investigations were much more objective than those of his predecessors. He was a scientist.
In the first book he limited himself to the mechanics of the instrument; in the second, to the mechanics of muscular action with only occasional excursions into the psychological field.
Ortmann made many important observations that helped expose the fallability of some existing ideas in piano pedagogy. He said for example: "Electrical stimulation has shown that, muscularly and mechanically, the normal infant is ready to play a rapid five-finger sequence as is the trained adult; the difference is in the ability to tell the fingers in advance what to do; that is so to say, the difference is one of experience, of learning."

[PaulNaud]

Here are more informations:

Otto Ortmann was obsessed with finding the right manner in which to play the piano. That fact alone was nothing odd. He was a 1917 Peabody Conservatory graduate (artist's diploma in composition), a member of its faculty (in harmony and piano) from 1917 to 1928, and then conservatory director. What was distinctive was Ortmann's approach to the problem: He became a scientist of piano playing. He established a laboratory at Peabody and set out to study and measure every aspect of making music at the keyboard.

In 1929, he published Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique, "an experimental study of the nature of muscular action as used in piano playing, and of the effects thereof upon the piano key and the piano tone." In an introduction to the 1963 edition of the book, musicologist Arnold Schultz noted that Ortmann did not say how the piano ought to be played, but how it must be played given the laws of mechanics and the realities of physiology. Ortmann measured and examined and observed, and concluded that due to the way the human arm and hand are constructed, there were fundamental things that every player had to do to get music out of a piano. "The book was revolutionary, and like all great shifts in thought, wore a certain air of strangeness," Schultz wrote. "Ortmann approached the problems of piano technique as a music teacher looking for scientific facts."

You glimpse some of Ortmann's method when you thumb through his book's 375 dense pages. Ortmann explained principles of force and fulcrums, and examined the skeleton, wrist flexion, musculature, and the geometrics of movement. He analyzed tremolo, posture, and "arm-work." His book included comparative photos of human arms and ršntgenograms (a form of x-ray photography) of hands. He devised ways of measuring the "contractions of finger-extensions." One photo shows a machine that Ortmann invented to record on a rotating drum the vertical movements of a player's fingers. Expert pianists, in Baltimore for concerts, would come to Ortmann's lab and allow him to hook them up to his devices while they played.

In photographs, Ortmann is always sober-faced, in jacket and tie, clean-shaven, his straight dark hair parted on the left. A trio of sepia-toned prints from 1926 records him wearing a boater. A picture snapped eight years later shows him standing on large stone steps, ramrod-straight in posture, with trouser creases sharp enough to slice onions. In 1928, he became Peabody's director. He apparently was not all that attentive to his duties, preferring his laboratory to receptions with donors. The Peabody board of trustees relieved him of the post in 1942. His book has gone out of print. But Schultz in his 1963 introduction noted that at least one pianist conformed exactly to Ortmann's scientifically researched ideal: Vladimir Horowitz.

[arensky]

Schultz in his 1963 introduction noted that at least one pianist conformed exactly to Ortmann's scientifically researched ideal: Vladimir Horowitz.

And here is that individual with his comments on said volume... Dubal "Evenings with Horowitz"p.80....

"I couldn't read one paragraph! After reading it one could never play again. I's like the man who tried to analyze how to swallow, and choked." 

[arensky]

;

[pianohopper]

this makes me hungry for some spam.  i think i will go have sandwich.

[arensky]

this makes me hungry for some spam.  i think i will go have sandwich.

Or some moo goo gai pan?    Just don't analyze how you swallow! 

[m]

"I couldn't read one paragraph! After reading it one could never play again."

To be historically correct, Mr. Dubal could never play before reading it, either.

Added: Oh, I see. That was another individual...

[ahmedito]

You know, I get the feeling that you are a "wee bit" obsessed with finding some kind of magical physical formula that will suddenly allow you to play really well.

In my experience it all comes down to 2 things:

1. stay as relaxed as possible and learn to be aware of when your muscles are relaxed or tense, in other words, always find out what to do and the simplest way possible to do it musically speaking. For this you need a good teacher.

2. truly know the music. For this you need an even better teacher.

[Kassaa]

The name sounds like he had a big mustache.

[arensky]

To be historically correct, Mr. Dubal could never play before reading it, either.

He cannot play his way out of a paper bag....

Added: Oh, I see. That was another individual...

I was not clear. The quote from the book is Horowitz speaking.

[arensky]

I did not mean to disparage this topic, although I do agree with Horowitz' assesment of this tome. It is tantamount to trying to kill a gopher with a 105 mm. howitzer. The weighty book that's helped me is "Famous Pianists and their Technique" by Reginald R. Gerig, 1974, 560 pp. This book is an overview of the different technical approaches to the piano from the clavichord to Ortmann and Whiteside. In discussing the differences between the different approaches Mr. Gerig sheds light on the issues, and brings them to life IMO....

[PaulNaud]

Reginald Gerig's book is really one of the most complete overview related to the History of piano technique!!!