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diff --git a/old/28026.txt b/old/28026.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24c07ba --- /dev/null +++ b/old/28026.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7911 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Great Pianists on Piano Playing, by James +Francis Cooke + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Great Pianists on Piano Playing + Study Talks with Foremost Virtuosos. A Series of Personal Educational Conferences with Renowned Masters of the Keyboard, Presenting the Most Modern Ideas upon the Subjects of Technic, Interpretation, Style and Expression + + +Author: James Francis Cooke + + + +Release Date: February 8, 2009 [eBook #28026] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT PIANISTS ON PIANO PLAYING*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 28026-h.htm or 28026-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/0/2/28026/28026-h/28026-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/0/2/28026/28026-h.zip) + + + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in | + | this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | + | this document. | + | | + | Quotation marks have been left in this text as the were | + | in the original. Some are unmatched. | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +GREAT PIANISTS ON PIANO PLAYING + +Study Talks with Foremost Virtuosos + +by + +JAMES FRANCIS COOKE + +A Series of Personal Educational Conferences with Renowned Masters +of the Keyboard, Presenting the Most Modern Ideas upon the Subjects +of Technic, Interpretation, Style and Expression + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +Theo. Presser Co. +Philadelphia, Pa. + +Copyright, 1913, by Theo. Presser Co. +International Copyright Secured + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +1. THE ARTIST'S LIFE 5 + +2. ARE PIANISTS BORN OR MADE? 24 + +3. THE STORY OF A WONDER-CHILD _Pepito Arriola_ 41 + +4. THE PIANIST OF TO-MORROW _Wilhelm Bachaus_ 52 + +5. ARTISTIC ASPECTS OF PIANO STUDY _Harold Bauer_ 64 + +6. APPEARING IN PUBLIC _Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler_ 80 + +7. IMPORTANT DETAILS IN PIANO STUDY _Ferruccio Busoni_ 97 + +8. DISTINCTIVE PIANO PLAYING _Teresa Carreno_ 109 + +9. ESSENTIALS OF TOUCH _Ossip Gabrilowitsch_ 122 + +10. THE REAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TECHNIC _Leopold Godowsky_ 133 + +11. ANALYZING MASTERPIECES _Katharine Goodson_ 144 + +12. PROGRESS IN PIANO STUDY _Josef Hofmann_ 158 + +13. PIANO STUDY IN RUSSIA _Josef Lhevinne_ 170 + +14. SEEKING ORIGINALITY _Vladimir de Pachmann_ 182 + +15. MODERN PIANISTIC PROBLEMS _Max Pauer_ 197 + +16. ESSENTIALS OF ARTISTIC PLAYING _S. V. Rachmaninoff_ 208 + +17. SYSTEMATIC MUSICAL TRAINING _A. Reisenauer_ 222 + +18. THE TRAINING OF THE VIRTUOSO _E. Sauer_ 236 + +19. ECONOMY IN MUSIC STUDY _X. Scharwenka_ 252 + +20. LEARNING A NEW PIECE _E. Schelling_ 267 + +21. WHAT INTERPRETATION REALLY IS _S. Stojowski_ 279 + + + + +I + +THE ARTIST'S LIFE + +THE VIRTUOSO'S CAREER AS IT REALLY IS + + +The father of a young woman who was preparing to become a virtuoso once +applied to a famous musical educator for advice regarding the future +career of his daughter. "I want her to become one of the greatest +pianists America has ever produced," he said. "She has talent, good +health, unlimited ambition, a good general education, and she is +industrious." The educator thought for awhile, and then said, "It is +very likely that your daughter will be successful in her chosen field, +but the amount of grinding study she will be obliged to undergo to meet +the towering standards of modern pianism is awful to contemplate. In the +end she will have the flattery of the multitude, and, let us hope, some +of their dollars as well. In return, she may have to sacrifice many of +the comforts and pleasures which women covet. The more successful she +is, the more of a nomad she must become. She will know but few days for +years when she will not be compelled to practice for hours. She becomes +a kind of chattel of the musical public. She will be harassed by +ignorant critics and perhaps annoyed by unreliable managers. In return +she has money and fame, but, in fact, far less of the great joy and +purpose of life than if she followed the customary domestic career with +some splendid man as her husband. When I was younger I used to preach +quite an opposite sermon, but the more I see of the hardships of the +artist's life the less I think of the dollars and the fame it brings. It +is hard enough for a man, but it is twice as hard for a woman." + + +GOLDEN BAIT + +Some cynic has contended that the much-despised "Almighty Dollar" has +been the greatest incentive to the struggling virtuoso in European music +centers. Although this may be true in a number of cases, it is certainly +unjust in others. Many of the virtuosos find travel in America so +distasteful that notwithstanding the huge golden bait, the managers have +the greatest difficulty in inducing the pianists to come back. Indeed, +there are many artists of great renown whom the managers would be glad +to coax to our country but who have withheld tempting offers for years. +One of these is Moritz Moszkowski, probably the most popular of modern +pianoforte composers of high-class music. Grieg, when he finally +consented to make the voyage to America, placed his price at two +thousand five hundred dollars for every concert--a sum which any manager +would regard prohibitive, except in the case of one world-famous +pianist. Grieg's intent was obvious. + +The inconveniences of travel in America have been ridiculously +exaggerated in Europe, and many virtuosos dread the thought of an +American trip, with the great ocean yawning between the two continents, +and red-skinned savages just beyond New York or certainly not far from +Chicago. De Pachmann detests the ocean, and when he comes over in his +favorite month of June he does not dare return until the following June. +Others who have never visited America must get their idea of American +travel from some such account as that of Charles Dickens in his +unforgivable _American Notes_ (1842), in which he said, in describing +one of our railroads: + + "There is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of noise, a + great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a + shriek and a bell. The cars are like shabby omnibuses + holding thirty, forty, fifty people. In the centre of the + carriage there is usually a stove, fed with charcoal or + anthracite coal, which is for the most part red hot. It is + insufferably close, and you see the hot air fluttering + between yourself and any other object you may happen to look + at." + +There could have been but little improvement in our railroads in 1872 +when Rubinstein came to America, for although he accepted $40,000 for +215 concerts during his first trip, he refused an offer of $125,000 for +only 50 concerts when a manager tried to persuade him to return. + +American railroads now present the acme of comfort, convenience, and +even luxury in travel, yet the European artist has difficulty in +adjusting himself to journeys of thousands of miles crowded in a short +winter season when he has been accustomed to little trips of a few +hundred kilometers. He comes to dread the trains as we might a prison +van. Paderewski resorts to a private car, but even this luxurious mode +of travel may be very monotonous and exhausting. + +The great distances must certainly account for some of the evidences of +strain which deform the faces and exhaust the minds of so many +virtuosos. The traveling salesman seems to thrive upon miles of railroad +travel as do the crews of the trains, but the virtuoso, dragged from +concert to concert by his showman, grows tired--oh, so tired, pale, wan, +listless and indifferent! At the beginning of the season he is quite +another person. The magnetism that has done so much to win him fame +shines in his eyes and seems to emanate from his finger-tips, but the +difference in his physical being at the end of the season is sickening. +Like a bedraggled, worn-out circus