The Piano Touches Me
The Piano Touches Me
This chapter examines how Roland Barthes affirmed the radical difference between playing and discussing music yet wrote about his own piano playing. Barthes played the piano daily; he was also a “connoisseur,” an expert of musicology. But he wished to maintain a clear distinction between his writing and his playing. His writings initiate a shift in musicology toward an analysis of practice—a shift that is even more marked because he considered amateur practices. In Barthes's texts, the amateur's playing implements feelings and temporalities that elude the pejorative, or perhaps merely underestimating, definition of amateurism. Based on the idea of a shifting subjectivity, Barthes's theoretical intention comes close to being impossible. But he was careful not to construct a full philosophical aesthetics—even if he did develop a little philosophy of amateurism. This chapter considers how Barthes's movement toward theoretical generality develops through the personal description of his tastes, his sensitivity, indeed his sexuality, all of which are linked to the piano.
Keywords: piano, Roland Barthes, music, piano playing, musicology, amateurism, subjectivity, philosophy, theoretical generality, sexuality
Columbia Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
