HEINRICH NEUHAUS ) The Art of Piano Playing ‘Teanlated by KA. LEIBOVITCH PRAEGER PUBLISHERS New York ‘Washington‘This book is dedicated to my dear colleagues, the teachers and the pupils who are studying “the art of piano playing” BOOKS THAT MATTER Publ in he United State of Ame in 1973 Gy ite bisher Ioes 11 Fourth Nemes 4 New var NV tows gli eatin @ 1973 by Bari & Jenkin Ti A ihn opt ofthis pubeaton many be reproduced toed TRREMGM Sdn or ensmlae ip'any frm or by Shy sen sete, mecanin phono, recording Src ita pour pectnion 8 he Cpt ‘ Mase examples urbe: 2 52 5 2.85 8 7100 t SPekinclnge Hana Geigy Cologne ityar of Congres Catalog Card Numer: 72-9438 Printed in Geet BritainContents Inbtion & Poet the Sond Bion # { Ia Lia of Pf 1 courven 1 The Anite Image of TSE Ecapsim 7 curren nA Word or Two about Rhytin 90 caurren nt On Tone o curren ty On Technine & (2) Genta Considerations & i Seas reason fy (3) On Freedom 3 ; (Blanco ao Teeaique ste $n Figeing {3 thepatar Coueren v Teacher and Pupil ‘eugeren vt Concert Activity cxarsax vt Ta Concution a6 Index oIntroduction Heinrich Neuhaus was born in 1888 in Blzavetgrad (now Kirovograd) into funy of musicians. Both his father and mother were piano teachers. The father, Gustav Neuhaus, born in 18g in the Rhineland, had studied under Ferdinand Hiller ‘who, in tura, as a young man had known Beethoven. His ‘Bingted pianist,condvctorand teacher, st in Petersburg, Shier in Moss Horowie was one of his most famous me elated 10 manowghtwho became a lieiong friend. is parents could rarely spare the me to teach their son, Heinrich Neuhaus was, strictly speaking, selbcaught, pling the pianosnd improvising passionately since early child> Food, The main formative influence on his musical development ‘ne fom Felix Bamenfed, om his rare visits tohissistr’s home. ‘ieinsich Neuhaus made his frst public appearance at the age ofeleven, playing some Chopin Waltzes and an Impromptu, Tn tgoa he accompanied Misha Elman in a recital in Hlizavet- igrad, His int solo reital took place in Germany in roo and from then he gave several coer in Germany and Italy while dying under Gedowsky, frst in Berlin and then in Vienna, ftom where he returned Rusia atthe outbreak ofthe First World War. Tn 1928 he bogan teaching a the Moscow Conservatoire and ele to tenga the nous Mosaic Soa open from 1990197 iret of te Moxcow Conservatoire «port be relinquished so a8 to be able to devote himself entirely to teaching, forthe tale of which he had already sacrificed most of his career asa concert pianist.2 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING Amongst his pupils were Radu Lupu, Emil Gills and Svintolay Richter who called him an art of unique genius, a treat teacher and fiend. Seldom have artistic gifts been 0 lovely matched by the qualides of sels devotion, deep Ihumanity, true culture and a great capacity for bestowing and. ‘winning fiends, He died on roth October 1964. This book beats witnes to his achievement 8 man, musician and teacher Preface to the Second Edition wrote my book a litle ata time, in between my work (my ‘work beng teaching and concert playing) and before sending it Dif the publisher I condeneed what Ihad writtenso thoroughly {hat aot more than hall ay original manuscript reached the printer But ow Ido not fel the energy to rewrite or add tomy Books ett come ont in dhe “unpolished” state in which i fist appeared. "Re the eginning T did not give much thought to the publica: tion of my notes, It was rather an unconstrained conversion ‘with acquaintances and pupils; hence dhe discrepancy between the syle of my book and what is usually expected from a work ‘on methodology. But then Tam not a theoretician and never ‘hal be, ‘Several persons considered that should not have made such frequent wl of foreign words and expresions. They are probably ant All of this could have een sid in Rusian, The aul es [the eonversatonal style of thee pages, for T ave since my thildhood known several languages aad been accustomed to ue Certain express in one particular language; and in writing ths book f put down my thoughts just as they came to me, ‘On page 124 1 have definitely made a mistatement(begin- ning with the words “A few words more about octaves”). Hesemay Ibe forgiven! I simply prevaicated and T confiss fe eely. 1 prevaricated in the sense in which one poet uses the ‘word, taking ito mean not an untruth, but rather asuperfuous ‘Rion to truth, Lean only explain this regreable incident by ‘hc fuct that T suffered so much fom “sympathetic” fingers (the tniddte fingers which catch on the keys between the thumb and ‘th finger when playing an octave) that T exaggerated the meaning of the “hoop” and in spite of my own practice, Tat ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING niscprescnted the postion ofthe wrist which shouldbe slighty Tuieds This how all pianists play, including myself, My revaication’” was duc to a desire to avoid the cacophony ‘Chased by the midale fingers, but I overdid it and the result was fale statement. I beg the reader to take this correction into ‘One of the faults of my book isthe insufficient number of examples and ofthe considerations and advice that they would fave called forth This particularly true ofthe chapters on fhythm, tone, and even technique T could have given hundreds GPecamples dat could have been useful to learners. But the ‘adder has doubtless noted that T tried rather to prompt him {think further and independently and felt that this small book ‘Should and could only guide the reader’ thinking “Another faule of my book ie that I have not indicated by fa dgle word my attitude towards moder music, with the Seton oftome earsory references to Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Seyetanowkl and a few others. In our rapidly changing times Br vey difieatt to come to aay final concusions—even for SnexlE that do not claim to be of general significance. My Sun pereption of certain phenomena and my opinions of tem Gre Ghen ‘contradictory. For instance, che phenomenon of ‘odecaphiony and serial musi often seems to me to resemble in {eben penciples a complicated and interesting game of ‘Patence. Por some moments this music can give me a certain Particular kin of pleasure, but only fora few moments (for Eatanee in Webers). Thinking of the weaker adepts of this ‘tend T cannot help feeling that for them this is means of {venting music (or ather something similar to music) although they haven talent nor even a musical ear Thanks fo generous Delgous, propaganda and advertisements, they achieve certain Pending in the world which they would not have achieved ‘eherwis. But the question of dodecaphony is closely related to Shany general problems of twenteth-centary music it is very Comyleated and fo be quite honest still not quite clear to me, ‘Nova few more words about Use way this book was writen. {Tevote it for about three weeks a yeas! Usually when T was on holiday In winter when Tovas submerged by my teaching work nd in addition gave recitals which I had to prepare, I had titer dhe time nor the inclination to put down on paper my PREFACE i views on the art ofthe piano, particularly since I spoke about it Pires anm or other all day and every day in class, Now the Je Neton has changed. ‘The trouble with my hand the result of sett pulyneuriti is becoming increasingly serious adits pow Rea bar’ ance [have had to stop playing altogether. Even at ome: for myoch, Ino longer play; Tam too distresed by my Felples Hand and afterall one ean read music with one's eyes, ecen to the radio or to records, To be quite honest T think that even teaching is now inadvisable for me and T am thinking ding very soon, To work with pianist only a conductor, sete te demomrate my intention and advice by showing hae T mean on the piano, as I used to before, is really 00 Tpetaag and canst nether me, nor (probably) sy papi Be havi said good-bye to the piano (but not, of cour, 1 pee) and paryalo to teaching, donot feel very inclined 0 ee abou its Hu my book T tied most of all (as in all my Whang work) to awaken a love of music. I do not know bow Ae Tink aucceeded, but sill I decided not to add anyshing ‘ae antl to my book and to allow the second edition ‘0 same dhe same “unpolished” sate a the original, merely sepeet ing 2 few mistakes, So much has been written on this ‘SEhjet that one book more or lest docs not really matter. ‘PSGlal ead with a aightly amended version of the Latin sayings (No) fc quod pts, frian ale poets (i (008 do) Matt could let those who can do beter). Met yay am preparing anew book aad ope that t wil be more “polished” than this ope. sn, eEUHAUS 1 Henrich Neuhaus died on roth October 19 before being abe to cary ou thi iter,In Lieu of a Preface ‘To begin with—s few simple statements which T shall develop later, TT 'Hefore beginning to learn an instrument, the learner, whether a child) adolesent or adult, should. already be ‘pital in posesion of eome music; He shoul, so to speaks his rind, keep i in his heart and lear it with is finer, The ele meet of en at air the cate of person sled, msi Hives ful fein is brain ‘elore ie even to cyboard or draws a bow across the [aings Taner why Mozart ar inal child could “at once” play the piano and the violin 2 Pecy peeformance—the problems of performance willbe the main subject of thee pages—conssts of three fundamental Hlement: the work performed (dhe mosic), the performer and {he istrument, Only a complete mastery f these three elements {had fist of al, che music) can ensure a good artiste perform= ite. Thesimplest example ofthe"triple” nature of performance Ji the performance of piano composition by aso pianist (oF & Sonate for violin solo, or ello slo, et.). These simple things Rane to be said because in actual teaching there ae very foquent cases where emphasis i channelled in some particular ‘neeion asa ent of which one of the three elements is bound Daler; but specially (and this saddest of al) one secs that he conten, be, the muse Ruel (what we call, “the artistic mage”) sr not given its due, attention being focused mainly on the techaical mastery of dhe instrument. Another error {ch less Fesquent among instrumentalists—conssts of under- ‘aimating the difficulty of completely mastering an instrument2 "THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING inorder eve the case of msc thi sla nvitbly edo inmperecr playing fom the “mueal” peat of ew, paying tated by amar, {A fow words about technique, The clearer the goal (ihe content, muse, pefeeton of performance), the clearer the ‘nea f ating ie This an ano al dos not reais [rol Isl have cecaon to ster to it moe than once The oat” determines the "how" alubough in the long ran the “how” determines the “what (his Ba dale fw). My reo of eaching, rie, cont of evan tha the Pager Soul as early a8 posible (afer a preliminaty acquaintance with the comport and mastering i if nly roughly) arp ‘hat we call ihe atic image", tat he content, eating, the poste mie, Te Sates ofthe my and beable © cd ad death SST MST (esung fe ‘planing it what seis he i dealing vith Acar under Standing eth goal enables the player fo uxfor toaialn ‘Land ernbady fin his performsncr; and that at “ech sigue! Eeeboek = cei tee page there wil be roquntrefrence to the “content, a2 hirtehcally the mod important principle of pertrmasce, and since { bree thet he word “Content” (or "frac image” or “poctic sens” ec) can with frequent ie inate the young plana, 1 imaged poate prot on his Part: "Content, erring content! But tT can manage to wel all the double thirds, sath and octaves and ether feted dificil in the Paganini Brahm Variation without fengring abou the muse, then I hal Have eontent, but ST fpltsh or play wrong nots there wen't be any ‘conte bite, gt! Golden words! One wae whet said about swe "pee a style ato perfect ideas, Anyone who doe Tita once ages wth tis pst salvation” This the tro ging ey pp ta vend te” ogre and that yrs ‘Bea at Ay improvement afechnguc ban improveneat Star foal and conseuenty helps to reveal te “one he Hidden meanings in oder words isthe material, the real body sein ge nba ples mi dept nt *Sicutiefea IN LIEU OF A PREFACE 2 of art, The touble i that many who play the piano take the word “technique” to mean only velocity, cvenne, bravur {ometimes mesning "Bashing nd ashing’ in oer Words feparate ements of technique and not teigu ar owl sit twas undemtood by the Grcks and ag any art understands i ‘Technique = rexre is something infinitely more complex and dificult: Such qualities as velocity, preesion and even faules reading ofthe notes do notin themselves ensure an artic Performance which & achieved only by real, thorough and Fnaplred work. That is why with very ied people iti 0 Alfie to draw a disGnetion between work at technique and ‘work at nu oven they happen to repeat the same passage a Inunded times) Teall one. The ancient ruth epetiion isthe mother of tuition, is a law for the weakest af well as the strongest talents; in this sense they are-on an equal foting {although the rents oftheir work wil ofcourse, be diferent), Te is well known that Lisst would sometimes repeat a part Cuan deal bie over a hundred times When Svatoay Richter played me Prokofie’s Ninth Sonata (dedicated t him) for the fet time, I could not help noticing that one very dificil, polyphonic and very ively it (in the third movement, Some ten bats, not more) came off parculaly wel. He sid ine: “E it . ‘This the right method forgive splendid eels, The pant ‘wor aatang dhe best peasble rev, without putting it off {il some later occasion, Once, in talking with a pupil, «gil who worked rather languily and wasted lot of ie, T used the following metaphor from daly if: suppose you want to bol ‘ket of ater. You have to put the ketion the stove and not fake it off until it boil, But you bring the water up to a temperature af about 4o" or 50°, then turn of the fame, do something ce, then you remember the ketle—the water having ‘cooled in the meanvhile—you begin all over again and 30 08 Several times until you are 0 fed up with the whole ching hat ‘you wait the time required forthe ketde to bole In this way, Sou lore lot of time and lower eosderably your “working Say “Mastery ofthe art of working, of learning compesitions— which tone of the reliable erteria of pianats maturity—is characterized by an unwavering determination apd an ability4 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING ‘ot to waste time, The greater the pat played inthis proces by > ‘wlipower (ging straight to the gol) and concentration, the Detter the rele, The greater the pasivity and inertia the greater the tine needed for learning a composition, while {terest init inevitably fags, All this is well known, but to repeat itis not urles, (On technique se Chapter IV aswell as ‘many other pages in this book, We did agree that regres art.) “t In order to epeak and to be entitled w be heard it is ‘xential not only to know how to speak, but fist of all to have Something to say. Ie is as simple ax twice two makes four, yet itis fot dificnlt go show that hundreds and even thousands are ‘constantly guilty of breaking this role, "Aacholat* once said that in Greece everyone cull speak well, and that in France everyone can write well, Yet the truly great Greek orators and French writer can be counted on ones fingers and in this case they are the ones we are interested in. ‘Anton Rubinstein uted toy (not without a certain wistulnes) that in our day “everyone” can play well, Well, why not It is bby no means a bad thing tis beter tha “everyone” should be able to play well than to play badly. But Rubiasten's words ‘with their wisfol expt, have by no means lost thet Thave since my youth