coming in from the wear and tear of a +hard season, he crawls wearily back to New York with a cinematographic +recollection of countless telegraph poles flying past the windows, +audience after audience, sleeping cars, budding geniuses, the inevitable +receptions with their equally inevitable chicken salad or lukewarm +oysters, and the "sweet young things," who, like Heine's mythical tribe +of _Asra_, must love or perish. Some virtuosos have the physical +strength to endure all this, even enjoy it, but many have confessed to +me that their American tours have been literal nightmares. + +One of the greatest pianists was obliged to stay in New York for a while +before attempting the voyage homeward. At the time he was so weak from +the rigors of the tour that he could scarcely write his name. His +haggard face suggested the tortures of a Torquamada rather than Buffalo, +Kansas City, Denver and Pittsburgh. His voice was tired and faltering, +and his chief interest was that of the invalid--getting home as soon as +possible. To have talked with him upon music at that time would have +been an injustice. Accordingly, I led him away from the subject and +dwelt upon the woes of his native Poland, and, much to his surprise, +left him without the educational material of which I had been in quest. +He asked the reason, and I told him that a musical conference at that +time could serve no purpose. + +As men and women, aside from the attainments which have made them +illustrious, virtuosos are for the most part very much like ordinary +mortals who have to content themselves at the foot of Parnassus. It has +been my privilege to know thirty or more of the most eminent artists, +and some have become good personal friends. It is interesting to observe +how several very different types of individuals may succeed in winning +public favor as virtuosos. Indeed, except for the long-haired caricature +which the public accepts as the conventional virtuoso there is no +"virtuoso type." Here is a business man, here an artist, here an +engineer, here a jurist, here an actor, here a poet and here a freak, +all of them distinguished performers. Perhaps the enthusiastic +music-lover will resent the idea of a freak becoming famous as a +pianist, but I have known no less than three men who could not possibly +be otherwise described, but who have nevertheless made both fame and +fortune as virtuosos. + + +FREAK PIANISTS + +The anthropologist who chooses to conduct special investigations of +freaks can find no more entertaining field than that of the remarkable +freaks of the brain, shown in the cases of some astonishing performers +whose intelligence and mental capacity in other ways has been +negligible. The classic case of Blind Tom, for instance, was that of a +freak not so very far removed in kind from the Siamese Twins, or General +Tom Thumb. Born a slave in Georgia, and wholly without what teachers +would term a musical education, Blind Tom amazed many of the most +conservative musicians of his time. It was possible for him to repeat +difficult compositions after hearing them played only once. I conversed +with him a number of years ago in New York, only to find that +intellectually and physically he was allied to the _cretin_. + +Blind Tom's peculiar ability has led many hasty commentators to conclude +that music is a wholly separate mental faculty to be found particularly +in a more or less shiftless and irresponsible class of gifted but +intellectually limited human beings. The few cases of men and women +whose musical talent seems to eclipse their minds so that they remain in +utter darkness to everything else in life, should not be taken as a +basis for judging other artists of real genius and undisputed mental +breadth. I have in mind, however, the case of one pianist who is very +widely known and highly lauded, but who is very slightly removed from +the class of Blind Tom. A trained alienist, one acquainted with the +difference between the eccentricities which frequently accompany +greatness and the unconscious physical and psychical evidences of idiocy +which so clearly agree with the antics of the chimpanzee or the droll +Capuchin monkeys, might find in the performer to whom I refer a subject +for some very interesting, not to say startling reflections. Few have +ever been successful in inducing this pianist to talk upon any other +subject than music for more than a few minutes at a time. Another +pianist, who was distinguished as a Liszt pupil, and who toured America +repeatedly, seemed to have a hatred for the piano that amounted to an +obsession. "Look," he exclaimed, "I am its slave. It has sent me round +and round the world, night after night, year after year. It has cursed +me like a wandering Jew. No rest, no home, no liberty. Do you wonder +that I drink to forget it?" + + +A PATHETIC EXAMPLE + +And drink he did in Bacchanalian measure! One time he gave an +unconscious exhibition of his technical ability that, while regrettable, +would have been of immense interest to psychologists who are seeking to +prove that music depends upon a separate operation of a special +"faculty." During his American tours I called frequently upon this +virtuoso for the purpose of investigating his method of playing. He was +rarely free from the influence of alcohol for more than a few hours at +a time. One morning it was necessary for me to see him professionally, +and when I found him at his hotel he was in a truly disgraceful +condition. I remember that he was unable to stand, from the fact that he +fell upon me while I was sitting in a Morris chair. He was barely able +to talk, and just prior to my leaving he insisted upon scrawling upon +his visiting card, "Zur freundlichen Errinerung, auf einen sehr spaeten +Abend." (Friendly remembrances of a very late evening.) Since it was +still very early in the morning, it may be realized that he had lost all +idea of his whereabouts. Nevertheless, he sat at the piano keyboard and +played tremendously difficult compositions by Liszt and +Brahms--compositions which compelled his hands to leap from one part of +the keyboard to the other as in the case of the Liszt _Campanella_. He +never missed a note until he lost his balance upon the piano stool and +fell to the floor. Disgusting and pathetic as the exhibition was, I +could not help feeling that I was witnessing a marvelous instance of +automatism, that wonderful power of the mind working through the body to +reproduce, apparently without effort or thought, operations which have +been repeated so many times that they have become "second nature." More +than this, it indicated clearly that while the better part of the man's +body was "dead to the world," the faculty he had cultivated to the +highest extent still remained alive. Some years later this man succumbed +to alcoholism. + + +THE PIANIST OF TO-DAY + +Contrasted with a type of this kind may be mentioned such men as Sauer, +Rachmaninov, d'Albert, Paderewski, Godowsky, Bachaus, Rosenthal, Pauer, +Joseffy, Stojowski, Scharwenka, Gabrilowitsch, Hofmann, Bauer, Lhevinne, +to say nothing of the ladies, Bloomfield-Zeisler, Carreno, Goodson, _et +al._, many of whom are intellectual giants. Most all are exceedingly +regular in their habits, and at least two are strong temperance +advocates. Intellectually, pianists of this class represent a very +remarkable kind of mentality. One is impressed with the surprising +quickness with which their brains operate even in ordinary conversation. +Speaking in alien languages, they find comparatively little difficulty +in expressing themselves with rapidity and fluency. Very few great +singers ever acquire a similar ease. These pianists are wonderfully well +read, many being acquainted with the literature of three or more tongues +in the original. Indeed, it is not unusual to find them skipping through +several languages during ordinary conversation without realizing that +they are performing linguistic feats that would put the average college +graduate to shame. They are familiar with art, science, politics, +manufactures, even in their most recent developments. "What is your +favorite type of aeroplane?" asked one some