Gendering the [piano] performing body

Abstract

The piano crossed various career paths of the Portuguese composer Constança Capdeville (1937–92): as a young music student, piano playing and composition were her main subjects at the National Conservatory in Lisbon, and some of her early works featured the piano as a solo instrument. As her compositional style shifted towards more experimental perspectives, and as she became, from the 1970s until her death, an icon of the Portuguese avant-garde, her approach to the piano also changed. Thus, analysing how the piano is used in her solo, chamber and ensemble works provides significant information about her development as a composer, as well as concerning her creative processes involving multimedia, and dramatic contents and methods. This essay pursues a specific perspective regarding the piano in Capdeville’s artistic output, through analysing her musical texts, composition methods, staging instructions and related contextual contents, in order to propose a gendered outlook associated with this instrument.