Expanding the Pianist’s Toolbox: Approaches to Arpeggiation, Pedalling, and Gesture

Óscar Caravaca González

doi:10.33871/vortex.2025.13.9839

Authors

Óscar Caravaca González Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2366-8917

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33871/vortex.2025.13.9839

Keywords:

Historical Performance Practices, Piano Performance, Arpeggiation, Pedalling Techniques, Body Language Coomunication

Abstract

This article examines less conventional approaches in piano performance and their potential to expand the performer’s creative space through techniques such as arpeggiation, rhythmic asynchrony, body language communication, and experimental pedalling—all drawn from historical performance practices. Using Schubert’s piano works as a foundation, the study integrates insights from historical treatises, the author’s critical commentary, and practical experimentation, with key findings illustrated through video demonstrations. In exploring alternatives to conventional music performance paradigms, the article articulates a historically informed perspective that foregrounds creative agency and encourages performers to develop their creative voices through expanded interpretive possibilities.

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Author Biography

Óscar Caravaca González, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Dr. Óscar Caravaca is a faculty member at the College of Arts, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. He holds a PhD and an Advanced Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Academy of Music, London, as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag (Netherlands) and a Bachelor’s degree from the Conservatorio Superior de Música de las Islas Baleares (Spain). As a performer and scholar, Dr. Caravaca’s expertise lies in the field of Artistic Research, with a focus on historical performance practices in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century keyboard music, musical topoi, genres and styles, rhetoric, models of expressive analysis for performers, and narrativity in music.

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Videos

VIDEO 1. [s.l.: s.n.], [2022]. 1 video (1:20). Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BjdxlyKD3xed0vgO7s5JI3saQmcor7Qn/view?usp=sharing. Accessed on: Apr. 5, 2025.

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