years ago in the +kindergarten days of cloud navigation. I told him that I had made no +choice, since I had never seen a flying machine, despite the fact that +I was a native of the country that gave it birth. He then vouchsafed his +opinions and entered into a physical and mechanical discussion of the +matter, indicating that he had spent hours in getting the whole subject +straightened out in his mind. This same man, a German, knew whole cantos +of the _Inferno_ by heart, and could repeat long scenes from _King Lear_ +with a very creditable English accent. + +The average American "tired business man" who is inclined to look upon +the touring virtuoso as "only a pianist" would be immensely surprised if +he were called upon to compare his store of "universal" information with +that of the performer. He would soon see that his long close confinement +behind the bars of the dollar sign had made him the intellectual +inferior of the musician he almost ignores. But it is hardly fair to +compare these famous interpreters with the average "tired business man." +They are the Cecil Rhodes, the Thomas Edisons, the Maurice Maeterlincks +of their fields. It is easy enough to find musicians of smaller life +opportunities basking in their ignorance and conceit. + +While the virtuoso may be described as intellectual in the broader sense +of the term, he usually has a great fear of becoming academic. He +aspires to be artistic rather than scholarly. He strives to elevate +rather than to teach--in the strictly pedagogical sense. Some of the +greatest performers have been notoriously weak as teachers. They do not +seek the walls of the college, neither do they long for the cheap +_Bohemianism_ that so many of the French feuilletonists delight in +describing. (Why should the immorality of the artist's life be laid at +the doors of fair Bohemia?) The artist's life is wrapped up in making +his readings of master works more significant, more eloquent, more +beautiful. He is interested in everything that contributes to his +artistry, whether it be literature, science, history, art or the technic +of his own interpretative development. He penetrates the various mystic +problems which surround piano playing by the infallible process of +persistent study and reflection. The psychical phase of his work +interests him immensely, particularly the phenomena of personal +attraction--often called magnetism. + + +THE MAGIC OF MAGNETISM + +Magnetism is surely one of the most enviable possessions of the +successful pianist. Just what magnetism is and how it comes to be, few +psychologists attempt to relate. We all have our theories, just why one +pianist who often blunders as readily as a Rubinstein, or who displays +his many shortcomings at every concert can invariably draw larger +audiences and arouse more applause than his confrere with weaker vital +forces, although he be admittedly a better technician, a more highly +educated gentleman and perhaps a more sensitive musician. + +Charles Frohman, keenest of theatrical producers, attributed the actor's +success to "vitality," and in doing this he merely chose one of the +weaker synonyms of magnetism. Vitality in this sense does not imply +great bodily strength. It is rather soul-strength, mind-strength, +life-strength. Professor John D. Quackenbos, A.M., M.D., formerly of +Columbia University, essays the following definition of magnetism in his +excellent _Hypnotic Therapeutics_: + + "Magnetism is nothing more than earnestness and sincerity, + coupled with insight, sympathy, patience and tact. These + essentials cannot be bought and cannot be taught. They are + 'born by nature,' they are dyed with 'the red ripe of the + heart.'" + +But Dr. Quackenbos is a physician and a philosopher. Had he been a +lexicographer he would have found the term magnetism far more inclusive. +He would at least have admitted the phenomenon which we have witnessed +so often when one possessed with volcanic vitality overwhelms a great +audience. + +The old idea that magnetism is a kind of invisible form of intellectual +or psychic electricity has gone down the grotesque phrenological +vagaries of Gall as well as some of the pseudoscientific theories of +that very unusual man, Mesmer. We all possess what is known as +magnetism. Some have it in an unusual degree, as did Edwin Booth, Franz +Liszt, Phillips Brooks and Bismarck. It was surely neither the art nor +the ability of Daniel Webster that made his audiences accept some of his +fatuous platitudes as great utterances, nor was it the histrionic talent +alone of Richard Mansfield that enabled him to wring success from such +an obvious theatrical contraption as _Prince Karl_. Both Webster, with +his fathomless eyes and his ponderous voice, and Mansfield, with his +compelling personality, were exceptional examples of magnetism. + + +A NOTABLE EXAMPLE + +Among virtuosos Paderewski is peculiarly forceful in the personal spell +he casts over his audience. Someone has said that it cost one hundred +thousand dollars to exploit his hair before he made his first American +tour. But it was by no means curiosity to see his hair which kept on +filling auditorium after auditorium. I attended his first concert in New +York, and was amazed to see a comparatively small gathering of musical +zealots. His command of the audience was at once imperial. The critics, +some of whom would have found Paderewski's hirsute crown a delightful +rack upon which to hang their ridicule, went into ecstasies instead. His +art and his striking personality, entirely apart from his appearance, +soon made him the greatest concert attraction in the musical world. +Anyone who has conversed with him for more than a few moments realizes +what the meaning of the word magnetism is. His entire bearing--his lofty +attitude of mind, his personal dignity all contribute to the +inexplicable attraction that the arch hypnotist Mesmer first described +as animal magnetism. + +That magnetism of the pianist must be considered wholly apart from +personal beauty and great physical strength is obvious to anyone who has +given the subject a moment's thought. Many of the artists already +mentioned (in this book) who possess magnetism similar to that of +Paderewski could surely never make claim for personal beauty. Neither is +magnetism akin to that attraction we all experience when we see a +powerful, well-groomed horse, a sleek hound, a handsome tiger--that is, +it is not mere admiration for a beautiful animal. Whether it has any +similarity to the mysterious charm which makes the doomed bird lose +control of its wings upon the approach of a snake is difficult to +estimate. Certainly, in the paraphernalia of the modern recital with its +lowered lights and its solitary figure playing away at a polished +instrument one may find something of the physical apparatus employed by +the professional hypnotist to insure concentration--but even this can +not account for the pianist's real attractiveness. If Mr. Frohman's +"vitality" means the "vital spark," the "life element," it comes very +close to a true definition of magnetism, for success without this +precious Promethean force is inconceivable. It may be only a smouldering +ember in the soul of a dying Chopin, but if it is there it is +irresistible until it becomes extinct. Facial beauty and physical +prowess all made way for the kind of magnetism that Socrates, George +Sand, Julius Caesar, Henry VIII, Paganini, Emerson, Dean Swift or Richard +Wagner possessed. + +More wonderful still is the fact that magnetism is by no means confined +to those who have finely trained intellects or who have achieved great +reputations. Some vaudeville buffoon or some gypsy fiddler may have +more attractive power than the virtuoso who had spent years in +developing his mind and his technic. The average virtuoso thinks far +more of his "geist," his "talent" (or as Emerson would have it, "the +shadow of the soul--the otherwise") than he does of his technic, or his +cadenzas. By what mystic means magnetism may be developed, the writer +does not pretend to know. Possibly by placing one's deeper self (shall +we say "subconscious self") in closer communion