New Perspectives in Piano Pedagogy

This study examines Dragos Tanasescu’s fingering system and technical exercises presented in Treatise of Pianistic Technique. The Treatise contains four books, each one dedicated to a segment of technical problems. Tanasescu’s main contribution to the piano technique is the application of math permutation formulas to create all possible arrangements of fingering patterns. His treatise continues previous technical approaches of A. Kullak, F. Liszt, J. Pischna, A. Cortot, E. Dohnanyi. Earlier methods organize the technical material by one principle: fingerings. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the characteristics of Tanasescu’s fingering system presented in Treatise of Pianistic Technique, and provide insights from a historical and technical perspective.