had a feling which persists to this day: everytime I come in contact with a very great man, whether trrter, poet, musician or painter Toitoyor Pushin, Beethoven ‘of Mictlangel, Tam convinced that fr me the most important thing is that thi man ie great, that through bis art Tee a man fof tremendous stature and that t some extent (in a way of speaking) its immaterial to me whether he expresses himself in rose or poetry in marble or sound. When I was aboat fifteen T ‘yas sorry that Beethoven bad not tured is music into plilosophy for I thought such philosophy would be better than that of Kant or Hegel mote profound, more right, more human, [- T should like ¢o tell here about one of my childish whims, which coincided in time with the thoughts Ihave just described Niewsche, 3, ced haf say tha atthe time I knew very Hide about Kant sand specially aboot Vga, whereas my bnowlege of Beethoven was ‘aly oe. IN LIEU OF A PREFACE 5 (orhen T was about fiften), Thinking about art and science, bout their matwal relationship and contradictions, Teame to the conclusion, for some reson of other, that mathematics and Imusic are situated at the extreme poles ofthe human spirit, chat these two antpades limit and determine che whole spiritual and Creative activity of man and that situated between them is ‘verything that mankind has created in the fel of seience and fart I waso cariod away by that thought that I began t write ferent” om the subject. I mention these childish thoughts because (I crave the reader's indulgence) it seems to me even ow that mathematics and music are two poles of the human Spire and perhapa,sémy lf had been diferent, I would have Coutinued fo reflect and wonder on the subject. In pie ofthe fact tha this is merely a childish fancy, theres 4 particle of truth in i and T only mentioned it beease now, ‘with my tremendous teaching experience, I know too well how ‘often even talented pupil, able to cope with their task, fil to realize with what tremendous manifestation ofthe human spirit they are dealing. Obviously this does not make for an artistic ‘performance; inthe bert of cases they stagnate at the level of| [good workmanship. T hope that in secing such words a “great, “of tremendous stature the reader wil not sagpect me of being a follower of CGasige {On Heres, Here-Warsip andthe Herein Fst). The ol theory of the hero and the ered ded, lang with may past {lusions We know too well thatthe so-p arousing boredom in every true pianist and musician, All artistic methodology should be interesting and educational both for the teacher and the pupil, forthe beginner and the sccompliahed performer, otherwise it ean hardly be justified. For the sake of convenience, I agree temporarily to ignore my ‘doubts concerning the appropriateness ofthe expresion “work on the artiste image” and accept tits face value. Then et us Season 2 work on the atte image begin a 20 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING in lsh”, that the image conjured up by imagination, emotion, Jiner hearing and aesthetc and intellectual understanding becomes a performance, T'do not mean by thie that work on & ‘composition does not add anything to one’s intial perception land intent; Far from it.The relationship between these to ‘vents the same as between a law and fs implementation ot between willing and carrying out, I only want to aay that if there is no “law”, no “il, there is p20 imple- ‘mentation. This isthe erus, the nerve centre which the teacher, side and edueationist must try to influence; obviously, if the Seal at sa he mene ea gee " fepsbe tat ch comaclor, 2 Sales, Sortie GPR scan carey aa rea aad sin a Fiendly newt “The concen Be daa om ll hse emieratons i ‘obvious: “work on the artistic image” ean be succesfl only iit {s the result of the pupi's continuous development musically, intellectually and artistically and consequent also pianistcally; ‘without this there ean be no “implementation”, no “embod ‘ment. And that means developing his ear, giving him a broad knowledge of musical Hterature, making him live with one comporer fora long time at a stretch, until he has thoroughly ‘assimilated him (the pupil who knows five Beethoven sonata is not the same man af the one who knows twenty-five sonata hhere quantity. tums into quality); ie me memorize music by reading the score ching the, a, im oFder to develop his imagination and his ear; teaching Hiro cmaoede-datngash the orm the thems t miaiood dit form, the thematic H qj CoapAOT RE Jeg (ay neering ies at fed pupil, nine oF ten years old, can play a Mozart or Beethoven sonata wel, he hould be able to tly in wordy a great deal that ssubstantive about what goes on in that sonata from the point of view of murieal and theoretical analysis). Tt means using every means to arouse (Wf necessary, ie i this ‘ality not inherent tothe pupil his profesional ambition: the best; developing his imagination by the we of apt metaphor, poetic similes, by analogy with natural pheno- ‘mena or events in life particulary spiritual, emotional ie. Te ‘means supplementing and interpreting musial language (but Al ds) a ANALYS S itow be Study ? ARTsTIG HAGE OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION 2: ‘without, God forbid, fling into banal “Illustrations”; using very means to develop in him a love of other forms of ar pparucularly poetry, patting and architecture, and, most Fenportat of all—maling hin feel (and the earlier the better) the ethical dignity of the arts, his obligation, is respons Dilies and his ight, iaving ead this chapter ofr, the reader might perhaps ask: “Wel, he has't said anything specie about working on the Sage afterall”, My reply is "Come to miy clay sit with us a ‘month or two and you wil get such a helping of the specie? ‘hat wil last you along time. Ta order to give these notes the desired specie quality, Ishould supplement them with number- Jess musical exampley detailed dexcriptions of the work done ‘with the pupil or pupil on any pardcular composition (or ometimes il for one and a alo two hous ‘yera cngl page of ore fy appeas at the begining ‘of my Work With = PUP, Dit then this chapter would grow to the sae of a thick volume. T cannot quote here even small portion ofthe advice I give a pupil or learning and mastering a Compositions such advice naturally comes before the artistic image. But I will mention two or three things T tll my pups. suggest tothe pupil that he should study a piano compost tion, ier the note at a conductor studio a score, that fy not coaly ara whale (this should be dane firs of al otherwise there io cmp ie ft cmpastion oem mage) abo in deta, tl compeniion apart o-scr is ‘omponeit ements, the harmonic stactire, the polyphonic Structure; king separately the main eentett—for insane, econiary™elements—for instance, the ‘accompaniment; to dwell particularly on the decisive “tarings” of compodiiot—such as (in the case of sonata) the tana- tion to the second subject or to the recapitulation or coda, fn other words onthe main landnarks of the formal structure, et. ‘Working inthis wa, the pupil discovers amazing things there stands revealed to him a beauty not recognized at fine but ‘hich abounds inthe works of great composers. Moreover, he Degins to understand that composition that i beautiful as a sent in every det hat ach ich etal a & fense, a ogi, an expresivenes, ‘whole T recommend that much more elt hourat. a i frnens 2 wpe ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING to sch work than tothe wml pacing of the let and ight ands separately, which Tad in certain special eases (i ecosry ust os “emergency exif a building ae necemary inca offireor some other trouble} Tf compost has been Ikamed, mastered, memorize, in fact ian pupil cll i “coma off whats the parcular wok which remain Co be done to ge the peformance a truest value? What nt te done to male the perbrnance emotionaly moving, ttreng, to make i reach the hearer? (Cwoud semi the fender the tid or our tine tat soce people ean achive {his immediatly, while others have to work hard to achieve ft trihin the imi Ue aii) Thaow the answer vil bei i 7) ae ae 1a a Pace ie te ee cims ohana eae eetmee pee basse a ao a a etna oa spate tene septa a ree grat men oe a a re re Ta ee econo ee oe gee mn oe eee ee ees oe ee es ora hieig ead a St ine ek ey ‘eis falings mane ingens, his longings more acuteand. give FE ae ching which sew isl such an objective ceases to be mere teaching and becomes felueaton, Yet iti not always the kind of teaching one finds ven among outstanding teachers. Amazing and inimitable as ‘vas Godowky, yet with ome pupils (particularly private pupils Twho paid in inverse ratio to their talent) he worked in a + Of coun, there are pops whom I strongly urge to practe cect gpatey- an Perey ex thre be web ‘aly in addin to the Work Ihave described above. ARTISTIC IMAGE OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION 23 completely formal, not to say, formalist manner. Frequently jn the course of such a leson Godowsky only verote a few dynam and tempo indications on the musi, of indicated the fingering in a couple of cases, made a few comments that resembled prescriptions and set the work tobe done fr the next time, AIL this in a dispassionate, cold, businealike manner. ‘There was no attempt t see deeper into the heart and mind of the pupil, to alter him, to shake his tedious guts to set before him some dificult emotional or auseal problem none of thi He showed neither joy, nor gre neither anger nor approval: only at times when & pupil's playing was rally too uninteresting for uninteligent, he would lt fll asareasc remark or make Joke not devoid of venom. But his prestige and authority were ‘uch thatthe pupils accepted even such a lesson as something Significant and precious "He was great today!” exclaimed & Aelighted American after Godowsky had indicated the fingering fn two notes and scen him tothe door with a pleasant joculat remark, ‘True, at the Mestre lesions which were atended by many people, including really talented pupils (eight to nine “player i. eal Mestoselaler and about twenty Hoptanten ‘who were only ented to he present but not to play, fe was ‘guite different. But Tnever noticed him attempting to liberate theatomic energy” ofa pupilor anything ofthe kind; apparestly in his heart of hearts he did noe greatly believe (and here we rust admit a certain degece of wisdom) in the almightiness of teaching. And inspite of my boundless admiration for Godow= sky, that great master, I believe that to teach ashe sometines Aid is no longer poste in our country nowadays (I rind, ofcourse, the teacher who ia great master musician, one who has received the gift of knowing.) T believe that the task of consolidating and developing the talent ofa pupil, and not merely of teaching him to "play wel”, in other words, of making him more intelligent, more snstve, sore honet, more equitable, more senda (I won't go on!) is ‘areal task which ifr fly atainabl, fy none the les dictated by the time we live in and hy art itelh and is at all dimes ialectcally justified. * May my incomparable late teacher forgive me for esc tie tnd crs reneged ot bytes by oe es4 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING In actual fact, I had already said allthis when T spoke of the 5% profit” which I was willing to accept, but I wanted t0 make my mesning clearer. Bu, to come back to my question: it ible (and, iso, how) to make a pupil who “plays well” Ronin et, mane FG ESS {eat his audience, make it “outstanding” (meaning, eiflerent fom the average), ete? L would repy:¢yt is posible; iis posible to a certain extent, it imes to make him [Slee excep rene real Senay exelent omct on cto wo ean be geiscs noe na ae mover “trey beter oer ins ble moon shan never atl” How? By aiming not only a his intellual but abo a i emo Eat alli The main ema he apa ere Slopes in ante that they Atndentnd oniy the intleetual pet of artic acy, or {nther the procs of soning which i part ef and tr Teatoring and intelectual ade simel at inaening that ‘Sesion wile completely fogeaing the otber side, this IBesaventa X, which thy tapped not knowing todo That why al methodology aor at any ta Upto now) so empty tha why it neiaiy bog an ons hie tothe lipo the realy well normed, thee who are Seively engaged in are ‘One ofthe main demands Tmake for achiving but in & performance ates in.exresign, These Er small wordy 0 well Kaown and appre a0 Obvious ong to dee for ty are comple and thei ening i fname hs would sain ake up several page so all ‘sini the hope tat the reader wl etal them Nel Int wil fel ther tremendous and deciveiporeance when they are pot into ce ‘kth work thats done ia my clas ented, tothe west fo bly, on mi nd it embodiment in ps paying in ter wor onthe rat inge dom plano technique. at ftacher it wortles “however lever he beh content 0 {aleabout “image “content “nod, ies poet aad {hike sito the coneret, material embodiment of hi fying in tone in pre, meance, and perfection of plano trig Sian wots ithe teacher wh ses only he ARTISTIC IMAGE OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION 25 piano playing, piano technique, and has but a vague ides ofthe fie, tense and ite structure, "To give atleast some specific example of our work in las on the “artiste image” plus music, plus piano technique, Tsball describe how T worked. with & pupil studying Beethoven’ Sonata quae! una Fantasia op. 27 in € sharp minor. One short page of Beethoven is amply suicient to give the reader a clear Picture of similar work in connection with any piano composi- ‘And so the pupil is playing the so-called “Moonlight” sonata, ‘Usually isthe second movement, Allegretto in D flat major, which gives nse to specially diferent views and the reason is ‘obvious: the fst movement, which isan expression of utmost Sorrow, and the third, which sn expression of dispai (dpe) are more clearly defined stronger in their shattering expression than the feting, “modest, refined and at the same dime tervibly simple, almost weightiss Allegretto I the rendering of Insufiienly sensitive pupils the “comforting” (in the sense of| consolation) mood of the second movement easily turns into a he composition. "The eae ofthis an exceavely dry staccato Bet (and the same in similar places) and also excesively fast tempo. have heard such an interpretation dozens, iPnot hundreds, ‘of times, In such eases T usually remind the pupil of Lise’ apt description, now famous, of this Allegreto: ‘diner and acter to show him thatthiimageds not accidental, Alter ale could have sid: a smile amidst a flood of tears ot something sl6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING that it renders with amaaing accuracy not only the spirit, but lo the form of the composition since the fist bars of the melody Eee recall the opening of a flower, and the following bars (see ms, ex 1) the leaves drooping on the stem, Please remember that I never “urate” music, i. in the ‘casein point Ido not say chat the music represents the flowers Tay that ican erate the spiritual and visual impresion given by lower, tan symbolize it and call forth in imagination the image of a flower. Any muse is that particular music only, A'= A, by virte ofthe fice that musie a complete language, a lear expresion, that i has a definite immanent meaning and hhence its pereeption and understanding do not need any ‘ditional explanations or interpretations in word or pietire ‘Our understanding can be helped by a number of disciplines: theory of muse, harmony, counterpoint, form analysand these disciplines are constantly developing and heir ramifca- tons increase asi the ease for every type of knowledge which increase with every new matter