Thinking with the Hand: Marie Jaëll's Intersections between Physical Technique and Metaphysical Theology

The French composer‐pianist Marie Jaëll (1846–1925) wrote that a pianist should ‘think with the hand’ to allow for a ‘decentralization of thought’ (1904). Which techniques and thoughts, we might ask, could enable the cognitive process to be distributed across the brain and hands? I approach these questions through Jaëll's solo piano suite Eighteen Pieces after Reading Dante (1894), consisting of three sets of pieces depicting purgatory, hell and paradise and offering innovative piano techniques and spiritual concepts. I suggest that pianistic techniques in these pieces carry theological meanings. For instance, in the first set, What We Hear in Purgatory , the score contains circled notes that are to be played initially by the right hand and then immediately transferred to and sustained by the left hand. The second set, What We Hear in Paradise , has performance instructions that call for an almost mechanically steady tempo, as if evoking heaven's eternal atemporality. Through such case studies, my article argues that physical technique can resonate with metaphysical theology.