Masters of the keyboard

Masters of the keyboard is an educational project for pianists and music lovers.
 
The aim of the project is to discover the context in which each pianist was trained, who his teachers were, and if it took place in a school, a music conservatory or a private school?
Therefore, step by step, starting with the pianist then the teachers of his teachers and so on, you go back up what we call his filiation.
Some are very famous because they bring together the greatest pianists, and it is no coincidence; we could take, for example, two of the greatest teachers of the 19th century, namely Franz Liszt and Theodor Leschetizky, both pupils of Carl Czerny:

Haydn> Beethoven> Czerny> Liszt or Leschetisky.
They find themselves carrying one of the most prestigious musical heritages, and their teaching will attract young talents from around the world in the second half of the 19th century.
 
Masters of the Keyboard also shows that these filiations go back centuries and are rooted in the organists of the Baroque era, and that even if the crafting of the instrument changes, it remains a keyboard: Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonatas are still played and taught today although they were composed on a baroque harpsichord.

The objective of the Masters of the Keyboard project is twofold. First, to take up the challenge of visualizing these filiations – a cartographic work – and this was the aim of the large map produced in Spring 2015 where you can visualize the filiations of more than 1 000 musicians.
But also to easily be able to zoom in, i.e. to individually check out each pianist, and that is where a numerical application is essential.

This application has been designed as a complimentary tool to the map. It refers to it and, thanks to a search engine, it allows you to find the position of a musician on the map and draw his filiation.

Finally it allows you to pause on a musician to see his teachers and his students and thus navigate locally from musician to musician.

Limitations:
• This application was designed for the iPad so has to have a surface large enough to display a reduction of the map.
• As the map, this application only includes pianists born before 1950. The idea is that you can link your teachers to these filiations.
• There are some exceptions to show different personalities among the younger generation.



Features offered by the application:
• Look up a musician by name (icon "search" on the left in the header) and then select it from the list displayed.
• The "pianist" page lists the teachers and pupils of the selected musician, displays a biographical excerpt and a link to Wikipedia to complete the reading.
• The "filiation" page displays the position of the musician on the map and allows you to draw his filiation. The circular tablets each correspond to a musician and are interactive: by clicking on them, you select the associated musician.

A history navigation bar related to each selected musician allows you to go back, and is displayed in the application footer.