Is there such a thing as the ideal technique? The past and present of musical performance constantly provide evidence that, among the multiple different ways available of using our body, plenty might prove equally efficient and musically convincing. Among all the possible options, however, one merits special attention: the technique employed by composers themselves while creating their works.

In this book, Italian-born pianist and scholar LUCA CHIANTORE sets out to examine the transformations undergone by piano technique, and how this overall history relates to the performative customs of those pianist-composers whose works we today consider the core repertoire of so-called Western classical music. The author illustrates the diversity of their bodily approaches to the keyboard, exploring their respective biomechanical inquiries amidst increasing hand and arm involvement in piano playing and the emergence of often contrasting pedagogical theories.

The result of intense, rigorous research. Tone Moves contains an impressive amount of documentation, including a vast number of theoretical works which had never before been studied thoroughly. Through all this, the author narrates a "history" that uncovers crucial parallels with the past three century's aesthetic revolutions. Chiantore spins a tale of widespread, lasting changes, a searching narrative brimming with strong personalities often steering in opposite directions, all in all an avowal of the stunning diversity of options available when expressing ourselves through an instrument.