Journal of Piano Research
© The Author(s) 2026
https://doi.org/10.70760/OSSI9663
journalofpianoresearch.org
Zachary Deak
Diehn School of Music. Old Dominion University
Abstract
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Pianistic memorization has long been treated as an expectation, a marker of virtuosity, or a source of performance anxiety, yet its deeper cultural and symbolic meanings remain largely unexamined. This article reframes memorized performance through the lens of religious and devotional memory practices, drawing on scholarship in cultural memory, cognitive psychology, and nineteenth-century performance history. Across Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, and Jewish traditions, memorization functions not merely as retention but as a transformative, embodied discipline through which texts are internalized, enacted, and carried forward in communal identity. Placing pianistic memory in dialogue with these traditions illuminates how learning music by heart involves similar processes of internalization, embodiment, and meaning-making. Historical analysis traces how memorization became entrenched in nineteenth-century concert culture, while cognitive research highlights the layered systems of analytical, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic memory through which pianists build secure performance. Integrating these perspectives reveals that memorized performance is not simply a technical requirement but a form of cultural participation with implications for canon formation, pedagogy, and performer identity. Considered alongside religious traditions, pianistic memorization emerges not as an outdated convention but as a culturally meaningful discipline that shapes interpretation, repertoire, and artistic identity. This reframing encourages a broader understanding of what it means to internalize a musical work and situates pianistic memory within a much older human lineage of devotional and embodied memorization.
Keywords
cultural memory, embodied performance, music pedagogy, pianistic memorization, religious memorization
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