Die Ästhetik des Klavierspiels - Kullak, Adolf 1823-1862; Niemann, Walter 1876-1953 (Leipzig Kahnt, 1920)
Thinking and researching - studying the work in all its atoms - tracing all elements of beauty back to conscious scientific knowledge - this is the task. (Adolph Kullak)Adolph Kullak's Aesthetics of Piano Playing is the most important work on piano playing and piano pedagogy that was written in the second half of the 19th century. The book saw eleven editions well into the 1920s.The second edition was already an adaptation of the original script from 1860 by Hans Bischoff. Bischoff placed more emphasis on teaching and play practice, while Kullak discussed abstract philosophical questions to a far greater extent.The Aesthetics of Piano Playing is the first instrumental pedagogical book to present the art of piano playing as reproductive art - and as one would say today - as the art of interpretation.
Keywords: Piano; Esthetics; Music education