learned. But we have in our braine a "photocel” (T think that everyone knows this miracle gadget) which can translate the phenomena of given word of| Perception into another. Afterall, the curve traced om a film produces a sound! Surely the human eprit ir not poorer ot Auller than the apparatus thas created! Tha is why for people ‘who have the git of creative imagination all music in its tatiety ds programme mae (even the so-called pure music ‘devo of programme) and atthe same time does not need any programme, since i exprees in its own language the whole of Such are the antinomiss oLaus.ast— Let us go back to the lewon, Sometimes Liss words—ae fear ere dots ebies—would make me ponder over the role ARTISTIG IMAGE OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION 27 of the flower in art. T would give pupils examples fom archi tecture, sculpture snd painting. T would show chem musical Dhrate and melodies ia which the image ofthe Hower could be perecived through the natare of the msi, as inthe Beethoven Allegreto, For the flower lives also in music as in other ats ince its not only the “experience” of the lower, its fragrance, its enchanting poetic quality, but its whole form, is structure, the flower as an image, ta phenomenon that cannot fil to be expressed aso in the tonal ar, since that art gives expresion without excepdion to everything that man ean experience, live ‘hough, think and feel. "Many regard it 8 paradox and even smile contemptuously when 1, as 8 musician, express my atitade to knowledge by saying that everything that can be leaned is musical "They argue: can it be sid chat Mendeleyews? periodical tables are musical? Of course, the periodical tables are a lave of chemistry, whereas Beethoven sonata is musi, the expressian ‘of musical signs, A = A. Butsurely itis clear that the peviodical tables as a discovery, as a tremendous achievement of the Ihuman mind, asa method of knowing nacue (to which artists sre sometimes more lately bound than the sient who probe it) go far beyond the strict mits of chemistry and the musician ‘who has mastered them iPhe hasan inclination for “associative Felatonshipe for thinking in broad analogies (without yielding fo the temptation of thoughtdew amateur comparisons —which {eas in identical with"illustration”)—uch a mcian will more than once remember them, while probing the boundless laws of| his art (uch, too, was my case when I wa sixteen o seventeen). ‘But thsi noe alll The power of music over te human mind, its omnipresence, would be unexplainable fit were not rooted inthe very nature of man, For everything that we do or thik, ‘whether the most insignificant setion or the most portentous, ‘whether it buying potatoes in the market or studying Philosophy—everything is tinted by the colour of a sub- Conscious spectrum, everything without exception is endowed ‘with emotional overtones which may even be undicernible to + Otome iyn the cof pepe mater hac sot apoly to the rest 1 ifdan chemist (1834-1907) who dicovered the Periodic Lave,28 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING ‘he protagonist but ate wing present and aly dei swish wel actos come under the srtiny of = pyeholog “Tas emotional qulisy et un agree to cal the raboometous ste of the pir snot abet nthe mot reson to all {ppesrances snemodona,seton or tough. All the geste {Ets the emotonal content, or any thiking min, of ny Inovledge hehe plop, moral and pla problems, pur siec, natural tenet et Tea hsectdene hak 2ioutmending-msiiny compe and pesormet, hve aivays been aid spiel otlook ae have ‘Shown verylively inert in all qsetons airing the sptual liv othameniy, stv that many great mls hn Deon to ob by cr that they had hry the posi (or thetie) eo quite prefound knowledge eter dornns of spin! he, but the penal for aequing ach knowiedge ive always bern within them, I eal the rematable saying of Rachmantaosl am 83% a iin; tere only 199, em ine” (We shal come back othr later) What he mean equa knoe he expres is composts ori Fase Aides at ce apn Paranal Knowledge Bertone secur Rein dn or pee: Coca te eer espe nce baongr to Ge ere of mend aeibly cater SrbK. The sbvencs of rich experience ad sll mare of any ‘perience whoever, rel tn soalley formal mon and Srempoy, wnitereing performance Teryding tat ib Sdinlube®,inexprenible,uotrane Inte that fiver in man's soa everything bono” (equeny ts “ruprecontour) isthe domino ase. This Stone (Uveanor rehain fom nealing Pserak’s onde words“bearng an onan thew) That why Ireesnapeaker the pllnophicl contest may compost Tusteunty of Bach, Beetoven and other (€ would recall Ghopits convention with Dencoi about the pose of Cxpresingpilrophial tought in ms). ‘ore han once had sic conventions wth my pupil in anattempt to pencrte a deeply pole note content of 2'cSmposion and the natural dee to probe the nite of neal epren, and of eveything within reach, ARTISTIC IMAGE OF MUSIGAL COMPOSITION 2g But ifT were to confine myself to these “pleasant conversa~ tions” in connection with some masieal composidon and with the pupil’ faulty playing, thea I think my proper pace would beat the gatherings ofthe "Free Aesthetics” groups? and notin Gass 29 ofthe Moscow Conservatoire where I teach. After such, cor similar, conversations we begin our meticulous work on the ‘composition, to overcome its technical diiculties, until we have ‘chieved the desired rerult. Tegoes without saying that the les developed che pupil, the ‘more numerous the conversations and explanations of every fort and the more thorough and intent the pianistic work. ‘There were pupils to whom I would say two or three words about this Allegretto. But there was a cast—and I remember it perfectly when I spent three exhausting hours with» pupil on the Beethoven page deseibed above. And even thea we only managed to get beyond the front door, take off our raincoats fd rubber shoes and put the wet umbrella inthe stand, think this is sufcient to give the reader an idea ofthe way we work on the "artistic image” and on solving the pianietic problem inthe laboratory which goes by the name of “Profesor Neuhaus’ clas”. 7 ‘Tn conclusion T would sy thie: whoever moved by music to the depths of his soul, and works on his instrument like one possesied, who loves mia and his instrument with pasion, will Acquire virtuoso technique; he will be able to recreate the Sristc image ofthe composition; he wil be a perormes. “Tie was the name, before the Revolution, ofan aseciation phe voted etn ing ‘opinionsCHAPTER 11 A Word or Two About Rhythm Am ding iia (tn he ening ep wan ny Tia Bl ‘Musics atonal proces and being a proces and not an instant, for an arrested state, i takes place in time. Hence a simple logical conclusion: these two elements, tone and time, are fandameatal also for mastering music, for mastering ts performance; they are decisive and determine all the rest ‘A great deal both good and bad, has been veriten about sath (this petodization of unlimited tie, exental to music) and it is not my intention to explore in depth this extremely complex question. I merely want to say a word oF two about ‘hythm in musie as one of is most estental elements "The hth ofa musical composition is fequently—and not ‘without reason—compared to the pole of a living organism, Not to the swinging ofa pendulum, or the ticking ofa lock ot the beat of a metronome (allthis s metre, not rhythm), but to rch phenomens a pus, breathing the waves of the se, the saying of a wheat fel, et In music, iis ia a march that thythm and metre are closest to each other, though never denticl, jut as the marching of soldiers comes lose to the mechanical, precise beat of metre, ie. of equal segments of time! The pulse of a healthy peroa is regula, but accclerates for decelerates under the stress of physical or psychological + Teak the concept of rhythm in toad sens, Le 8 mean an oq parclling of mes metre I consider hee tobe » parila ‘heb rythm i mechanical regularity "Alo dm compositont such at pau mobil, et, es A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM 3 cxperience.! The same applies to music. But just as every healthy organism has a egular shythmical pattern for iy vital fametions, which ie cose to metre, so, to9, in performing a niuscal composition, shythm should, in general be nearer to metre than to arrhythmia, more lke a healthy pulse than a Scimographie record of an earthquake. One of the require- tents ofa “healthy” shydhm is that the total of accelerations fd deecleations, and indeed ofl shytumic changesin general throughout the work, should be equal toa constant so thatthe arithmetic mean of te rythm (e, the time needed t perform the work, divided by the unit of time, for instance, a crotchet) should also be constant and be equal to the basic metic aration, There ian intersting rhythmic analysis by S. S. Srebkow of Seriabin’s Poem op. g2_as performed by the composer; thi shows that in spite of very real changes in {empo-rubsto-the arithmetic mean (inthis case the duration fof 2 crotchet), remains completely identical to the init metronome indication. T have frequently had occasion to ‘ay pupils when conffonted bya rubato, that rabare sche Taian forstealing and ityou steal time without returning it soon after, you are a thief you fist accelerate the tempo, you must bsequenty”elow down; remain an honest man: restore balance and harmony. Tmnust confess that for me a musical performance devoid of the rhythmic core (ie, ofthe logieoftimeando development in time) i just muascal noise, so that for me the musical language becomes distorted beyond recognition andi, in fac, simply lot. "A sequence of uncooedinated moments and convulsive move- iment brings to mind the eatastrophie nature of a seismograph Fecord and not the majestic waves of calm sea swayed by the vind. Of two evils, metre regularity or rhythmic performance, T preter the former, But 8 performance that ia real, living, frtate and felt i, of course, equally removed from either of these. The constant and unjustified acecleration and decels tion ofsome performers, eheir rubato (in quotation marks! give * To comider that rythm equals mere is nonsense; an absolutly neti ple youl be pale oly in corp, heidenaly, rubato sont alway meats stan acceleration pastonato fepetaly in sectatve) very Fequonly request Frardando, followed by an acelerando,s ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING sn even greater impression of monotony and boredom than an txcesvely metric execution, although it is obvious that the performers striving to give a varied, an “interesting” perform- ‘ance, Here time (rhythm) avenges the erime committed against ity it“periodiaes” the unchythmie, convulsive performance and convulsion becomes chronic, constant, “regulated”; convulsion squared. "Bat how beauifalehe real rubato ofa great artist! This isthe ‘mae kingdom of dialectic: the greater the pianists awareness of the rhytimie structure, the more freely, the more logealy does hhedepart from itat times and thus the grester the intensity with which he conveys its powerful regulatory free. Remember Rachmaninov, Cortot and some of the others. 1 boalieve that rhythm, jant at ‘at as a wthole, must be governed by harmony, concordance, joint submission and relationship, a supreme coordination of all the parts. But, what ia harmony? T's, first of all, a sense of the whole, I consider harmonious the Parthenon,’ the Church of the Ascension in Kalomna, ‘the monstrously fantastic Vasily Blazhennyi in Moscow, the incredible Dogs Palace in Venice, and disharmonious the hhoute at 14-16 Tebkalov Street in which I live. ‘tis very dificult to speak ofhythmnie harmony although iis ‘extremely easy to fc it Tei iresitible. When itt achieved in a performance, itis fele by literally everyone. When I listen to Richter, very often my hand begins spontancously to conduct, "The thythmic element in his playing iss strong, the rhythm. to logical, organized, strict and free and is muuch the result fof hit total conception ef the work he ie performing that i is Impousble to reste dhe temptation to take part int by gesture, although such participation is somewhat ridiculous and reminds fone of Faust’s Du glabst ew sbihon wed du wit gesclaben (You think you push but you are being pushed). Scictne, can ‘ordination discipline, hasmony, and mastexy, isis {he neal reedom! With performer suchas Richter, two or three ‘departs from sit shythm are more effective, mare expres- sive, more meaningfl than hundreds of “rhythmic bere” in 4 pant in whom this eting of armony, th ol concept Twill say a few words about the way in which we work at shydim (the organization of ime) in our clas. ‘Whether this ie good or bad T don’t know, but when T want Crrdurctioy ere Ne amen A if A.WORD OR Two ABOUT RENyTHM sohy tothow a pupil te property, tempo aid departre orn tengo seh tarda, acelerand, rubato et Teannot ‘refrain from conducting as if there were an.orchestra in front of tne, Bometes simple gus wave fhe arm cn ‘uch bese tan words Nor is contrary tothe neue of Iu in which one alma come ofatent ovement tate (sce work) «choreographic germ. Ihave al Satsognymind ie wont punkt” elas he eoaept of =, hs contr eoncealed, bat RE WR SP the motive fre. Lurge pops when sudyng @ work Sn none to ase sow intportant spot, he yt Structure or thc ordering of the Ge pros to jut what Sie hh hee oie he a dk and_to conduct. the. work from. beginning 10. ‘Bit amen a sri ith th-cone Victor trying to impress him with his will, his tempo first-of all, plac al he do th pertrmoce Toe mad iy parcel beoauy bn te es of pup who have tot the git of organizing inn alo rational beaue a x txcelent way of eiviing labour an makes i easier to master a ‘composition, A pupil who has nat completely grasped the tempo tnd rhythm of & composition as being its foundations, often — Ibeeaus of technical dificulties or some other reasons-~changes fhe tempo without any musical reasons (in other words he pays ‘shat comes out” and not what he waats and thinks, most important of allwhat the composer wants). Even such a ‘irwooeo as Egon Petri when playing the “Faust” Waltz by Gounod arranged by List (and in several other compositions) snuddenly played the octave pasiages slower than the rest, though thir was by no means die to the demands of the ‘rie, but merely to the fact that his octaves were weaker than the rest of his technique, a face which he himself admitted. In that cate he war demanding towards himself as pianist {everything had to be played!) but not suficiendly demanding fa musician and arti. Th short, T gezommend that in studying a compasition the sopantactseaneparea \% elie eget ae ala smu Hog Fp* ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING ‘organization of time be separated from the rst of the process of Tearnings it should be studied separately oo as to enable the pupil to achieve with greater ease and eoafidenc fll concord nce with the composer and with himself concegning rhythm, tempo and any departures from them or change T ned hardly ay that is esential for that kind of work that te pupil should be ab ES Thea the miei his head without heaving itp ally. iat is why fie better to camyovt this experiment with sate i already friar, fe. that has already been played ‘the instrument and a leat slightly prac. "This feling for time & very apparent in ome pianist, for instance when sight-reading fourhands, One who i only @ pianist will, when faced wih a difeury, slow down, stop, onrect himself, repeat, while the msc who Tels at “ig twa” ect) wilheriese autos day oni playing smehing but will il ever lose the Shy or be his lee Tall es nldenaly, hat rte plays an enormous part in thi god sghtreading is omething that i acquired and requires nat