An Early Oscillator Model: Studieson the Biodynamics of the Piano Strike (Bernstein & Popova, 1930)

In the following paper, published in 1930, Bernstein and Popova report an impressive study (even by modern standards) of a complex motor behavior: movements performed by concert pianists, specifically series of octave strikes made with one hand. As so pungently discussed in their introduction, Bernstein and Popova were trying to rectify the situation at the time, a situation in which "most studies in the area of piano methodology originate either from physiologists who are dilettantes in music or from musicians who know nothing about physiology" (present paper, p.5). According to many of the contemporary pedagogues, such octave strikes are produced by letting the hand fall passively onto the targeted keys, using the weight of the arm from the highest point attained in transit-the so-called "weight" technique. This "weight" idea had only intuitive and virtually no scientific support. Given the to-be-rectified situation, it must have seemed to Bernstein and Popova that they could actually submit this particular idea about piano methodology to experimental tests.