with the great throbbing +problems of the invisible though perpetually evident forces of nature +which surround us we may become more alive, more sensitively vivified. +What would it mean to the young virtuoso if he could go to some occult +master, some seer of a higher thought, and acquire that lode-stone* +which has drawn fame and fortune to the blessed few? Hundreds have spent +fortunes upon charlatans in the attempt. + +All artists know the part that the audience itself plays in falling +under the magnetic spell of the performer. Its connection with the +phenomena of autosuggestion is very clear. Dr. Wundt, the famous German +psychologist, showed a class of students how superstitions unconsciously +acquired in early life affect sensible adults who have long since passed +the stage at which they might put any credence in omens. At a concert +given by a famous player, the audience has been well schooled in +anticipation. The artist always appears under a halo his reputation has +made for him. This very reputation makes his conquest far easier than +that of the novice who has to prove his ability before he can win the +sympathy of the audience. He is far more likely to find the audience _en +rapport_ than indifferent. Sometime, at the play in a theater, watch how +the audience will unconsciously mirror the facial expressions of the +forceful actor. In some similar manner, the virtuoso on the concert +platform sensitizes the minds and emotions of the sympathetic audience. +If the effect is deep and lasting, the artist is said to possess that +Kohinoor of virtuosodom--magnetism. + +Some widely read critics have made the very natural error of confounding +magnetism with personality. These words have quite different +connotations--personality comprehending the more subtle force of +magnetism. An artist's individual worth is very closely allied with his +personality--that is, his whole extrinsic attitude toward the thought +and action of the world about him. How important personality is may be +judged by the widely advertised efforts of the manufacturers of +piano-playing machines to convince the public that their products, often +astonishingly fine, do actually reproduce the individual effects which +come from the playing of the living artist. Piano-playing machines have +their place, and it is an important one. However, wonderful as they may +be, they can never be anything but machines. They bring unquestioned joy +to thousands, and they act as missionaries for both music and the +music-teacher by taking the art into countless homes where it might +otherwise never have penetrated, thus creating the foundation for a +strong desire for a thorough study of music. The piano-playing machine +may easily boast of a mechanism as wonderful as that of a Liszt, a +d'Albert or a Bachaus, but it can no more claim personality than the +typewriter upon which this article is being written can claim to +reproduce the individuality which characterizes the handwriting of +myriads of different persons. Personality, then, is the virtuoso's one +great unassailable stronghold. It is personality that makes us want to +hear a half dozen different renderings of a single Beethoven sonata by a +half dozen different pianists. Each has the charm and flavor of the +interpreter. + +But personality in its relation to art has been so exquisitely defined +by the inimitable British essayist, A. C. Benson, that we can do no +better than to quote his words: + +"I have lately come to perceive that the one thing which gives value to +any piece of art, whether it be book, or picture, or music, is that +subtle and evasive thing which is called personality. No amount of +labor, of zest, even of accomplishment, can make up for the absence of +this quality. It must be an almost instinctive thing, I believe. Of +course, the mere presence of personality in a work of art is not +sufficient, because the personality revealed may be lacking in charm; +and charm, again, is an instinctive thing. No artist can set out to +capture charm; he will toil all the night and take nothing; but what +every artist can and must aim at is to have a perfectly sincere point of +view. He must take his chance as to whether his point of view is an +attractive one; but sincerity is the one indispensable thing. It is +useless to take opinions on trust, to retail them, to adopt them; they +must be formed, created, felt. The work of a sincere artist is almost +certain to have some value; the work of an insincere artist is of its +very nature worthless." + +Mr. Benson's "charm" is what the virtuoso feels as magnetism. It puts +something into the artist's playing that he cannot define. For a moment +the vital spark flares into a bewildering flame, and all his world is +peopled with moths hovering around the "divine fire." + + +THE GREATEST THING OF ALL + +If we have dwelt too long upon magnetism, those who know its importance +in the artist's life will readily perceive the reason. But do not let us +be led away into thinking that magnetism can take the place of hard +work. Even the tiny prodigy has a career of work behind him, and the +master pianist has often climbed to his position over _Matterhorns_ and +_Mt. Blancs_ of industry. Days of practice, months of study, years of +struggle are part of the biography of almost every one who has attained +real greatness. What a pity to destroy time-old illusions! Some prefer +to think of their artist heroes dreaming their lives away in the hectic +cafes of Pesth or buried in the melancholy, absinthe and paresis of some +morbid cabaret of Paris. As a matter of fact, the best known pianists +live a totally different life--a life of grind, grind, grind--incessant +study, endless practice and ceaseless search for means to raise their +artistic standing. In some quiet country villa, miles away from the +center of unlicensed Bacchanalian revels, the virtuoso may be found +working hard upon next season's repertoire. + +After all, the greatest thing in the artist's life is W-O-R-K. + + + + +II + +ARE PIANISTS BORN OR MADE? + + +Some years ago the Director of the Leipsic Conservatorium gave the +writer a complete record of the number of graduates of the conservatory +from the founding to the late nineties. Of the thousands of students who +had passed through the institution only a few had gained wide +prominence. Hardly one student in one hundred had won his way into the +most voluminous of the musical biographical dictionaries. The proportion +of distinguished graduates to those who fail to gain renown is very high +at Leipsic compared with many other institutions. What becomes of the +thousands of students all working frantically with the hope of becoming +famous pianists? Surely, so much earnest effort can not be wasted even +though all can not win the race? Those who often convince themselves +that they have failed go on to perform a more useful service to society +than the laurel-crowned virtuoso. Unheralded and unapplauded, they +become the teachers, the true missionaries of _Frau Musik_ to the +people. + +What is it then, which promotes a few "fortunate" ones from the armies +of students all over America and Europe and makes of them great +virtuosos? What must one do to become a virtuoso? How long must one +study before one may make a _debut_? What does a great virtuoso receive +for his performances? How long does the virtuoso practice each day? What +exercises does he use? All these and many more similar questions crop up +regularly in the offices of music critics and in the studios of +teachers. Unfortunately, a definite answer can be given to none, +although a great deal may be learned by reviewing some of the +experiences of one who became great. + +Some virtuosos actually seem to be born with the heavenly gift. Many +indeed are sons and daughters of parents who see their own demolished +dreams realized in the triumphs of their children. When little Nathan +creeps to the piano and quite without the help of his elders picks out +the song he has heard his mother sing,--all the neighbors in Odessa know +it the next day. "A wonder child perhaps!" Oh happy augury of fame and +fortune! Little Nathan shall have