ony talent but ao exercise and experience. The decisive fictor is, of coume, Inter in and love of mus SSE gic tal hee piel mina int ‘and metre mst be mentioned whieh lead me to believe (hat there must be some metres and rhythins that are more ifiale than others Of coun, itis more correct to consider all the Iistakes which follow as metrical, but since the concept "netre” merely a particular instance ofthe concept “rhythm” T think we could peraps use iin order t conform with the teneally accepted musa jargon, 1, All teachers and all conducton, too, are well aware how Aificle tx sometimes fora performer to render accurately the rhythmic igure gy FJ: ‘ypical examples are the last numberof the “Keresleriana”, the fith variation in the Etudes Symphoniques by Schumann, the frst movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphoay, ete. In’a fast tempo this figure tends (0 ecome asimple ay FF] or JJ Even such a wonderful pianist as Cortt played the last number ofthe "Keeisleriana” quite rank in /4 instead of 6/8, A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM 38 eshaps this was intentional? Personally T eannot admit that 2 tse part rhythm should be changed into a two-part rhythm. "Those who want to hear an ideal rendering ofthis rhythm should listen toa recording of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony conducted by Toscanini. ‘fa pupil ost eannot get this rhythmical igure right, which i capeialy dificult in a fast tempo, T recommend making we ‘once more ofthe method of exaggeration —thistime rhythmically find aot dynamically —dwelling longer on the fist beat asi it Yad a small fermata Pp f and also play it several times efcly regulary, in oner to grap bewer it thee-beat Character Iesaboagoodideatoplaysinply) J) 002 leavingouthesemiquaver(orquaverifitsingn) JJ dS then paying J gh | J pl deliberately turing the semi- quaver (or quaver) ino a grace note (anther exaggeration hope the reader wil not ik that I am spliting hats Tower that T have had todo the sort of exer with some a ‘ny pupils and the ula were positive. I deliberately dwelt at engin on ths smal ryhmic deal "Phe method T have desribed ‘can be adapted to any shythmeal problem tht may are (for inwance inthe fist Inoverent of echaikovys Fourth Symphony). "A figure which is covey related to [J] & JJ (a character example the continuation Othe secondary ‘ject inthe ine movement of Chopin's Sonata in B min) Pape very frequently play it at FJ—3 in other words + A menor tance om my own experiees I wat laying reid ith Hama Concerto wha racer nee ene Esthet movements the bos np col not pay the igre [DLE TI METS 1 cy, He pe mt FF) bx wore sit FJ J ete 80 1 sang for hin several tines "ken per, Klemp” an "Amgen" he Sots, wit ver enegei actent on their aplable aell now Sted uscd by condscton) and he got ie eght. OF couse, T also played ion dhe plano.6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING again taming a three-beat rhythm into two-beat with syncopation, There the temptation is particularly great because fof the quadruple figure (our semiguavers) in the Tet hand. ‘Again, is sifcient to remember and fel that in athree-beat figure'the accent is always on the fst beat (aot taking into sceount exceptions sich as the maznrka, ete.) and to play fire simply JJ, then! [TJ and it i bound to come outright Asin the ease of “Klemperer, here, t00,T ometimes ste words to help the pupil and make him sing 5 Spproprate word; like beaut o¢ idiot (never beaut idly; Incdenally ftom an educational point of view, the second word is partly elective. 2 ong th ore piv mei abr hat of sometine ring the fue 3 J ino J7R Yor ‘wo-beat figure into a Uree-beat figure, ‘Some thirty years ago I heard a certain student in the ‘Moscow Conservatoire play the Funeral March from Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor ae follows instead of Beg here the accent on the iat quaver it more age shan dynamic (, bu not) A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM 7 ‘unaware that he was turning a majestie funeral procession into tedious walle "This threebeat temptation sometimes assails pupils when performing the Largo fom Chopin's B minor Sonata (Grst fubjec): instead ofa “march for the gods”, instead of an ‘Apollo leading the Muses one thinks of a very dreary young lay looking out of the window at a very dreary street and Inuuuming a very dreary ballad, (I may be exaggerating but conlyalgily. There are cases where rhythm determines every= thing.) There sno need to speak of remedies; they are obvious 4 Yet another example of inaccuracy which i widespread sand wily in acta! fc, only indict related to mhythm. ie wel kno tase pup very often increase the Terapo when inereasing the volume of toney and fn-deereiig she voatie-ty slow down, With them erescendo equals Sevleraido and diniiendo,rtardando. Te esata to get the pupl to separate them in his mind and in his actions (Grated! the ound approaches, comes nearer, grows with a Giminuendo it becomes more dian, decrease, dics of Tactval mse there area many eis of“crescendo ma ngn acelerando™ as of the contrary: erecendo ed acclerande”. Tn mrt cases compen indicate his cleanly butaometimes tis nly implied sd since Ue meaning seni diferent ne has {0 be parenarly earl not to make a mistake. Jost as Sequent,cbviuy, ae dhe ease when a change of volume mist at be accompanied bya ehange of tempo, and Tie soma, The concepts of morendo, smorzando, ety are ny csc contrary tothe coneepe af itardando of rallentando; ye: Pop are fond of mixing the to. Tut ofl hs hee inthe chapter on shythm, because the exper a performers awarenes of the time structure, the + To make the pictare complete the left hand should ave been changedPy THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING “lowing architecture” ofa work, the more rarely will he make a smintake of this nature. 4 Changes oftempo are subject to certain las that are well known to good conductors but of which pupile are fequently ‘unaware, For instance, no gradual change of tempo (sitanlando, sccelerando) oof volume (eretendo, diminuendo) can begin at the beginning ofa phrase or bar; it must begin somewhat later and preferably oa a weak beat. Disregard of this rae ns aritardando into a “meno meso", and an aceeerando into a “pid: mess"; the gradual effect ("poco a poco”) becomes sudden (sibito). Tes particularly difficult to avoid this peen- ious suddenness when the rtardando or aceelerando applies 0 2 very small segment of music or tim. In the course of my teaching life Thave put alot of work into making pupils render ‘correctly certain short phrases as, for instance, atthe end of (Chopin's First Ballade in G minor: a mee Bez “This tragic ery which precedes the inal catastrophe the collapse and the destruction, i almost comic if played presto instead of tovelerando (thse the second time I mention tis sd case). In sctual fact, this short segment must encompass a ritardando, fceelerando, pid accelerando, Lam sre there sno need to show that the emotional content and significance of a gradual sudden effect is entirely different and hence that to conse them i to allow a serio musieal Flt, 5. The frmats wo, requis stein: tie rently mis- interpreted teat to Getermine the Garton ofa feta Mera lente, mentally conning the owing down onthe {ote eld bythe frmata in ther wonds without increasing the dhraion fndicted (and without continuing to count uns ot ‘A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM * time, eg. crotchety, inthe fundamental tempo ofthe composi- Sion which preceded the lowing down). The fermata i thus the gical culmination ofthe rtennto and “pid ritenato” ancora pit stenuto"™: a geometric progression) which led to it and sade to lat to theultimate moment of audiblity ofthe note fr chord in question. This is only one kind of fermats. A. fermata which ooeure suddenly without a previous retarding ot scceleration should be counted in the fundamental normal tempo and the value of the note under the fermata should be ‘doubled, tcbled or even increased fourfold according to need. Incidentally, tie extremely important to distinguish at what pardcular structural point in the compastion the fermata ‘nun whether at an important or less important turning point, fe, whether it coincides with a basic or secondary setion form. Example: Beethoven's Seventh Sonata op. 10.n0. 3 in D major: in the fst movement [ soggest that the fist two feemate should be only doubled—before the bridge whereas the fermata at the end of the development, which it on a dlominant seventh (Gest inversion) before the recapitulation should be held four bars, i. four imes longer than written, although the composer has put notes ofthe same duration under tach of there fermate. This i a requirement of form and Structure: Inthe last movement of the same sonata itis bet render the fermata inthe fourth bar dhs: “ rit/(scioltoja = 7 ket (As you se, this ease contradicts the rule T mentioned above concerning the fermata after a ritardando.) T recommend to those intersted to seck out several similar as well ay diferent fermate and to determine their accurate ‘aration in each case,‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING Notonly the fermata but alo pauses benween the movement ‘fa composition in several pars are fr from unimportant for the “logic of musical time”. Every teacher wi has een a thing ‘or oi his time will remember the pupil who play in publi land who, ether ffom sage fight of usineaike approach hegias the second. movement=a sombre adagio—when the sounds ofthe fist jolly allegro have hardly died away. This, ‘etrely different and perhaps even contradictory moods and ‘motions knock into cath other asa result of sch haste. Or on the contrary, the performer sem to go nt avery long brows seudy; the pause between movements becomes an faterval you an smoke’ a cigarette o talk to the fiend next to you. My atic. to_ pupils. enc, pais, shold. eat foo. "The aet of listening to music should not bE icrrupted Tor a single sccond. ‘Then everything. will be convinging and wae. Te ao wef a “conduct” such paves rental 6, T am often forced to repeat a well-known truth to my pupils; a performance can be good only when all the infinite Yariety of means available to the performer are made to concord fully withthe work performed, with its meaning, ite ontent, and frst and foremoet with ite formal structure, ite Architecture, it actual canpariton, with that specific organized {onal material which we are to turn into a performance. Some- fone once said to meof an extremely egocenteie performer: "He pus So much of himaelf into the musie”. "Quite right” and takes so much of what the compoter putin out of I However right Buson's statement that “every performance is already a wanseription”, a traneription (ust aa tranlation) tan be extremely lose to the original, it ean be “good!"—or it an be very far removed from the original and be “bad”, One ofthe most popular mottoes adopted in my clas ik: “Long live Individuality! Down with individvaliem!” "The most pernicious departures om a composer's text and intentions are caused by a “rethinking? (Ge would be more cotrect to calli “unthinking” of the fandamental content of the work and a distortion of its time structure, The mistakes made by a musician performer inthe organiation of time are akin to the mistakes of architect in solving problems of pace ‘A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM * architecture, Its obvious to anyone that these are cardinal sisakes. +. There are conductor and pianists who find it dificult set the cormect base tempo fiom the tart, An inesolute ot ristaken tempo atthe start may leave its mark on the whole performance. Sometimes the tempo evens out, and finds its proper channel, but the waty ofthe performance has already ‘been destroyed. This is an evil dificult to overcome. Bu itis not impousble, The much despised metronome may be of help, Tt is 4 good thing to experiment during work, and by means of| Tepeated changes and departures from the starting tempo, t0 ‘rablish ts extreme limits from te slowest possible tothe aster. Before beginning the performance it is useful to compare ‘mentally the starting tempo with some part of the work nearer the development. tis pariulatlyimportant—and Ifequently give this advice to my pupis—before beginning some broad Scag or largo (where for some reason or other such mistakes fre particularly apt to occur), to sing mentally the opening in the tempo which is considered as che most suitable and correct, jn order to get nto the proper rhythmie mood before beginning the performance. Thiemethod considerably reduces the elements of ehance and approximation in establishing the starting tempo, But there is no poine in concealing the fact that the many eas for this lack of precision as far a tempo ia concerned is ‘due, roughly speaking, to anartistic inadequacy in the performer, fan insuficent receptivity to the mood, intent and emotional ontent of the mise. Hence the teacher mt in this ae in all “Serious” cas general, resort to panacea: he mut arouse the spiritual qualities ofthe pupil, he must ai his imagination, his Itmpresionablity, he must make him fel, think and experience art as the mot Feal, most unquestionable ene elim, the very _ substance of life. 8. Complete masteryofpolychythmia eax complex as the full, mastery of polyphony. Tn one eaxe—time, in the other tone; the difficulties are similar. T could quote an enormous list of ‘varios intanors of polyrhyehmia which represent exceptional Aifiultie for learners, aba confine myself to afew examples land afew recommendations which I believe to be useful. Te is ‘obvious that only the most simple examples of polyrhythmiaro ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING admit ofan arithmetic approach, as for instance 2 against 5. ‘The common denominator of the fractions 1/2 and 1/36, tis easy for those who cannot get i immediately to caleslate precisely when note should be played. Dut for the ext problem—that of playing correctly against 4 and geting the precise duration for each 1/5 and cach 1/4 the arithmetic approach i already unsuitable, After all, you are not going 9 {ke the common denominator 12 and ealeulate that each note ofthe quadruplet fills ont, 4 7, 10 and each note ofthe tplet falls an 1,5, 4. Tet inoonvenient, clumsy and silly? ‘The complete unsuitability of the arithmetic method bbocomes immediately obvious in eases when you have t play ‘Simultaneously and evenly, inthe same unit of ime, 11 against 7,5 against 9, 17 agaist ete. And such examples abound, particularly in Scriabin, Even the cate of 3 aguist ty 10 ‘requendly met in Liadov and Seriabin, makes it imposible to ute the common denominator. If che pupil fads wuch simple ‘examples of polyrhythmia dificult, T'usually advise him play the right hand and the left Rand altermately (eice or Several times each); for instance, fw take the Scriabin Etude op. 8 No. 4 nme stnadn Be 9a 11 can remember only one case when auch 2 calculation is warranted Is the rt subject of te second movement of Rah ‘maninow's Second Concerto pitas = — eas ms "The common denominator 12 she quaver triplet wll help not too bright pupil to solve the yin problem A WORD OR TWO ABOUT REYTHM. 