This book changes everything
The Secret Life of Musical Notation – Why Every Pianist Should Read This Book
If you care about piano interpretation, there’s one book you simply cannot ignore: The Secret Life of Musical Notation by Roberto Poli. It’s one of the most eye-opening works I’ve read in years — a book that shakes the very foundation of how we’ve been taught to read scores.
For at least a century, most pianists have been interpreting symbols like hairpins, accents, and pedal markings in ways that stray from what composers of the 18th and 19th centuries actually intended. Poli shows, with convincing evidence, that these signs often carried very different meanings:
Long hairpins were not always crescendo–diminuendo, but often subtle timing shifts or phrasing guides.
Accents were rarely percussive; in Chopin and Schubert, they suggested vocal nuance or dance character.
Pedal markings — even when they look “impossible” on modern pianos — may have been intentional experiments with resonance and blur, far bolder than we usually allow ourselves to imagine.
This is not dry academic speculation. Poli is both a researcher and a performing pianist, and he connects scholarship directly with practical musicianship. His insights give performers new tools to play with freedom, imagination, and authenticity — while staying closer to what composers may actually have meant.
I recently made a YouTube video about the book, where I share some of the most fascinating examples. Even better, I sat down with Roberto Poli for a full in-depth interview, which you can watch for free on my Teachable platform.
If you’re serious about piano playing — whether student, teacher, or performer — this book will change the way you look at the score. Highly recommended: The Secret Life of Musical Notation.