the best of instruction. His mother +will teach him at first, of course. She will shape his little fingers to +the keyboard. She will sing sweet folk melodies in his ear,--songs of +labor, struggle, exile. She will count laboriously day after day until +he "plays in time." All the while the little mother sees far beyond the +Ghetto,--out into the great world,--grand auditoriums, breathless +crowds, countless lights, nobles granting trinkets, bravos from a +thousand throats, Nathan surrounded by endless wreaths of laurel,--Oh, +it is all too much,--"Nathan! Nathan! you are playing far too fast. One, +two, three, four,--one, two, three, four,--there, that is the tempo +Clementi would have had it. Fine! Some day, Nathan, you will be a great +pianist and--" etc., etc. + +Nathan next goes to the great teacher. He is already eight years old and +fairly leaping out of his mother's arms. Two years with the teacher and +Nathan is probably ready for a _debut_ as a wonder child. The critics +are kind. If his parents are very poor Nathan may go from town to town +for awhile being exhibited like a trained poodle or a tiny acrobat. The +further he gets from home the more severe his critics become, and Nathan +and his mother hurry back to the old teachers, who tell them that Nathan +must still practice long and hard as well as do something to build up +his general education. The world in these days looks askance at the +musician who aside from his keyboard accomplishments is a numskull. More +sacrifice for Nathan's mother and father,--but what are poverty and +deprivation with such a goal in sight? Nathan studies for some years in +the schools and in the high schools as well as at the conservatory. In +the music school he will doubtless spend six years in all,--two years in +the post-graduate or master classes, following the regular four-year +course. When sufficiently capable he will take a few pupils at a kopeck +or so per lesson to help out with the family expenses. + +Nathan graduates from the conservatory with high honors. Will the public +now receive him as a great pianist? A concert is planned and Nathan +plays. Day and night for years his whole family have been looking +forward to that concert. Let us concede that the concert is a triumph. +Does he find fame and fortune waiting for him next morning? No +indeed,--there are a thousand Nathans all equally accomplished. Again he +must work and again he must concertize. Perhaps after years of strife a +manager may approach him some day with a contract. Lucky Nathan,--have +you not a thousand brothers who may never see a contract? Then,--"Can it +be possible Nathan,--is it really America,--America the virtuoso's +Golconda!" Nathan makes a glorious _tournee_. Perhaps the little mother +goes with him. More likely she stays at home in Odessa waiting with +glistening eyes for each incoming mail. Pupils come to Nathan and he +charges for each lesson a sum equaling his father's former weekly wage. +Away with the Ghetto! Away with poverty! Away with oblivion! Nathan is a +real virtuoso,--a veritable _Meister_! + + +THE AMERICAN VIRTUOSO OF TO-DAY + +How does the American aspirant compete with Nathan? Are there not as +fine teachers here in America as in Europe? Is it really necessary to go +to Europe to "finish" one's musical education? Can one not become a +virtuoso in America?--more questions with which editors and teachers are +constantly plied. Can one who for years has waged a battle for the +American teacher and American musical education answer this question +without bias? Can we who trace the roots of our lineage back to barren +Plymouth or stolid New Netherland judge the question fairly and +honestly? + +One case suffices to show the road which the American virtuoso is likely +to travel. She is still a young woman, in her twenties. Among her +teachers was one who ranks among the very best in America. Her general +education was excellent,--in fact far superior to that of the average +young lady of good family in continental Europe. While in her early +teens she became the leading feature at conservatory concerts. Her +teacher won many a profitable pupil through her brilliant playing. She +studies, as do so many American pupils, without making a regular +business of it. Compared with the six year all day, week in and week out +course which Nathan pursued in Odessa our little compatriot was at a +decided disadvantage. But who ever heard of a music student making a +regular business of learning the profession as would a doctor or a +lawyer? Have not students contented themselves with two lessons a week +since time immemorial? Need we go further to discover one of the flaws +in our own educational system,--a flaw that is not due to the teacher or +to the methods of instruction, but rather to our time-old custom. Two +lessons a week are adequate for the student who does not aspire to +become a professional, but altogether insufficient for the student who +must accomplish a vast amount of work in a comparatively small number of +years. She requires constant advice, regular daily instruction and +careful attention under experienced instructors. Teachers are not to be +blamed if she does not receive this kind of attention, as there are +abundant opportunities now in America to receive systematic training +under teachers as thorough, as able and as inspiring as may be found in +Europe. The excuse that the expense is greater in America falls when we +learn the very high prices charged by leading teachers in Germany, +Austria and France. + +To go back to our particular case, the young lady is informed at the end +of a course of two or three lessons a week during two or three years, +that she is a full-fledged virtuoso and may now enter the concert field +to compete with Carreno, Bloomfield-Zeisler or Goodson. Her playing is +obviously superior to that of her contemporary students. Someone insists +upon a short course of study abroad,--not because it is necessary, but +because it might add to her reputation and make her first flights in the +American concert field more spectacular. Accordingly she goes to Europe, +only to find that she is literally surrounded by budding virtuosos,--an +army of Nathans, any one of whom might easily eclipse her. Against her +personal charm, her new-world vigor, her Yankee smartness, Nathan places +his years of systematic training, his soul saturated in the music and +art of past centuries of European endeavor and perhaps his youth of +poverty which makes success imperative. The young lady's European +teacher frankly tells her that while her playing is delightful for the +salon or parlor she will never do for the great concert hall. She must +learn to play with more power, more virility, more character. +Accordingly he sets her at work along special muscle-building, +tone-cultivating, speed-making lines of technic in order to make up for +the lack of the training which the young lady might easily have had at +home had her parents been schooled to systematic daily study as a +necessity. Her first technical exercises with the new teacher are so +simple that the young woman is on the verge of despair until she +realizes that her playing is really taking on a new and more mature +character. She has been lifting fifty pound weights occasionally. Her +teacher is training her to lift one hundred pound weights every day. She +has been sketching in pastels,--her teacher is now teaching her how to +make Velasquez-like strokes in oils. Her gain is not a mere matter of +loudness. She could play quite as loud before she went to Europe. There +is something mature in this new style of playing, something that +resembles the playing of the other virtuosos she has heard. Who is the +great European master who is working such great wonders for her? None +other than a celebrated teacher who taught for years in America,--a +master no better than dozens of others in America right now. Can the +teachers in America be blamed if the parents and the pupils fail to make +as serious and continued an effort here? Atmosphere,--bosh! Work, long, +hard and unrelenting,--that is the salvation of the student who would +become a virtuoso. With