6 In #0 doing the duration of the erotehet should be mathe- matically exact, ab also the divisions within the crotchet, into ‘ripets in one ease, into quintuplets in the ther. And son in every similar care T now from experience that when playing the Chopin Sonata in B lat minor (development of fist movement) 90% of the pupil play not as it is written, in other words, fou eotchets in the right Rand and six inthe left hand, eld, MT, poor eee Srreeceler rere but simply me ahi eaea eae fre ree Gicteeie ts sre “This is “more convenient the rhythm in the ight hand coin cideswiththerhythminthelet (6/4 and 6/4). Ther is no need thinkofadificulteombinatiouoffourcrtchets and six rote, ‘verythinggoessmoothlyand the composers texts mavled about tnd therhythmdistorted. [know from experienee thatinetadying this piece the method T have just indicated is a sure means of ving a thythmieally precise and correct rendering. But in this xe, I would recommend playing two banwithhelehandand ‘so bars withthe right, repeating this many times and mentally cndieting thi alle bree, 2[2. With tis method, even the clam siest(hytimially speaking) pupil will overcome thiscifclty. ‘Tthe plyshythne igure & written for one hand only (whieh is much rarer), T recommend playing each voice separately in the way just indicated, for instance the righthand duet ‘Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major op. 55, which represents a complete fison of polyphonic and polyrhythmic dificutes 1 Te ig obvious thatthe Sint method I indicated, aamely the arte salable oy i th gt ens eked sone ofwidom andgyuthei“ ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING 9. Frequently, passages that are not dificlt rhythmically sorted by planiss Decause of their echnical, “acrobatic” Alificlty. For instance, the following passage’ fom Liz's “Mephisto” Wales B10 What one foquendy hear in the lt hand i: J J imwatoe J MD Tis enough to note this inaccuracy, to hear it in order to find the means of remedying it, One of them, though not the bet, is the following variant: es Beat ‘The reason for this inaccuracy is understandable: it is the ificuty of two almost simultancous leaps: the right hand ‘upwards from left o right, the left hand downwards from right oleh, to, Hundreds and hundreds of times have T heard pupils perpetrate a rhythmic inaccuracy which consist of playing a Slow broad melody or theme, espealy in Bach, in such a wy that any shorter merical units that #¢ contains (for instance fquavers and semiquaver ina melody made up generally of Crotches and mimims) are suddenly played ina hurried way, A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM “ {aster than the others. How many times have Thad to hear and correct the following ES tack Fog Berg 4S tach, Pogue nD sharp minor == Teeth Be “These dear litle accelerations of quavers and semiquavesin slow tempo have been the cause of much damage to my liver throughout che long years of my teaching eareer "The cause of this mistake, which is so widespread among. pupils af average level, is o be found fst of all inthe inability {olsen tothe singing ofthe piano in faster motion; secondly, in the fact that the sight of “Jong” notes arouses in the pupil a ‘conditioned reflec slowly”; whereas, the right ofshorer notes frouse the reilex “Taster, to which he indiscriminately suc- ceumbs Tich case nit thatthe shorter notes be played especially deliberately aif were dificult t part from each sounds my sntidte ie the following rendering: pocorit. Bes ‘Moscover urge my pupils to listen to good singe violinists, cellist who have a perfect mastery of catilena and know how6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING to extract the fll eantabile quality out of short notes and are consequently more inclined to slow down over them, than to hury.* Tyrote the whole of this section mainly because I wanted to show how inextsicably tne is bound up with rythim and hove a ‘mistake intone quality can resale in a mistake i rhythm. Again and again: everything is part of the same entity. 11, Many shythmic inadequacies are due, in fact, wo an insufficient understanding of the composer's spirit and style. ‘The arstic image is not clear and this affects the rhythmic lement, Thus, one of my pupils once played the following ppasage from Lists Twelfth Rhapsody: cere Be 16 so evenly, metrically with such careful accents on the fst Semiquaver ofeach phrase group that the result was a series of suet! oo Tee 1 suddenly saw, in my mind’s eye, List, the rhapsodist of ‘Hungarian folkiore, wearing Bach's wig and dresed as the cighteenth-century organist ofthe Lelpaig Church, The same ail played the C sharp minor Prelude out of the Fist Book of | ‘the Wollporater Klas with such elegiae rallentandos and such excesvely tender expresion that instead of Bach, I save 2 provineal lady playing a tear-jerkng ballad, Tite this example, one of many stored in my memary, to show how an insufficient understanding of composers thought 1 Remember the rendering of Rachmaninow’s “Voealie™ by Neaivlanra, (Famous operate Sopra, E.) A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM a ‘or of the style ofan era, can have an adverse effect on the main ‘lements of masie: tone and rhytim. 12, When a big eyelic work has not been flt and thought out sone single whole, che performer inevitably flint errs of tempo aad rhythm, In my own experience as a teacher, = ‘particularly prominent place in this respect & held by two athena p57 ("Arpainnia") so ‘ Alot away te fg nce. “Aspsio”i suse wih asincagiotnanduchoo a al {he Fgale andthe Finale (Rondo) of the “Walt i usually played too fast in relation to the first movement. The ‘results certain sameness of mood and character wheren the general patter of the two sonatas is by no means ADA, ‘but A—B—G, which together give a certain D. Afterall, with all its pasion, the fist movement of the "Appassionata” i fist ‘ofall majestic and grandior, while the Finale i whirtrind of| passion, a hurricane, a tidal wave, with, above it, a pasionate, pathetie voice, Tn the "Waldstein”, the Rondo (“allegretio moderato”) is @ rosefingered dawn; gradually the sn rvs, the dew disappear, dnd a beautfl day bor. st posible to play this sic ‘with the busineslike animation with which T have too often ‘been regaled by eager youngsters? Particulzey since the com poser far cleanly indicated: “allegretio moderato", in other ‘words almoat an Andante, but on no account, God help us! an Allegro or, worse ail, “allegrovivace". But the final Presto ‘Should be played “prestisimo possibile scl! wie mglich {ond sen (a fasta posible and til fate) to use Schumann's terminology, otherwire there won't be any popula holiday, the Bacchanalia will have Hopped! Yet some pupils, in spite of eethoven’s indications, or to spite him, play the Allegretto faster than necessary and the final Presusimo slower than rnccestry. ‘The reste that this poetic Finale, this superlative ‘work of genius, is made to sound like an exercise Tn sich pices a, for instance, Chopin's Fist Scherzo in B minor or hik Fantasie in F minor, {have frequent had to point 1 Not of the muse ituel of courte which ie quite diferent in the cexteme movements, but is performance“ ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING cout thatthe threfold occurrence of the main subject loses ite ‘meaning ifrendered according tothe pattern AAA. Any fone wi fel and understands the whole wil, without a doubt, render it at A~AI—Aa, Te is even better to show it a8 A> ‘Ar-oAa, particulary in the Fist Scherzo, In the Fantasie, I personaly imagine the pattern according tothe graph en Sat Ofcourse, Lam now referring wo the pattern ofthe performance, in other words, the emotional, expresive rendering in actor. ‘dance with the structural pattcen ofthe composition. 13, Thave in my time known excellent vetuosi pianists who ‘nad marvelous hands, but did not have what we tem a feeling of entity and who were consequently incapable of playing 8 Single big work (Beethoven of Chopin sonata, of a single concerto) satifictorily from the pein of view of for. In their rendering any big composition i split into 2 number of more or less enchanting moments—whereas trifle, such 18 waltves, nudes, preludes, nocturnes (particulary trifle by other than front-rank composers, for instance Saint Sans, or Mosskowni, etc.) were dazaling and left nothing more to be desired.™ ‘oughly speaking, the more intelligent the plans, the better the can manage a largescale composition, and the more stupid the Sethe lem well he ean mange i. nthe fist cate itis perspective thinking. horizontally; ia the second ease iis Shoreterm thinking-—ie. verally. Thae is why I s0 much admire the rhythm of Richter’ performances: one fel leary that the whole work, even if ti of gigantic proportions, lcs, before him like an immense landscape, evealed tothe eye at 8 Single glance and in alls details from the eagle's igh, from a tremendous height and at an incredible speed. T ought t say ‘once and forall that such unity, such structure, uch a wide ‘musical and artistic horizon as his I have never encountered in any ofthe pianists Ihave known, and T have heard all the great fonts: Hofmann, Busoni, Godowsky, Carreno, Rosenthal, 2 opieal cape was Vladimir Pachmann who wat & fous pins se ‘A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM ° a ee es Cote epee eas es eee re eee oe Be eee oc eee as enero a epee Soca one Se eae pele rey ee es Bate recess ee tee ene ee ete ee ee Se ana o ee oea ee ee inert fom epee ren ee, Fea ea aa at ee arta ee eee ra ete Pr oe Ree eine ee eee eee rene eee eee eee ae ea eee oe a ee Seer eee Ses ee ee oa ema aeons eee eee el pattem outs met gi ae sites a nn Roan weit ent Ron critic and author of» ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING that we have evolved on the strength of is work and hs if, but ‘hich confirms it and isin complete harmony with it For any= fone who knows anything at all about the peychology of the treative process, what Mozart said here is an example of the highest it of the human spit hat gift which defies words and before whick we can only bend our heads in wonder aud ‘adoration. Speaking of Mozart's apocryphal Jeter, my thoughts, as usual row each other out and this is where T should like to ‘write about musical time, shythm, the creative proces, et, Dut this would take me too far afield. T mentioned Mozarts apoceyphal letter because i ean help the pianist in his main problem, namely, grasping the work as an entity and in ‘ordering the time proces. 14, Tcould conelude here but Tshould like toad afew small | observations, purely ara teacher, and offer some advice on the subject of yt. Among some teachers, the view i very oide- | spread that many even passages in pieces should be practised | with all sors of rhythmic change, For instance, ia passage ie | seinen in even semiquavers, i should be practised at | cererslerer er fester er ear et org et yr ee ee Se hones oP rae eect the following ee ss cries Be 6. A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM st then take the Second volume of the Forty-Bight, open it at the teenth Prelude and slog at it unl you get it right. Teannot Jmagine anything more futile than playing the Prminor Prelude fut ofthe First Book Bey and the G minor Prelude out ofthe Second Book {i we follow this nonense to its “logical” conclsion) as: Be whereas the object iso achieve exactly the opposite, namely: ‘what was writen by Bach, T want to reall my constant advice: Sfarss posible make straight forthe gol, holding cou as the Red Arrow train fom Moscow to Leningrad, on a straight Tine, or better tl, sa pane tying by compas. (Ofcourse, the engine and the drives, the plane and the plo have to be i pect condition) As forthe various "methods, variants, Ineans, Tam very much fn favour of using them when dealing hot with musical, atc material, but with i molecules, atoms, i.e with exerts, (The clawical example it hein zoinin she Fit Bonk of Lia's Exes cited by Winter, beg) But not for cluldrenl Only for ado THO use, halal, echnical, raflaman’s work, and nobody can shirk i's pianist who i wot ye filly mate encounters in apiece iicules he"hae never met before and in which he ges toege down, he wil merely show his intelligence snd inventive ses i he rable to tr these dita into useful exeressa ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING which he wil play again and again uni the new becomes Tamia, the inconvenient convenient, andthe diickeay have invented for myselé and for "my pup, many such caer based on the technical problem met in mse, and 1 ‘nl give some examples of tem inthe chapter on technique. ‘One thing nly simporant one mast emember that after he temporary fragmentation living masa matter int molecules and atoms, thee patel, having been duly proces, must ‘once mare become living pats of the msieal organism Te eno seeret that gid plant who knows how to work propery can ator an ordinary eude ito an atic ‘rtuowo comporiion, wheres one who doen't know how 1 ‘ory, how to reason correctly, wil tam an arise work nto © 1g, To speak of the complet interdependence of tone and ‘shyt i almost upesfous. Ifa sycopetion, which ofeach tremendous rithmic importance, iy payed more say than the non-ayneopate note preceding oF flowing i or mule taneous witht btn another part cra toe &sycopaton Tether word, elas is rhydnic and dynam characterise. Strange anit may seem, it sometimes necesary to mention thi evento advanced and talented pupils Of couse in their ease, Grin the eave ofthe les advanced pupils thins dae wo he fact that, beeine of some technical dificaty they have not yet ‘avec thy play no ule what is wten but what they can tuanage. Tor instance eight out of ten pup who sted $ecthovn’s Sonata in B minor (o-17) plajed in the fstmove- sent Gost before the development) the let hand a alow: font of a zaps, = ew which is comect. A WORD OR TWO ABOUT RHYTHM 3 Sometimes I ured to get so fod up repeating again and again | about syncopation that I would suggest to the pupils to remember once and fo all that syncopation, Mrs. Syncopation, | isadefnite person, wherever she may appear, with her own expresion, her own character and significance and may never ‘om any account be confused with anyone ese 16, The link hetween tone and shythm becomes specially clear in rubato, Tei linposble to. determine the degree of Fliythaie freedom of a phrase if the eorrect muances have not been found. Tone and rhythm go hand in hand, help each other snd only jointly can they solve the problem of ensuring an txpresive performance. I repeat: the things Tsay are so well, {Known tht iti almort embarrassing to write them, and yet« hhow many ies have [seen in elas that» pupil has solved only balf ofthe performer's problem and that dhe entity is “wobbly” (or oie nova). That is why iti a0 esential to keep harping on the need to harmonize all the elements ofa performance and to inst on it in everyday practice, Again and again: everything is part of one whole. With the very talented, this unity comes, ait ‘were of ts awn accord the le gifted can doa very great deal by means of learning, straining this wil, by ead persist- | tees. +. Read the books of Stanslavsiy! there is much about || thi in em, beautifully said. "And never forget that the musician's bible begins with the words: nthe beginning there was thyth”. \ Gre same applic to dynamics: one may not confuse Mi Paro (np oath Many Belo (op) Der () a, Peet J) Beton (9p) or Fred (7) wth Brey Prost (7). hag eis jes, Delite ior not ee sometimes very metal even eth ada SS fatow discon snd coJounder of the Moscow Ars Theate (1005-1598), 90.CHAPTER IIT On Tone _Masie tonal art. produces no vital image, doesnot ‘peak wht words Sr ese, [espe only with ands, Batt fess jt eid nigh tow tet o Sout ages Ie wore gover by rules, jst a the Spoken Tenguage the compotion ofa pice or the atch tfeareofsuling The theory of mss, they ofkarmon, countespoint, an orm ana help cs dacoves these ret Sich were crete bythe gree compowe in acsofane wih The ature story and development of mankind Pefomrs da tt anaiae mn, or dmember i they