Otto Rudolph Ortmann (1889-1979) was an American pianist, music researcher and educator, and author of the groundbreaking ''Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique''. He graduated from the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869), ...

in 1917, where he remained as a member of its faculty, establishing a research lab there, and going on to serve as conservatory director from 1928 to 1942. His career was marked by a focus on the scientific exploration of the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

arts. Published in 1929, ''The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique: An Experimental Study of the Nature of Muscular Action as Used in Piano Playing, and of the Effects Thereof Upon the Piano Key and the Piano Tone'', applied the laws of

mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects r ...

and

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

to the study of piano performance.

References

American pianists Peabody Institute faculty American male pianists Goucher College faculty and staff {{US-pianist-stub