our increasing wealth and advancing culture +American parents are beginning to discover that given the same work and +the same amount of instruction musical education in America differs very +slightly from musical education abroad. + +But we are deserting our young virtuoso most ungallantly. In Berlin she +hears so many concerts and recitals, so many different styles of +playing, that she begins to think for herself and her sense of artistic +discrimination--interpretation, if you will--becomes more and more +acute. Provided with funds for attending concerts, she does regularly, +whereas in America she neglected opportunities equally good. She never +realized before that there could be so much to a Brahms _Intermezzo_ or +a Chopin _Ballade_. At the end of her first year her American +common-sense tells her that a plunge into the concert field is still +dangerous. Accordingly she remains two, or possibly three, more years +and at the end if she has worked hard she is convinced that with proper +management she may stand some chance of winning that fickle treasure, +public favor. + +"But," persists the reader, "it would have been possible for her to have +accomplished the same work at home in America." Most certainly, if she +had had any one of the hundred or more virtuoso teachers now resident in +the United States all of whom are capable of bringing a highly talented +pupil to virtuoso heights,--and if in their teaching they had exerted +sufficient will-power to demand from the pupil and the pupil's parents +the same conditions which would govern the work of the same pupil +studying in Europe. Through long tradition and by means of endless +experiences the conditions have been established in Europe. The student +who aspires to become a professional is given a distinctively +professional course. In America the need for such a training is but +scantily appreciated. Only a very few of us are able to appraise the +real importance of music in the advancement of human civilization, nor +is this unusual, since most of us have but to go back but a very few +generations to encounter our blessed Puritan and Quaker ancestors to +whom all music, barring the lugubrious Psalm singing, was the +inspiration of the devil. The teachers, as has been said before, are +fully ready and more than anxious to give the kind of training required. +Very frequently parents are themselves to blame for the slender +_dilettante_ style of playing which their well-instructed children +present. They measure the needs of the concert hall by the dimensions of +the parlor. The teacher of the would-be professional pupil aspires to +produce a quantity of tone that will fill an auditorium seating at least +one thousand people. The pupil at home is enjoined not to "bang" or +"pound." The result is a feeble, characterless tone which rarely fills +an auditorium as it should. The actor can not forever rehearse in +whispers if he is to fill a huge theater, and the concert pianist must +have a strong, sure, resilient touch in order to bring about climaxes +and make the range of his dynamic power all-comprehensive. Indeed, the +separation from home ties, or shall we call them home interferences, is +often more responsible for the results achieved abroad than superior +instruction. + +Unfortunately, the number of virtuosos who have been taught exclusively +in America is really very small. It is not a question of ability upon +the part of the teacher or talent upon the part of the pupil. It is +entirely a matter of the attitudes of the teacher, the pupil and the +pupil's home advisers. Success demands strong-willed discipline and the +most lofty standards imaginable. Teachers who have taught for years in +America have returned to Europe, doubled and quadrupled their fees, and, +under old-world surroundings and with more rigid standards of artistic +work, have produced results they declare would have been impossible in +America. The author contends that these results would have been readily +forthcoming if we in America assumed the same earnest, persistent +attitude toward the work itself. If these words do no more than reach +the eyes of some of those who are advising students wrongly in this +matter they will not have been written in vain. The European concert +triumphs of Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, whose training was received wholly in +the United States, is an indication of what may be achieved in America +if the right course is pursued. Conditions are changing rapidly in our +country, particularly in the wonderful West and Middle-West. It seems +likely that many pianists without foreign instruction of any kind will +have as great success in our concert field as have many of our best +opera singers who have never had a lesson "on the other side." + +Our little pianist has again been playing truant from our manuscript. +Let us see what happens to her when she finished her work with the +famous teacher abroad. Surely the making of a virtuoso is an expensive +matter. Let us take the estimate of the young pianist's father, who +practically mortgaged his financial existence to give his daughter the +right musical training. + + Lessons with first teacher at $1.00 a lesson. + Eighty lessons a year for four years $240.00 + + Lessons with second American teacher for two + years at $2.00 a lesson 320.00 + + Lessons with third American teacher at $4.00 a + lesson for one year and six months 480.00 + + Music, books, etc. 160.00 + + Piano 750.00 + + Maintenance for eight years at $200.00 a year + (minimum estimate) 1600.00 + + Four years in Europe, travel, board, instruction, + advertising, etc. 6000.00 + ________ + TOTAL $9550.00 + +But the expense has only begun, if you please. The harvest is still a +long way off. According to the fine traditions established by the late +P. T. Barnum, there must be a European furore to precede the American +advent of the musical star. The journalistic astronomers must point +their telescopes long and steadily at the European firmament and +proclaim their discovery in the columns of their papers. Again, furores +are expensive. One must hire an auditorium, hire an orchestra, and, +according to some very frank and disgusted young virtuosos who have +failed to succeed, hire a critic or so like the amusing Trotter in +_Fanny's First Play_. What with three and four concerts a night why +should not the critics have a _pourboire_ for extra critical attention? +Fortunately the best papers hold their criticisms above price. Bought +criticisms are very rare, and if the young pianist or any representative +approaches certain critics with any such suggestion, she may count upon +faring very badly in cold type on the following day. + +If Miss Virtuoso makes a success, her press notices are sent to her +American concert managers, who purchase space in some American musical +newspapers and reprint these notices. Publicity of this kind is +legitimate, as the American public knows that in most cases these press +notices are reprinted solely as advertising. It is simply the commercial +process of "acquainting the trade" and if done right may prove one of +the most fortunate investments for the young artist. Do not imagine, +however, that the pianist's American manager speculates in the +problematical success of the coming virtuoso. On the contrary, his fee +for putting the artist on his "list" and promoting her interests may +range from five hundred dollars to two thousand dollars in advance. +After that the manager usually requires a commission on all engagements +"booked." Graft? Spoils? Plunder? Not a bit of it. If the manager is a +good one--that is, if he is an upright business man well schooled in his +work--the investment should prove a good one. Exploiting a new artist +is a matter demanding brains, energy, ingenuity and experience. A +manufacturing firm attempting to put some new product upon an already +crowded market would spend not $2000.00 a year in advertising, but +$100,000.00. The manager must maintain an organization, he must travel, +he must advertise and he too must live. If he succeeds in marketing the +services of the young virtuoso at one or two hundred dollars