r= reateit ino orgnie uni integrity materially concrete ‘in sound. From these simple and well-known premises the Plant mast dra all nzesary and even obvious conlsions Se wey toque he doc ok, ce mu atonal ar, the mew iortant tak he ee Se eres + pis preoeeupation wih technique in the narow sae of he tword (Le. velocity, brevars) predominates, relegating tone, that mor important eles, the second place. ‘he mistakes made by teachers and pianist with eect to the perception and. production of tone on the piano ca, roughly speaking, be divided into two contactor tends: the + fit sono desing tthe aon —a verating ‘The int i more widepread The player does nat ive suliclent 4 plotter thought tothe extraoedinary dynamic wealth and diversity of {one wiih te plano provides Hs atetion i focused manly fn technique (in he narrow sna) about which T spoke eater {veo evennes, bravura; that daze and cra hear is tale develope heaton, be nepae of Tening to Bits (and ofcourse the msc). Tn fact, he ‘Horchow eer tahoe ses, eras th artist ha to Deboth (withthe ater igh predominating). The ult musial ‘re is as drab ae arty hail ‘To such pups T never cease ‘ON TONE ‘s Sabie one ki Ginny, he diy and methodical gents” who tar trad eventos of pigs whan etansibe sca of des Sof cache, Glied int ts pole oredr onthe inno one hundred dynamo gradation encompased between Eins wih shal eam not yet one ae to ange one How cri chat to rach entirely difwent penalise as abl and Ceery should have nied at Ue sme igure at on Cl dn per Ie makes you hing) ‘Bib ct fit aes undergone Hh taht otra tone Thar Ec ith the worhave an eros admiration atone, who sour it ‘roel whoin ma perv t ofal the rermous beaty Stone ad do not sex ety In ther word, who don tre the ret fr te aces Sch panseand ei mbes Rade teacher, pope and “accomplhed™ pianist have © Ertl the tlownge "The concept of Beauty of te not Sexsouly sae but dct the bot tne, and coneqaenthy Teoma beruil the ne whch rede © parialar nearing in he bot ple manner Temay happen eat atone rae af ones ken ot of contest and fo open, rleed ef al meaning, may appear to rome gl or ever esplesant flew recall ke eect of mated trumpet ore raspng of the Aouble bacon in the lower rept, te alae of he Ea cleric nd he ange ofa boken-down old pan, ee) ut thse sound, wi the cuepion natural of theo pio, ae {hed fra dante purpose bya good composer who an abe Scher they wil within the cont, become the mort pene, the mone eceays they wl be right es not for Sing tat Rinly-Korsalor wed Yo ty that sil he sounds6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING of the orchestra are good and beautiful; one should merely Know how to ue them and to combine them, Ifthe adepts of ‘beaut tone as an end da ite were right, how could we explain the fact that we prefr a singer with physically tes food voice to one whe voice i better, if the former i an artist nd th latter a blockhead? How could we explain why good plans plays 10 well on'a bad plano and a ad plant plays badly om & good pianos why & good conductor with a bad orchestra can ereate an incomparably greater impreion than & ‘bad eonductor witha good orchestra? Taupo the reader could continue the mental exercise of finding more examples, "There isan incident inthe life of Lat which applic to thi whole question of the role ofonein a piano composition. When int heard for the fixe dime Hensel who had an extra: condinary “velvet” tone, he said: Ah auras pu aus me deter ot ‘pate de els (Ft, could have given myself tho velvet Dave!) For Lis with his immense horizon as composer petfrmer, the “velvet touch” was merely detail in hi {echnical arsenal, whereas for Hensel itwas the main purpose. Twit allthis in order to stress once more that tone (together ‘with shyhm) is dhe Gist and most important among other “Beans of whic ap be posesed, bat that Tei a sean, and notte purpose. Thave often eat piano teachers fay that "the most citeat hing sto teach a pupil acquire ‘beaut tone, ane tha everyting depends on the pup him seit. Lam interested not inthe dicey of the problem but in it importance, and the need to solve it as completely a3 posible, Ofcourse, work on ones the most dificul work ofall, = Theorie en tele ‘Eee Uy ning er Gch cn ede in vay of ways), “ee det acs hi ‘tone. By working at the “aetna, pencrerng vended nan sheng otimpeve {he gua of me we afvence the em and devo Fy tad des mane fone et and on ipoe tent ei ofl te poems plano teciquehehe panse tual for one te subance of ts eng SrLpaeeting we rns mae oul ton rener heh Ey wok wi ny pup {an sy wil xaggeaon that ccgenren of a ont wok om sng Ima td it is closely connected with the eat and let face ithe ON TONE sr tnat the sequence, the causal lain in our work natural ~ fil the lowing pate’? the age Ge te Ieaning, content expresio, the what i-ivall-abus) second ‘Plone fh times embodiment, the mateiazaton of he Inmage, and finaly the detec ava whole an he sum total ell mean ental for solving the arse problem of avo ying ich many ofthe maar Rove the performer and ofthe mechanism othe instrument. ‘Thies my general pattern of study: Urpeat mya but do so delberaty. Repti mater praadnd (repetition i the tothe of persuasion), Tn prac, of cone this pater canst fuctuatingsocoding othe equrements tnd needs of the moment and tthe specie cas, but though sometimes Conceal it always. proent ar a Rerarceal principle trdering the work Ia onder to acquire a s-alled “good, eau tone (Thal sulwequeady attempt © unravel definition) what need i para hard pertet, longterm, cooxant, obstinate work at the lnstrunent. Ifthe Gestion ih ¢ iene Dot, Maya vey sp that o become a pet, to write potry you bate fo tata fot of eat then forthe plino you hve wo ata whole ed the razon vio a poem can be ca tne’ head, when walking in he country of iding in a us but plano Paying (act un general canbe done only at the plano; the pan iy afterall only a mechanical Bax, an amazing bor, on which fe poble vo expres Znyhing one want bat a Hox and w “humanize” equses infinitely more flo than doe the lovey, ving exible, ever- realy snd infitlyexpresve, most human and marvellous invention of man—the Ruan word. ‘Since, in Gis chapter, we are dealing not with sound in encal but with tone produced by the plants aad on the Signo T must docs the moat simple things that plait ould know just as any iterate person koows is mulation {ables or hs grammar, 1 Te would be more acurate to say: working at “time tone”, spjpntin ante para "Fprevevolution weight = a0 hg rug 4 Richard Suatae coneived some of is operas while payingPy ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING npn i ia nigel atehsinmen ace peat Saitama ts on te oan ibrar ee (Lie el a rag a sie eth ag fe es nl se agp nar wi mk in ae Wes Fer ar cee icici eng sae ee Ss AE pee leas erat re Set A See ce UPLS), after which we get not tone but noise, since the mechanical (lever) arrangement of the piano does not allow eae co) se i a Se Es nthe sees Ri iets Sara's ore So ln nye pt Sd STN ees rec ices tec rate rn alee ‘Popciegin rae an gg ere Erect rare aria Siar Game t ra pl a toe hen Ss cs Sct es ete ag ‘ct apertng ms adele fice We en ag. a ey i eh SSeS, wit ec pe Riser ps te oat sar ro ea tee Speed am a 7 ep re a Me eaten ON TONE 9 elit?” 1 agree. The highly gifted seldom give uch matter thorugh; they just do thee jb. They are much more capable of ‘resting laws than of analysing them, But, on the other hand, the laser talents, or the totally ungifted don't think of such thing tall, yet the resemblance (avery supericil one at that) Detween them and the highly gited is not to their advantage and of no ue to them. “Cold reason and a warm heare"™thiss ‘ay educational slogan, and cold reason will not despise this rite of preee knowledge gathered and tsted by experience. ‘Almott all my technical considerations, advice and exercise, xothe raltof deduchap. For instance, the procedure Ihave just decribed (Gre appearance of tone, et.) occurred to me ‘when Twas playing Sedabin or Debussy which at cies requise the tone to melt a Geappear almost completly (yet st Thee], Here is an exerese which I sometimes recommend as ‘sally usefil for developing the ear and for getting to know the Keyboards t ‘The significance of the exercise lies in the fact that each consebutige note B played atthe sameTevel of volume 3s that fo which the previous note has dwindled at the time and not SERED oes orally sick detestable word, TH ‘aerise which ia protest against the pereusive quality ofthe plano for one mast first of ll Tear to make the plano sing, and fot ouly “strike” it) occurred to me when T was trying on the piano to get as close at possible to the human voice in the Inspired sectative ofthe fst movement of Beethoven's Sonata in D minor op. 3t, 90. 2: Ex a2 My advie: play beantiil melodic forinstance from \Ghopin] much slower tian they should be played; or conveni- geet ult doe notin Tae avis ward my Be “Behe Feauty-and melodie line of a pasageand hence Ts6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING expresiveneis—ofa desire 19 examineitat close quarten, as one fan examine a beautifal picture, in closeup oF even with a magnifying glas, in order to penetrate, however slightly, its mysterious concordance, its harmony and the accuracy of the brush strokes of a great painter. The slowing down ofa process in ime i the exact count the singpace ‘Arne ll he deal of my “methodology” ae the rel of Tn my forty-four years of teaching (unofically,longe stil!) Inundreds of pupils passed through my hands, representing all the degrees oftalent—from the musically defective (there wae time vehen T didn’t seor even such pupils you have to try everything) tothe geniuses, with all the intervening degrees ‘The experience of & lifetime, the encounter with this great wealth and variety ofhuman nature led me to methodological Conclusions which difer somewhat from the usual schoalbook methods. Teisesental to understand in the falls posible manner that, fn the one hand, the teaching of musi, and musical lieracy— for whieh purpate the piano isthe bas, the replaceable, f not the only, means—is part of general culture, that the study of| Imusic i just at xsential for a cultured person asthe study of languages, mathematics, history, sociology, natural sciences, (Gad wn, ld uct comma) ‘msi ca of he pata te, ne ho, the musically defect 7 © oe she populationataie ee ea oat kao ee Jife, For music is just as much the product of human thought as allele that was created by man, and is governed by the same ee bnwpeicayel aati crawler fe eae erat cee uma ceee aa 2 ee tae See ee eee ee eae ON TONE © ~ { \ 6 diferent asthe role ofthe piano itselin our “social” life; on the tne hand itis the most popular, widely sed instrument played nt of peopl, for the piana is as esental to any "amateur ara tongue, words and speech to aay a fon the other hand Tis the most dificl,indvidual instrument {the hands ofa great pianist, and great pianists come in dozens compared to demany milions that use the piano. “Who, then i sch & pianist, such a great plant? 1 cannot {ail o reall the simple but beaut words of Alexander Blok! “What sor of person ta poet Some one who waite in verse 1No, of course not; he writes in verse because he is @ poet, Deca he brings words and sounds into harmony..." This idea can be paraphrased to say: “What sort of person is a pianist? Te he a pianist because he ha a good technique? No, of fourse not; he has a good technique because he isa pianist Decause Be finds meaning in sounds, the poetic content of ‘musi, is regular structure and harmony.” "That is what technique i needed for; a technique that is adequate othe force, height and clarity of the spiritual image; that is why pianists work at it until the end of their days and constantly eet themeclves new aims and solve new problems. ‘That is why great men are always hard workers; that i why 80 many have sid that genius i diligence. Pus said that prose ned, fist and foremost, ideas. A pianist playing to an andes ede, ft and foremost, messing. And in order to reveal that Ineaning, he needs tec Technique ‘a olf as art fue But young people are frequently unaware oft and make the mistake ofattempeing to master art “hom the other end”. A speaker in whose speech beauty of language prevails over depth, trth and pasionate thinking is not a very good speaker. "This something the concert pianist must remember. After all, he, oo, isan orator and is engaged in propaganda. For ‘wh have virority on the brain dere is nothing better {han to listen to great composers play thelr own compesitions. ‘They are not specially concerned with piano technique, yet their rendering of dheir music is magnificent. The reasons are ‘obvious and [need not dwell on them. ‘So I, too, have a methodology i you can call“methodelogy” * Rosian eymbolit poet 1880-102, xD.6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING someting which remain cently rut yeti always Changing and developing n accorancs wh he general ite of fe the within me and witout, Methodology i know. iedge gained by deduction and by experiment; it oure fra efit will 2 slentom sing toward» goal which ie determined by the arts charter te hr otto on ie. ‘Textbook methodology, which mainly lay down prvcsptios, tocealed hard tod ft res (ven i thoy ave teed stl rl thie will away be buta priv, primary, simplified method, Wich at any moment when coming into contact with reality Ten development ethinking anyng, vening up, in shot "dine ransbrmation, ‘Teaching (and T have in mind a good teacher performer) where the ays tinfacncing «poi change omtaty sd sre Inte in their varity whe unwaveringly pursing one aim, fully bears out this statement. ae ‘Nic short excursion ino general methodology, come tack othe particular quatonofone and tow o proce ton the panos = ee “WS ache inevitably and oomtanly se metaphors to deine the varlous way of producing tone on the piano, We Speak ofthe fingers ising withthe keyboard of roving ito the eytoard™ (Rachmasinow’sexresion) af he Reyoard trere ent and ove could “nino ta wil et Al hse xtenely approximate defiitions are witout x doubt wel, ‘hey arose te pups iagination snd when accompanied by iratons atthe pane they help to develop hi cae and is toorsemory mean, wat we ell he ouch One of my frome pcs of advice he flowing play a soe ot several note stleaneoly with etn moan of fort and old them unt the ear cease to detect even the ‘test iran of he stingy ther word el the tone iS completly died sway. Oniy thre who leary hear the ott of te plana’ tae (he vibrato of he tings) with Ai the changer velene co, tof ecogize all the Beauty the nobility ofthe iano (nes hi contnaty in pat toch nove bean than the Ougieal tone when sue Vat erin a Sete el le [SUNN Esanae cntioe oN TONE, 65 sony hy wl ese tw mane hat exental asyo Soret cis tire pape ts Srey ramon alata as So ee ee re a pay coer een cel la al cee a es ST cde pope wie aly ‘tictaw abe ty ocd on pe ye Sc ie tae teste ea Se oo ee tee Bogosian ein aed Se Se aera ies oe soem al Pt Ho he Kees Ban “ogi pe an Lat, Lees tren atl lenin oS, wae least twice a week I remind my pupils (because I have to!) ote savage Tac Pere ree meer ieee ‘Ofcourse, [doubt whether anyone will be sufficiently daring to ops yea Zao ptt, bk seer ea bine Sis died te Once Mas), i oe Seatac pe eat rhe asi yan os Sees eee ae fe Pe if te nd ae ee a echash ama tte at secede eake RECT dal cutee pl tw Se cate ta ees oe pa Siri Rolie mr SETI a gee is eee peli Sone Me Ge Penn dein action tate be hey tigen, seo ate ew le ae ny stale ape tae eps oats irs unis Raed sees ee aa ada ene ah oy one votre pom gs ae anblyaemenome6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING instrument). In conclason he mentions that magic means of| ‘expression which isthe ateibute of lone Tn addition I often say to my pupils dae the piano i the best actor ofall the instruments for it ean play the most varied roles, ‘Compared to the sound of other instruments that are emotion: ally much more specific, much more expressive, as for instance the human veiee, the French hora, the tombone, the vain, the cello, et, iia certain abatract quality in the sound of the piano—perhaps precisely this abstract, cerebral quality—ehat fives itis incomparable tone, its unquestioned individuality. 