title: The left and right hands of the eighteenth-century British musical prodigies, William Crotch and Samuel Wesley.
abstract: The musical prodigy William Crotch (1775-1847) used his left hand for many activities including the playing of stringed instruments, drawing and painting. Information on Crotch's handedness is available in both his own writings and watercolours, and in various portraits. This paper will use Crotch and his handedness to help illuminate how left-handedness was viewed at the end of the eighteenth century, and will also consider the handedness of another near-contemporary musical prodigy, Samuel Wesley (1766-1837). In reflecting on Crotch and Wesley, it is necessary to take account of the Enlightenment background in which they were raised, and the prevalent theories about both education and genius in general, and handedness specifically. A further aspect of great interest is that stringed instruments such as the violin, viola and cello are inherently asymmetric, with one hand bowing and the other fingering strings which are themselves arranged asymmetrically. Crotch himself, described from infancy as "self-taught", raises a number of issues about the "natural" or ergonomically "optimal" way of organising instruments, in particular the cello.
authors.affiliation: Royal Academy of Music, London, UK. j.snowman@ram.ac.uk
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Snowman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001363:Awards and Prizes; D001878:Books, Illustrated / Q000266:history; D002672:Child, Gifted / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000266:history*; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*