a concert, +the returns soon begin to overtake the incessant expenses. However, only +the most persistent and talented artists survive to reap these rewards. +The late Henry Wolfsohn, one of the greatest managers America has ever +produced, told the writer frequently that the task of introducing a new +artist was one of the most thankless and uncertain undertakings +imaginable. + +Does the work, the time, the expense frighten you, little miss at the +keyboard? Do you fear the grind, the grueling disappoints, the unceasing +sacrifices? Then abandon your great career and join the army of useful +music workers who are teaching the young people of the land to love +music as it should be loved,--not in hysterical outbursts in the concert +hall but in the home circle. If you have the unextinguishable fire +within your soul, if you have the talent from on high, if you have +health, energy, system, vitality, nothing can stop you from becoming +great. Advice, interferences, obstacles will be nothing to you. You will +work day and night to reach your goal. What better guide could you +possibly have than the words of the great pianists themselves? While +the ensuing pages were compiled with the view of helping the amateur +performer quite as much as the student who would become a professional +pianist, you will nevertheless find in the expressions of the really +great virtuosos a wealth of information and practical advice. + +Most of the following chapters are the results of many different +conferences with the greatest living pianists. All have had the revision +of the artists in person before publication was undertaken. In order to +indicate how carefully and willingly this was done by the pianists it is +interesting to note the case of the great Russian composer-virtuoso +Rachmaninoff. The original conference was conducted in German and in +French. The material was arranged in manuscript form in English. M. +Rachmaninoff then requested a second conference. In the mean time he had +had the better part of the manuscript translated into his native +Russian. However, in order to insure accuracy in the use of words, the +writer translated the entire matter back into German in the pianist's +presence. M. Rachmaninoff did not speak English and the writer did not +speak Russian. + +The chapter relating to Harold Bauer is the result of a conference +conducted in English. Mr. Bauer's use of his native tongue is as fluent +and eloquent as a poet or an orator. In order that his ideas might have +the best possible expression the entire chapter was written several +times in manuscript and carefully rearranged and rephrased by Mr. Bauer +in person. + +Some of the conferences lasted well on through the night. The writer's +twenty years' experience in teaching was constantly needed to grasp +different shadings of meaning that some pianists found difficult to +phrase. Many indeed have felt their weakness in the art of verbal +expression and have rejoiced to have their ideas clothed with fitting +words. Complete frankness and sincerity were encouraged in every case. +The results of the conference with Wilhelm Bachaus, conceded by many +other pianists to be the foremost "technicalist" of the day, are, it +will be observed, altogether different in the statement of teaching +principles from those of Harold Bauer. Each is a sincere expression of +individual opinion and the thoughtful student by weighing the ideas of +both may reach conclusions immensely to his personal advantage. + +No wider range of views upon the subject of pianoforte playing could +possibly come between the covers of a book. The student, the teacher, +and the music lover who acquaints himself with the opinions of the +different masters of the keyboard can not fail to have a very clear +insight into the best contemporary ideas upon technic, interpretation, +style and expression. The author--or shall he call himself a +collector?--believes that the use of the questions following each +chapter will be found practical and useful in the work of both clubs and +classes. Practice, however, is still more important than precept. The +student might easily learn this book "by heart" and yet be unable to +play a perfect scale. Let him remember the words of Locke: + + "Men of much reading are greatly learned: but may be little knowing." + +After all, the virtuoso is great because he really knows and W-O-R-K-S. + + + + +PEPITO ARRIOLA + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Pepito Arriola was born on the 14th of December, 1897. A careful +investigation of his ancestry reveals that no less than twelve of his +forefathers and relations have been pronouncedly musical. His father was +a physician, but his mother was a musician. His early musical training +was given to him exclusively by his mother. The following was prepared +when he was twelve years old and at that time he was apparently a +perfectly healthy child, with the normal activity of a boy of his age +and with a little more general education in addition to his music than +the average child at fifteen or sixteen possesses. He spoke French, +German (fluently) and Spanish, but little English. Despite the fact that +he had received numerous honors from European monarchs and famous +musicians, he was exceptionally modest. In his playing he seemed never +to miss a note in even very complicated compositions and his musical +maturity and point of view were truly astonishing. The following is +particularly valuable from an educational standpoint, because of the +absolute unaffectedness of the child's narrative of his own training. + +(The following conference was conducted in German and French.) + +[Illustration: PEPITO ARRIOLA] + + + + +III + +THE STORY OF A WONDER CHILD + +PEPITO ARRIOLA + + +MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS + +So much that was of interest to me was continually occurring while I was +a child that it all seems like a kind of haze to me. I cannot remember +when I first commenced to play, for my mother tells me that I wanted to +reach out for the keyboard before I was out of her arms. I have also +learned that when I was about two and one-half years of age, I could +quite readily play after my mother anything that the size of my hand +would permit me to play. + +I loved music so dearly, and it was such fun to run over the keyboard +and make the pretty sounds, that the piano was really my first and best +toy. I loved to hear my mother play, and continually begged her to play +for me so that I could play the same pieces after her. I knew nothing of +musical notation and played entirely by ear, which seemed to me the most +natural way to play. At that time, word was sent to the King of Spain +that I showed talent, and he became interested in me, and I played +before him. + + +MY FRIENDSHIP WITH ARTHUR NIKISCH + +A short time afterward, Herr Arthur Nikisch, conductor of the +_Gewandhaus_ Orchestra at Leipsic, and at one time conductor of the +Boston Symphony Orchestra in America, came to Madrid to conduct the +Philharmonic Orchestra for a special concert. Some one told him about my +playing and I was permitted to play for him. He became so interested +that he insisted upon my being taken to Leipsic for further study. I was +then four years of age, and although musical advantages in Spain are +continually increasing, my mother thought it best at the time that she +should follow the great musician's advice and that I should be taken to +the German city. + +I want to say that in my earliest work, my mother made no effort to push +me or urge me to go ahead. I loved to play for the sake of playing, and +needed no coaxing to spend time at the keyboard. In my very early years +I was permitted to play in public very little, although there were +constant demands made to engage me. I was looked upon as a kind of +curiosity and my mother wanted me to study in the regular way with good +masters, and also to acquire more strength before I played in public +very much. + +I did, however, play at the great Albert Hall, in London. The big +building holds 8000 people, but that was so long ago that I have almost +forgotten all about it, except that they all seemed