16 isthe most intellectual ofall nsteuments and hence itembraces the Widest horizons and encompasses bowdless musical visto For apart ffom the immeasurable quantity of indecribably ‘beautiful music written for the piano “peronally”, one can perform on the piano everything that is known by the name of usc, fom the melody of a shepherd's pipe’ to the most gant symphonic and operatic works. "This description of the piano (lor which T wed Bus admirable page) was esential in order to arrive at certain deductions Concerning the piano’s tone. Just as Tsui that the piano isthe best actor of al he instruments have to remind pupils constantly of the orchestra to give them an idea of ‘rchestal sounds; T eannot work otherwise! Although Lam a Pianist, I consider that the orchestra is theft solo eatument, With de piano as sezond in importance. I think that this eannot be taken as an offence for either the piano ot the pianists, Because the piano i, as T believe, the moet intellectual instrument and ienot endowed with the emotional substance of other instrament, the players imagination should, indeed must, be peopled by the most expresive and specific musical images, by every existing variety of shade and timbre contained in he human voice and in every instrament on earth inorder to ‘reveal fly all the wealth of the piano's potential But the main “pos ike ol “interitrumental" forge he sy Or course, only under the baton of a grest conductor. The _rasnir fo instances never bes slo iatrument. rasta (PERvyStMtfoniches ANSumbl Fist Symphonic Emenee in Moscow fr sgn to 9) ace {ternational fame. It wat an experiment in nea “calestvia™ ‘Tan orchestra without coaduten, ie ON TONE, 65 reason why it i abolutely essential for the pianist to know and fel all thie—and a pianist who docs not understand this is ‘wearing blinkers, to say nothing worse—is because the pianist ‘on his own, on single instrument, without help from anyone, tives an absolutely complete image, creates something fll anc perfect a piano composition; the whole of musi is in his hands find his hands only, he ir at once master and servant, “both ‘Tear and slave, both worm and God”) ‘When speaking to my pupils, Toflen make use of a very simple metaphor which even kindergarten pupils ean under~ Seat ih any i ane pp and ve ‘who have completed their studies. Tsay to them: the pianist and the plano, they are at the same time: (1) the onductor (he head, heart, hearing); (a) the players (both hhands with ten fingers and both fet for the wo pedals); and (3) all the iastrumente (a singe piano or, in Rubinstei’s words, 4 hundred instruments, which is a many as there are in & symphony orchestra). ‘Al thie very simple and very well known, and honest to goodies I woulda’ repeat these tums it. well, iT did not feel daily more convinced of the fact that not oaly pupils, but ‘even many accomplished pianists, are not aware of this. Tam affaid that my many references to the orchestra, the conductor, ete, may be misunderstood and so shall ry to explain nysell T don't at all demand ofa piano pupil that he should, at the piano, imitate an orchestra, thinking of tall the He, cosider- Ig the piano as a sore of poor copy of another, better sound. Fit ofl the piano hari own individual beauty of tone, is cown “ego” which eannot be mistaken for anything else inthe ‘world, Secondly you have to know and love thi individual, particular "ego" of the piano in order to know and master it Filly. Anyone who has ever heard how some conductors or singers treat the piano (not knowing it) will mow once and for all how not to play it. T hope that this apparent contradiction will be understood correctly, that everyone will understand the dialectic of this phenomenon and why I speak, practically n the same breath, 2 From the Ost Godby Dershavin (4749-1846), a poem tans Jated into most Boropeas language, HD.6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING ft plana being te iage ofthe rhe, doe pan is only by demanding the imposible ofthe piano that you can obtain fom i all hat is poses For the pryholegit this ‘means that imagination and desire are ahead of the pomible realty A deat Beethoven created forthe piano sounds never Heard before and thus predetermined the development of the piano fr several decades to come. ‘The comporers eesive Jpisivimporcon the piano rales owiehe graualy Conforms ‘That isthe history ofthe instruments development. T dont now of any case when the reverse occurred. Tall not repeat all hat hat been known 0 well and fo 20 dongs that polyphony i the best way of obtaining a diversity of ne, that melodie eantable pices are indupensable for ‘earning wing on de plano ee, ce, tat 1H eet to develop the strength ofthe agen, a srong attack inorder to ply rapid pasages with all the ncomary clarity and accuracy tnd tobe ale w ackle the weeattype iterate ofthe plan From the lecomotor point of view “good” tone i always accompanied by fllest deity (but by no means weaknes) felied weightinas (in other words, an arm whieh eelaxed ffom the back and shoulder to the Saget touching the kes, forall acuracy i concentrated Sn the Singers) and sor, sMlquate contl of ths weight from a hay perceptible contact in. quick, estemely light note to a tremendous ‘rere wing faccesay the whele bod fa nde 0 obtain he Iaxinnum tone. All this mechanism i nota al complicated for anyone who cau hear well, has a eeu purpe, abe to realize the Heubilty abd Heedom of boy with wich naire has endowed him abd knows how to pat n't of stubborn ‘work om the pan, Tfeequendy tll my pupil half seriously, half'n jt hat to act mide an overcrowded teleybu sa mch more dial problem fom th locomotor point of view than sting down at 2 Although its much more securate to ay: you mn be able to sagen Ge pan ode fo play mei cae ee, The Tales aot tu 26 Chopin and Line ned to nya sal Anuledgtabl pople tl sy tis very day "That exalt French exprenton: ja jr ON TONE & ‘the piano. By the way, iia perfectly natural and quite legitimate ‘that I should cecasionally dash into another chapter, inthis case the chapter on technique. All the phenomena grouped under the heading “piano playing” are indisoluby Kinked with each other. That is wny when speaking of tone itis imposible no peak of the way itis produced, Se, of technique; speaking of technique it ir impossible not to mention tonc, jist at one cannot speak of the pedal separately from tone, o* of all these ‘components of piano playing separately from their origi, which {is dhe musical intention. ‘Each master pianist has his own individual palettes Ie this so strongly that it sometimes seems to me that the lighting or architectural appearance ofthe Great Hall ofour Conservatoire ‘Varies with the performance of the pianist for instance, Richter, Sofrontsky, Giles). T know that this is just my fancy, but & fancy which recalls reality to a remarkable degree. "Theres no tone “in general”, just as thereisno interpretation “in general” or expresion in general” nothing isin general”. In this connection T would reall those pages ef Stanislaaky’s bok in whic he refers othe expresion “in general” asa very great misfortune Somcone asked Anton Rubinstein if he could explain the tremendous impression which hi playing made on the audience. He ssid roughly the following: “Perhaps i due parly to the very great volume of sound, but mainly because T have putin a Tot of work in order to succeed in making the piano sing” Golden words! They should be engraved in marble in each classroom in each school of conservatoire where piano is ‘aught ‘And here I shall go back to something I said earlier: since the bass fall audible musics singing and since piano literature 5s fill ofeantabile, the fst and main concern of every pianist, should be to acquire a deep, fall, rich tone eapable ofa ‘nuance, with alls coundes gradations, vertically and horizontal. ‘An experienced pianist ean easly give three or four dynamic fuanoessimultancouly: for instance L mp ” ’6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING to say nothing of wing horizontally every posibility inherent in the piano's tne. The mistaken idea born out of the n0 less mistaken tend of the adepts of so-called neve Serle! (new objectivity) that the piano is only a percussion instrument, is contradicted by the whole history of piano literature and applies only tothe few works by these salich “businestike” composes, Tn actal fact “work at tone” is just as inaccurate an expres 2 as that of work onthe artistic image, We are too enslaved by our inaccurate words and expressions, we trust them 100 ‘much, People always say of any good pianist: What a beat fone! How wonderfl it sounds! ete. But what gives us the impresion of beautifil tone iin actual fat something much treater; i is the expresivenes of the performance, or in oer words, the ordering of sound in the proces of performing ‘composition. Tam convinced that you could never say ofa ot very musical performer that his playing sounds wonderful, even ithe knows hundreds of ways of producing tone and has gone through the whole busines of working at tone quality. In thebestof ease, twill ound good in pacts, but nt throughout. With a really creative art and pianist "a beautifil tone” i 2 ‘most complex process combining and ordering the relationship of tones of varying strength, varying duration, et, ety into & tingle entity, All this proves yet again what 1 have just spi tone is one of the means of expresion available tothe past (lke paint, colour and light for the painter), itis the mort important means, but stl only a means and nothing more. Its obvious that a good pianist with a bad tone isa cnraicio in ‘ajeto—an impessibiity. Ie posible to work effectively a the tone quality only when working at the work isl, the music and i components. And this work i in turn, inseparable from ‘work on technique in general, "The diference snd Yariety of the tonal picture presented by various great performers i infinite because of the differences in thei personalities, just as the paint, colour and light of great painters differ. Caimpare, for instance, Titian and Van Dyke, Velasquez and El Greco, Vrubel and Seroy) ete. And remem. ber, similarly, the tonal pitures of Busoni and Hlofinann, Pei and Cortot, Richter and ile Sofonitky and Oborin, es. ‘The lower the artic level of the performer, the less the * Russian palate 1865-1913, xD. oN TONE 6 penton, individual clement in ht playing the more monoto Tour and sia fo that of other, like performer ithe tonal Picture he procs, A concer gen by aboresverage pups, Tevinstance, leary demonstrate that it extremely dict 6 dlsinguish one pupil om another even i all of them play ee Tis obvious that ll piano paying, since it objet isto produce tne, sinevitably work atone, oF with tone, regardless {tht he thing lye ance or et ms compotion ‘o pay sales with a "bad tone fs 28 wrong ‘tpi th Goa Not wih ed one Whe et pani working at ome technical problems, i x st pals ate floc ateuacy ore ee, Bute one ro = 7 Teste Ont when wing foe guy eh i it he sets hime hat task speilly--does so his own way, Scoring to hs own penonal character Tt woud be hard {o imagine, for instance, that Chop, whose celling of tne cording to his contemporaries was about mezzafrte (a), ‘worked inthe same way a8 Rachmaninov whose eeling Wat incomparsbly higher (ve or sx fortes). But atthe same Ume ‘we ahould not forget that according to these sme contempo- {ares Chopin had within the iit fan extreme pani tnd the mezzlorte refed to such a variety of wounds, of iano, sch nich plete abo other pian endowed with trch gener abolnestength ever dreamed of This neds te stemed quite parila because tis precy, i more itoportann than anything be Peould confine myc to the considerations abowt tone and ork a tone quality that T have set out in hs eager T wll jstadd some ofthe advice Ihave to give my pupils when there omethng wrong wth thei one. 1. AsThave aleay i the condition sn gu ne for tone empl fcolom sn atin ce sa anon, ie fnges h Bea the tay Ticsciics at the font (Aer alte “Teeaic actor fr tone quality ithe contact ofthe fingertips on the ey; the rethand, wit, sm, shold, back—ehat i ‘ohn the ine and nt be well rgeized)7 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING Ac the very fat stage of pinintic development, T suggest following very simple exerts for acquiring varity of tone, tsseatal forall playing but particularly for performing pay: phonic mre: Be ag ‘Then do dhe same thing on four- and five-part chords it i sufficient to do this in some three or four tonalies, The following elementary exereises are also cfu: Bx. 24 ‘They should be practised in several tonalite, slowly, then in moderate tempo aid fst, alternately playing one part legato, theather staceato, 4. |Itin polyphonic musica pupil cannot manage orepreduce the Polyphonic web with sufleient reli, or plasticity, the method of exaggeration will be useful, as for instance playing the fllowing difical passage from the Fugue in E flat minor fout of Bach's Walenernter Klser (ook T, 20.8) withthe Tellowing dynamic indications: Somcte (lor greater clarity I have written the two top pats on separate staves). For the inexperienced pupil the eificulty lies in the ‘rosin of pats ONE ” «4JA very frequent mistake among pupils (even among the 'rifanced ones) to which one as to draw attention frequently, is the dynainic “similarity” between melody and accompat tment, the lack of an “air cushion” between the fst and second levels or between different planes, which is jut as unpleasant for the ee in the ease of a pictre, ss for the ear in the case of ‘musical composition Here, to, a exaggeration of the dynamic Gitance between melody and’ accompaniment can explain a great deal end help the pupil to understand. This isa faule of ‘which many conductors are gully, when they allow the wind Instruments specially the bras, to play too loudly in places ‘where they should only supply the harmony. Tecra nem o eet tat ner th deco the score indieates rescendo one should (a ace) play piano andif the indications dminaendo one akould Big neta weno aot retin oe aad dynamic changes (ie. thee penpective) sw fra ite musi image, Yet with many panies and conductors 4 rotted erect immediately tune into am otright te} Tins wealens the growth and culmination which the composer had intended; the mountain sumait Beoomes & pleat. To, Geive the point home 1 usually remind my pupils of ihe ‘SErezenssReennen at amet and geometie progresions ht is told of Tausig, the famous pianist, chat when he came ata ner ond iy lo pga allover a znd goo HAT CPE WoT fotwing! Soly-—that means with utmost centration, care filly, consientously; accurately, painstakingly, with @ beauti- fal tender tone; an exellent diet not only for the fingers but also fr the ear, an instant eorection of any inaccuracies fo accidents that inevitably occur during an’ impassioned, temperamental concert performance! eee ee Like oe teen pat tans se sie ig oe oe nec a ieee meee ag cy te mete re ici ad es pe oe» ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING falling) of the music! OF course there are exceptional eases when what is needed