When Elizaveta Zabelina 鈥24 works on the replica of a ca. 1800 Johann Schantz piano that鈥檚 part of the instrument collection at the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards, she can鈥檛 help feeling a bit philosophical.
鈥淏ecause of the distinction of materials and work, which was one of a kind in historical instruments, each instrument has its own spirit and character and tells us something new,鈥 said Zabelina, who is spending the summer helping to photograph and regulate the 17 historical pianos, harpsichords and clavichords in the collection for an expanded website to be hosted by the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频.
鈥淏oth the act of performing and doing technical work inside the mechanism involve a developing relationship between the human and the instrument,鈥 Zabelina said. 鈥淚鈥檓 observing and participating in the relationship between material and immaterial.鈥
Zabelina鈥檚 project demonstrates how instruments, performance and research intersect at the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards. Closely allied with the Cornell-based , the leading international organization for historical keyboard studies, the center brings together scholars and musicians from across the globe for its programs on the long history of keyboard music and instruments, technologies, repertoires and aesthetics 鈥 from the baroque organ to the player piano to the Moog synthesizer.
鈥淚 think it has become increasingly apparent to modern performers that one cannot reach a holistic understanding of music from past centuries without engaging with the diversity of instruments that contributed to their creation,鈥 said , Ph.D. 鈥15, artist/scholar-in-residence with the Department of Music, who is leading the project.
These older pianos, which are so diverse in terms of materials, size and mechanics, create the opportunity for so many varied experiences of touch and sound based on the piano鈥檚 designer and builder, the music鈥檚 composer and the pianist, among other factors.
And the wonderful thing about Cornell鈥檚 collection, Lee said, is that it鈥檚 a working collection that is available to all students and faculty for performance and exploration from any intellectual angle. Students take lessons on the keyboards, which live at 726 University Ave. and in Lincoln and Barnes halls; they鈥檙e also frequently featured by faculty and guest artists and can be moved for concerts.
Lee hopes they become even more widely used, offering open hours when the public could come and experience them and opportunities for musicians from outside Cornell to perform and conduct research.
Instruments in Cornell鈥檚 collection encompass both originals and replicas, and are not limited to pianos. Highlights include the Baroque organ in Anabel Taylor Chapel, modeled after the Charlottenburg organ built by Arp Schnitger in Berlin in the early 18th century; original Graf, Broadwood and Pleyel pianos; early 20th-century Steinway, Bl眉thner, Bechstein and Mason & Hamlin pianos; and extending to the Moog synthesizer. The collection is also the permanent home of the personal fortepianos of music professor emeritus Malcolm Bilson.
This past year鈥檚 series of performances, conversations and talks, 鈥淏eethoven Off the Beaten Track鈥 .
Zabelina, who is an international student from Russia, relates her work on the pianos to her various interests. As with many of her classes, Zabelina said, working with the collection has helped her to understand the interplay between so many disciplines of both the arts and the sciences. Although she has yet to declare a major, she鈥檚 considering physics and philosophy, but also wants to continue her piano lessons with Lee.
鈥淚鈥檓 inclined to think of causal relations,鈥 Zabelina said, adding that the keyboard work leads her to explore the physics of harmonic series, mathematical underpinnings of modern tuning and how mechanisms materially influence sound. Zabelina鈥檚 work is supported by a Summer Experience Grant from A&S, which helps pay living and travel expenses for students who have unpaid or minimally paid career experiences.
, the Given Foundation Professor in the Humanities, university organist and executive director of the Westfield Center, is thrilled to have Zabelina on board this summer.
鈥淗istorical keyboard instruments are objects of great beauty and extraordinary technological sophistication. They embody the meeting of art and science, and it is fantastic to have Liza here this summer to help us explore those intersections,鈥 she said. 鈥淲ith the intellectual discipline and curiosity of the physicist, alongside the creative eye of the photographer and the sensitive ear of the musician, Liza鈥檚 work here is already showing what hands-on exploration, artistic imagination and rigorous intellectual inquiry can achieve together.鈥
Zabelina鈥檚 work will eventually be available on a new website for the historical keyboards collection.
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