Fulbright scholar follows her interest in piano evolution to Germany

Tina Davis pauses while practicing a Mozart sonata on a 1780s-era replica fortepiano built by Rod Regier in Freeport. (Courtesy: Tina Davis)
Practicing a Mozart sonata on a 1780s-era replica fortepiano built by Rod Regier of Freeport. (Tina Davis photo)

As a child in coastal Maine, Tina Davis dreamed about how far her musical talent might take her. Today, she’s playing antique pianos in the concert halls of Germany.

“I don’t come from the demographic of people who typically play Classical music,” Davis said. “My dad worked on the lobster docks in Deer Isle. I was able to come to USM and be given what I needed to do what I wanted to do.

The résumé that Davis built at the University of Southern Maine as both a student and instructor helped her secure a scholarship with the Fulbright Program. The U.S. State Department awards about 8,000 Fulbright scholarships each year. The program enables scholars to study abroad so they can acquire new skills to bring home.

Davis applied to study how the instrument that was first introduced in the early 18th century as the fortepiano evolved into the modern piano. The Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in the German city of Hanover offered just such a course. Davis arrived there last August eager to get started.

The classes were not for novices and assumed students already knew the basic history of keyboard instruments. For example, the pipe organ originated in ancient times, while the harpsichord was a medieval invention. Outwardly, the latter looks much like a piano. The main difference is the harpsichord’s internal mechanism that plucks at a bank of strings.

As part of her studies into the piano's evolution, Tina Davis played period-appropriate music on a Mozart-era fortepiano. (Courtesy: Tina Davis)
An original fortepiano from Mozart’s era. (Tina Davis photo)

The fortepiano’s great innovation was to change the point of contact. Using hammers to strike the strings allows for a greater range of volume than plucking. The notes are louder or softer depending on the amount of force applied to the keys. The instrument’s name even derives from the Italian words for loud (forte) and soft (piano).

More than 100 years would pass until a standard design emerged for the modern concert piano with its metal frame, 88 keys, and three pedals. The earliest fortepianos were made of wood and leather with fewer keys and as many as seven pedals. The notes didn’t carry as far. In place of power, they possessed an airier, more ethereal quality.

“On the modern piano, I need to support my fingers with a little bit of muscle,” Davis said. “On this early instrument, too much muscle will sort of backfire because it doesn’t need it, and you sort of choke the sound.”

Davis could see immediately why the fortepiano with its smaller-scale features was so popular with women. Owning one became a status symbol for a good hostess, along with the ability to play for her guests.

As the instrument grew to fit larger performance spaces, the changes tended to benefit men who could more easily reach the farthest keys. The result has been that men dominate international competitions, while women suffer more injuries by overextending themselves. In that respect, Davis was grateful to step backward in time.

Davis spent the last several weeks before the semester break playing the same Mozart sonata on a piano that was built around 1780. Mozart was still alive when the piano was new. The experience has given her a new perspective on his music.

Davis learned to be more improvisational in places where Mozart left his compositions open to interpretation. Such flourishes weren’t merely stylistic, they were essential. As a performer as well as a composer, Mozart would have known that he couldn’t depend on any two pianos of that time to be the same.

Tina Davis takes in the sights around Hanover, Germany, where she is studying the evolution of the piano. (Courtesy: Tina Davis)
Enjoying the sights of Hanover, Germany. (Tina Davis photo)

“In the modern interpretive tradition, you don’t really do that. It’s like, this is what he wrote, and you play it beautifully, and that’s nice,” Davis said. “In this (earlier) tradition, there’s this imperative to be expressive, like, personally expressive above all. That’s really fun and also challenging because I don’t necessarily hear it that way.”

The insights that Davis gained were different for each composer. She auditioned for her scholarship with Beethoven’s Waldstein sonata. It includes a long stretch of vigorously pumping the pedals of a modern piano to produce a ringing sound. On a piano from Beethoven’s time, the effect is more shimmery.

“I had learned how to fake it,” Davis said. “Now I have a better idea of what the sound you’re trying to make is, and how possible that is on his instrument.”

Davis’ fingertips have always been the gateway to her imagination. As a toddler, she loved any toy with buttons. She was four or five years old when she got her first keyboard from her grandmother, and lessons would follow by age six. Heading into her teens, she started to think of herself a serious pianist.

Her dreams came to sudden halt when she turned 19. Davis finished a rehearsal in so much pain that she couldn’t hold a pencil. The diagnosis was an overuse injury from her constant playing. She had no choice but to walk away from the piano, unsure if she’d ever play again.

Davis tried to find new interests to fill the void. She studied history and traveled, but she couldn’t shake her desire to make music. Davis was 25 and hadn’t played the piano for six years when she applied to study at USM’s School of Music.

Tina Davis tickles the ivories of a Steinway piano. (Courtesy: Tina Davis)
The width of a modern keyboard makes female pianists more prone to injury than men. (Tina Davis photo)

The application required an audition, and Davis played for Dr. Laura Kargul, director of keyboard studies. The pain was still too much to get through a full routine cleanly. But Kargul saw the talent behind the pain and cleared the way for Davis’ admission.

“When she first came to USM, I could immediately see she had the potential to become a rockstar of a pianist. What a talent,” Kargul said. “She had remarkable facility and control over the sound at the keyboard, as well as profound musical and interpretive insight.”

Kargul’s mentorship was life changing. She identified the flaw in Davis’ technique and taught her a new way to play without pain. All of Davis’ pent-up musical energy came flooding out. First, she completed a bachelor’s degree in Music, then added a master’s degree in Piano Performance.

A job teaching piano with USM’s artist faculty became available while Davis was still in the final stages of her master’s program. Kargul once again threw her support behind Davis. In the years that followed, Davis made good on Kargul’s high hopes for her teaching career.

“She’s a terrific resource for the students, especially when it comes to solving thorny technical problems, a rare skill in piano teaching,” Kargul said. “She’s also a great communicator and is extremely caring and supportive of the students — they love working with her.”

Laura Kargul instructs Tina Davis on her piano technique at Corthell Hall in 2016.
Laura Kargul shares her wisdom at a practice session with Tina Davis in 2016.

Davis took a break from teaching to be a student again through the Fulbright program. She got ready for her trip by using the Duolingo app to learn conversational German. She also wanted to familiarize herself with the fortepiano. For that, she turned to Rod Regier, a specialty piano maker in Freeport. He opened his workshop to her.

Davis quickly built a new support system in Germany. Her roommates gave her a sense of community. And she found a new mentor at the Hochschule in Dr. Zvi Meniker. He sees the piano through the lens of his background in harpsichord. His lessons feature prominently in the updates that Davis sends to her USM colleagues.

“The questions she is exploring are tremendous, and I can’t wait to hear what new questions she will set out to answer upon her arrival back in Maine,” said Dr. Kyle Nielsen, director of the Osher School of Music at USM.

Davis caught up with her friends in person on a holiday visit home during the winter break, but she’ll be back in Germany for the start of the spring semester. The term of her scholarship runs through June, and there’s still so much more she wants to learn.

The next names on Davis’ wish list of composers are Schubert and Schumann. She can’t wait to hear how their music will sound on contemporary instruments from the 1830s. After overcoming so many unwanted challenges, learning the fortepiano is the challenge that Davis wants.

“I feel like everything I knew is being exploded a little bit,” Davis said. “It’s like starting again.”