isa completely even sound devoid of any shading, 8 for instance the dead, monotonous sound in the Organ Fugue in E minor, arranged by Busoni (ia the Supple- meat to the Fist Book of the Wallimperies Klar) oy a8 ‘requently happens, a protracted, powerful and even f, et Ja. very ited pup achive by iasinet (ough, of fase witic inp stars wer) compceson et the tiger ant hay the wile cme cay he ian oe er he mal ntet ea, Cn gra eee Sho be explained and deveaped in mek len id papi, TE me pec to campla os evdinatos ey Se {sted dna Lovet peta tenn yar, pacoedog oe fos eo prea ku sey nly dey, keg fingers as closet the keys as posible, with "W* ata minimum, cfs ce sons "i ope tae klgit a heey Daee TES depresed. But to get an open, broad, flowing tone (think of Caruso or Gilt) you have to use the whole sing ofthe finger and hand (witha completely flexible legato). Thete are but wo Small examples but they can be multiplied ad igfintem; i ix Important t know, and to know from experience, that the ‘anatomy of the human hand i idea also fom the point of view (Of the pianist and is a convenient, suitable and intelligent ‘mechanism which provides a wealth of possibilities for extract- ing the mos varied tones out ofa piano. And the mechanism of {he hand is of eours in complete harmony with the mechanism ofthe piano. In good pianists there is a complete symbicrs between hand and keyboard, But that thie docs not elways Ihappen—and not only with pupils but also with mature piauists—that, too, we know fill well. Sometimes, when playing a protracted for ff some pianists get excited, they boil And pant and appatenty do not notice that the volume of ound does not increase, but that the reverse happens, that thelr tone becomes weaker and sometimes degenerates ito sere thumping. This slike the man who is begining to lose Ii voice and tres to talk as loudly a8 posible, instead of which 1 Compaze the exelent indcaone of Hane von Balow to he ‘Adagio tt Beethoven's Sonata op. 106 (where the righthand has ‘demiemiquaver), ot the seoond movement of ope 111 (url Sarladon wit desisemiquaven). ON TONE 2 Ihe merely gets hoarse, With the pianist thio happens presse because there i no coordination between the musica demain and the work of his muscles, which, in such cases, are usually ‘i, tense nd hampered, As a matter of fact i should never be forgotten that this physical freedom atthe piano is impossible ‘without musical or tpititual eedom. A pianst whois unable to der musical expression without hysteri mp will ieviably have a hysterical and cramped, in other words an ‘Sopsee teinteal merbanian god the ain components of” ‘usle—tine (rythm) and tone—wllbe perverted ed old Latin adage—men sana iv evporesono—retains al seaning for the pianist. These simple truths have to be fe- {quently mentioned in class and that why T repeat them here fo Wine question of tone in compositions which require the we lal—in other words almost always~cannot be considered Separately ffom pedalling, just a itis imposible to decide on proper pedalling weparately from tone, from tone quality. Thave ready refered to this, OF course iti wieful to play @ piece ‘without pedal in order to check the accuracy and clarity ofeach note, but it is mor dy a composition ith oper ng ‘vith ts help ti i T aball take tis fa greater etaiin the section dealing with pedal. mae of the mort difcule but satisfying tasks for the pis is to create a multiplane tonal texture. Ihave already fentioed thi when L compared a misical composition to & painting. Any Kind of polyphoay i in itselT 2 multplane fKructute—one has to play expresively and independently the theme and all the other parts that accompany it. The funda~ mental tendency of polyphony (its “Protoform”? isthe move- ‘ment of parts in contrary motion; the purest example— posible ‘only in two-part writings the F sharp major Prelude from the Second Book of Bach's Walltenprtes Kater (bars 53 and 53) tnd the bars preceding the end ofthe Fugue in A flat major, No, r7 in the Second Book. There i lza the “mirror” move: nicnt of notes and finger, bars, to, (1 and 12 ofthe Prelude in minor (Book 2, No. 6) or the seond subject in the second movement of Prokofiev's Fourth Sonata (F-have left out the sccompanying semiquaver) ae” ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING Be 6 We find a similar example in the concluding part of Prokofiev's ‘Third Sonata. This tendency of juxtaposition, of “mirroring” ‘ean be achieved in polyphony ‘with more than two part mainly by means of eiferent muances, or dynamic plance ‘corresponding exactly tothe polyphonic textureanditsmenning, ‘This multiplane texture is even more escental in tranerip- tions of orchestral works (fr instance the famous concluding scene fom Tria, "Iolde’s Death”, arranged by Liset) but also in any piano composition, whether a Chopin fantasie or 2 Beethoven sonata, Schumann antaie, et. (Whose wh so wish ‘may find their own examples). Examples of mullplane structure may be found fst of alin any polyphonic composition, beginning with the Inventions and Fugues ot Bach an Handel snd ening with the fags a Tut, of course, examples of multplane abound in the mest, varied styles. Here are & few typical instances! (a). Chopin Etude in E at minor, op. ro (No.6). Foreground: ‘melody; second level: bas, long bass note Tasting a whole bar or half a bar; third level: semiquaver movement in the middle part If this natural Uhreelevel structure, which sometimes becomes four-part, is not observed, the whole composition Decomes minty and unclear, regardle' ofthe expresive way it say be played.! T have had to explain it in class many times; ‘ery often the semiquavers ofthe middle part were played too Tudlly compared tothe bass (see para. 11), the music lst its support and became “egies” Tels very appropriate here 9 femember that Anton Rabinsiy let the Geo Ah ingzr Tepacon” leading We mse The las of ound Co Upper and Tower) are fo music what the frame i to a picture; 1A opel ame finger are Chal Prado ‘acl in Ba major and C maj for organ, aseanged by Busoni ON TONE 8 the slightest blurr (whichis particulary Fequent at the lower init) in the bass results ina diffe, thapelews picture; the ‘musical comporition then turns (as I sometimes tell my pupils) into either "a headless horseman”, ifthe bass and harmony ‘reo the my signee he bod wal or plbehed moat the Rony aio ah “Wariner cy (onan, eter ety ape Set peasy tates yee kaw be repented a cam ey frequently. There is viously a considerable distance between knowing a thing and carrying it out (theory and practice, planning snd implementing, kaowing and doing). (}) Chopin's Nocturne in © minor, repetition of the fint subject (agitate). This i far from easy to render in a clear, plastic manner because of the very full harmony that act ‘Companies it (the “middle”, the octaves inthe bass and the fact ‘hat dhe melody is left co the fh finger alone, and yet must prevail over the rest. I there is here a lurking danger of the headless horseman” Lsuggest sing the method of exaggeration which Tmentioned ealier and attempt to play the melody very Jfthe accompaniment p and the bas mp (approximately). ‘A similar diiealty to be found in the whole ofthe end of Chopin's Polonare-Fantaiie op. 61 (after the unison passage in both hands wat the end). (6) Scriabin, Fourth Sonata, thewhole of the end (f).Same siicalt. In spite ofthe tremendows f with an accompaniment of sevens and eightpart chords and a fall bas in octaves the Imelody, whic is only in the fh finger, has to predominate: Bear Poor fith fnget, what a loti expected of it Hence the ctncln: develop the itl finger in every Way, make i into * Richie ply he cxtremely dary apd exprsively ot only ecu a i Semsndnce maka tb tt i bein of {sett power hands Tv soc pla smal hands mt Shap ty 0 "chet6 ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING ato ‘under the dome ofthe hand. (But fingers will be discused Tr the chapter on technique) (@) Much exserto perform are such examples of multiplane structure as for instance, the second subject in D flat major in {Ghopin’s Thied Scherzo (C sharp miner), not only because of| the extreme contrast in register, but also because the various tonal patterns follow each other and are not simultaneous (horizontal instead of vertical). ‘Asinilarexamplo—the Debuay Etude Sonor pus fom the Second Book. But here too, though actual executon is cease, iis eaental it to predetermine with the eae the nest Shade of difference and quality of tone and then execute i with the fingers; but this requires & welldeveloped eat and touch, (@) In modem music, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Reger, Szymanowei and othery, there isa rmense number of particulary telling examples of such rult- plane texture, recommend anyone who is interested to sec fut such pieces and pasages and then study them in order 19 perfect tonal technique, There is endles scope for auch activity. {eis obvious that if the player understands this musically, iif he fears this-multiplane texcure, he will inevitably ind the means of rendering if however, he is sil foo bogged down by technical difficulties and ie unable to hear the musie mentally, She tegcher mst help him. and again [have to remind pupils that long notes (fei, vemibeves, noes lasting several bars) must ata ru be ph re fore than the shorter notes that 3 ny them (quaver, vemiquaver, denisemiquaver, ee ‘This again being due to the fundamental “detect” of the piano the extineon of ita tone (with the organ this rule obviously does not apply). Ihave often been amazed to find that even very talented pupils did not always appear to have ‘rlclendy demanding ea in this respect and did ot render ‘the musical texture with sufficient platcty. An inslficenty telucated eat is also Frequently relleted in too much volume in the bas when playing f (“booming”). Tis booming is par- ticularly unpleasant in Chopin, where a rough, thundering bas {s defintely not permisible (in List, on the other hand, one fan often hear Kettle-drame and eymbals inthe bast, but this {in no way implies that one ean thump and bang onthe piano). ON TONE 7 Be fault whichis very provalent and which has a fatal fee? on tone quality i fond in pupil with small hands (pecially women); i isthe dynamic dominance in the right hand ofthe thumb over the Kile Rnger in chords and octaves. This is particularly dnadmisble in eases when the octave is a oubling of Use melody (fo stance the end of Chopin's Third Ballade} and thousands of SS Ex at {In such a cae I advise the pupil to learn each part separately, and thoroughly and, in addition, to play the excellent exercises far double notes which Godowaly gives i his comments to his arrangements for the left hand of Chopin's Etude in double thirds op. 25, beginning with the chromate seconds, feequenty ‘encountered in such pian literature as Ravel and Szymaaowski fnd ending with octaves. The main sigaificance of these fxereis Hes In the fact that they are taken as exercises in polyphony in two parts, aot just double nots, but two parts ‘which one must be able to play diferentiy from each other. T will give thee exerts here as Gadowsky’s arrangements of the {Chopin Etudes are very dificult ¢o get. T shall ake as an ‘example chromatic minor thirds. Exactly the same exercise are ‘recommended for octaves sxths, and as T have already said, Es. a98 tg ete, two octaves up and two down. The same may be played lege* ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING Sa Te agp te. (the fingering remains always the same) ON TONE 7” ‘This exercise i meant to strengthen the thied on the spot and scquite an accurate consonance of the two notes. ‘And finally simply a chromatic seal in thie Be age (This exercise as all the others, to be played «vo or three cetaves up and down, at fist not too fst, then presto posible). Te the octave exercise were played according to this system, ‘examples (f) and (¢) would look like this: sae Be 299 de 68 (glissando fiom above downwards, a everywhere) “The puree of topping Srthe sacs tt the hand playing soecqueny only fone note ofthe octave should retain the octave stretch and not lose “accidentally” T should like 10 point out that T could perhaps give there cxercses with greater reason under the heading of technique, ‘bat I deliberately placed them here since technical exercises are ‘exercises for producing tone. And with this I want to stres once ‘more that work on tone i ‘work on& ‘THE ART OF PIANO PLAYING es) Tere is «fault whichis losty Hnked 10 the one mritioned inthe previous paragraph Isa earesmes very ‘wlepend among pple wih cal hands, who when laying {ord or octaves op the finger not engaged on the chord Gqtion (or the coon tid td fourth Rng when paying Steet) onthe keyrwhich happen oe uner tem. te whet to dang the pup payor ee fers which ane" come into onydight cota withthe ky now achat the eye and profuce sounds, In las we term Una dea Bide Figen “iympuhede™ ES obo that in order to comet thi fault he pup mast fin ofa be made tote crcl tothe renting cacophony fn then abou be simpy adved to hold the unecopied finger hgh, ose that they donot accidentally touch a Key, fn o hold the wit lower (ich can be dial sal indy ution ther sential) otha te ings can look werd and not “downoad Tri nterring tone hy witha ral vow, instance Gilt, the umtapid ngee’abvays sonata att proper lates rom the ys witht eve touching than. Tis what fre the pani that pecgon and prt found wo tee Bethe tener ‘Aten plea here oy she problem of technique io tom oft a [have already sid that a pianist cannot have bea one is ear dors not detec the whole avaabe range of tone coninty which the plano provides, down fo the wer? fest mement of ft extinction [fps Bat one should not forget the masing bilan, te spare fetch pansy for Instance Horowts, who ae avery spring sof he peal, olen sano eat adn general owt show te Derunive “ham” quality othe piano to ts bet advantage {Gis of course has nothing in common with “dyna” or least "The inference clear: one must develop on’ technique to produce both quale, pariilary sce they ave ewcsally cede nino erate T repeat oth the sveage pianist and the ret pian, i she ely now howto wor, wl seq thei own inal ON TONE a tone quality which corresponds to their psychological, technical and physical make-up, and will never be a: warehouse of “universal” tone or of every kind of technical perfection. There are lucky, no such phenomena, In the ease of performers, 00, ‘one may only speak’ of universality inthe sene in which i ie spoken of generally, ie. in connection with th history of music aba whole, We have to aceept that the highest achievement of the performer's art (for instance the playing of Mozart or Bach, fof Anton Rubinstein or Rachmaninov, Paganini or List) come and go and go forever. But there is no need to grieve over this ‘Others are born who take thelr place Ia thi respect the ie of ‘Ar follows Nature very closely. Tam repeating well-worn truth, but I do so deliberately. Because to forget them is to leave room for the mistaken ‘opinions and fae demands which one encounters daily. Toul quote much additional material concerning work on tone quality, material which comes to ight during work with ‘my pupils. Pam almose sure tht Ihave forgotten to ssy some= ‘thing very important and perhape was wrong to dwell on things ‘of secondary importance But for fear of boring my hypothetical ‘eader—and myself shall draw the line. Besides, ie isnot my Intention to turn these notes nto a textbook of piano playing. ‘And T should like to end these pages on tone with the words 1 sometimes say to my pupil: tone must be clothed in silences ‘mast be enshrined in silence likes jewel in a Velvet care