pleased to see a +little boy of four playing in so very big a place. I also played for +royal personages, including the Kaiser of Germany, who was very good to +me and gave me a beautiful pin. I like the Kaiser very much. He seems +like a fine man. + + +MY FIRST REGULAR INSTRUCTION + +My first teacher, aside from my mother, was a Herr Dreckendorf, of +Leipsic. He was very kind to me and took the greatest pains, but the +idea of learning the notes was very distasteful to me. I was terribly +bored with the technical exercises he gave me, but have since learned +that one can save much time by practicing scales and exercises. Although +I do not like them, I practice them every day now, for a little while, +so as to get my fingers in good working order. + +In about six weeks I knew all that was expected of me in the way of +scales in octaves, sixths, thirds, double thirds, etc., and my teacher +commenced to turn his attention to studies and pieces. For the first +time I found musical notation interesting, for then I realized that it +was not necessary for me to wait until some one else played a piece +before I could begin to explore its beauties. Ah! it was wonderful, +those first days with the pieces. I was in a new country and could +hardly wait to master one at a time, so eager was I to reach the next +one and see just what it was like. + +Herr Dreckendorf gave me some studies by Dussek, Cramer, the +_Inventions_ of Bach, etc., but before long the fascination of playing +beautiful pieces was so great that he found it hard to keep me away from +them. + + +EARLY REPERTORY + +So hungry was I to find new musical works that when I was eight and a +half years old I could play from memory such pieces as the B flat minor +Scherzo, the A flat major Polonaise, and most of the Valses and Etudes +of Chopin. I also played the Sixth Rhapsody of Liszt and the C minor +Concerto of Beethoven. + +In the mean time we moved to Berlin and this has been our home ever +since, so you see I have seen far more of Germany than of my native +country, Spain. In fact, it seems more natural for me to speak German +than Spanish. At the age of seven it was my good fortune to come under +the instruction of Alberto Jonas, the Spanish virtuoso, who for many +years was at the head of a large music school in America. I can never be +grateful enough to him, for he has taught me without remuneration and +not even a father could be kinder to me. When I left Berlin for my +present tour, tears came to our eyes, because I knew I was leaving my +best friend. Most of my present repertory has been acquired under Jonas +and he has been so, so exacting. + +He also saw to it that my training was broad, and not confined to those +composers whose works appealed most to me. The result is that I now +appreciate the works of all the composers for the piano. Beethoven I +found very absorbing. I learned the _Appassionata Sonata_ in one week's +time, and longed for more. My teacher, however, insisted upon my going +slowly, and mastering all the little details. + +I have also developed a great fondness for Bach, because I like to find +how he winds his melodies in and out, and makes such beautiful things of +them. I play a great deal of Bach, including the G minor organ Fugue, +which Liszt played the devil with in arranging it for the piano. +Goodness knows, it was difficult enough for the organ in its original +form! I don't see why Liszt wanted to make it more difficult. + +Liszt is, of course, considered a great master for the piano, and I play +his works with great delight, especially the _Campanella_ with its +beautiful bell effect, but I cannot look upon Liszt as a pianistic +composer in the same way that one thinks of Chopin as a pianistic +composer. The piano was Chopin's natural tongue. Liszt's tongue, like +that of Beethoven, was the orchestra. He knew no difficulties, according +to the manner in which he wrote his own works. Consequently one must +think of the orchestra in playing Liszt's works, while the works of +Chopin suggest only the piano. + + +MY DAILY PRACTICE + +During most of my life my practice has never exceeded two hours a day. +In this country, while on tour, I never practice more than one and +one-half hours. This is not necessary, because of the concerts +themselves, which keep up my technical work. I never worry about my +fingers. If I can think the pieces right, my fingers will always play +the notes. My mother insists upon my being out in the open air all the +time I am not studying and practicing, and I am out the better part of +the day. + +At my practice periods, I devote at least fifteen or twenty minutes to +technical exercises, and strive to play all the scales, in the different +forms, in all the keys, once each day. I then play some of my concert +numbers, continually trying to note if there is any place that requires +attention. If there is, I at once spend a little time trying to improve +the passage. + +It is very largely a matter of thinking the musical thought right, and +then saying it in the right way. If you think it right, and your aim at +the keyboard is good, you are not likely to hit the wrong notes, even in +skips such as one finds in the Rubinstein Valse in E flat. I do not ever +remember of hitting the upper note wrong. It all seems so easy to me +that I am sure that if other children in America would look upon other +examples in the same way, they could not find their work so very +difficult. I love to practice Chopin. One cannot be so intimate with +Bach; he is a little cold and unfriendly until one knows him very well. + + +GENERAL EDUCATION + +I have said that we play as we think. The mind must be continually +improved or the fingers will grow dull. In order to see the beauties in +music we must see the beauties in other studies. I have a private +teacher who comes to me in Berlin and teaches me different studies. I +have studied some Latin, French, and the regular school studies. +Electricity interests me more than I can tell you and I like to learn +about it, but my greatest interest is in the study of astronomy. Surely +nothing could be finer than to look at the stars. I have friends among +the astronomers of Berlin who let me look through their telescopes and +tell me all about the different constellations and the worlds that look +like moons when you see them enlarged. It is all so wonderful that it +makes one never cease thinking. + +I also like to go to factories and learn how different things are made. +I think that there are so many things that one can learn outside of a +school-room. For instance, I went to a wire factory recently, and I am +sure that I found out a great many things I might never have found out +in books. One also learns by traveling, and when I am on my tours I feel +that I learn more of the different people and the way they live than I +ever could from geographies. Don't you think I am a lucky boy? One must +study geography, however, to learn about maps and the way in which +countries are formed. I have toured in Germany, Russia, and England, and +now in America. America interests me wonderfully. Everything seems so +much alive and I like the climate very much. + + +THEORETICAL STUDIES + +Musical theory bores me now, almost as much as my first technical +studies did. Richard Strauss, the great German composer, has very kindly +offered to teach me. I like him very much and he is so kind, but his +thundering musical effects sometimes seems very noisy to me. I know many +of the rules of harmony, but they are very uncomfortable and +disagreeable to me. + +I would far rather write my music as it comes to me. Herr Nikisch says +that when I do it that way, I make very few blunders, but I know I can +never be a composer until I have mastered all the branches of musical +theory. I am now writing a symphony. I played some parts for Herr +Nikisch and he has agreed to produce it. Of course, the orchestral parts +will have to be written for me, but I know what instruments I want to +express certain ideas. + +Putting down the notes upon paper is so tiresome. Why can't one think +the musical thoughts and have them preserved without the tedious work of +writing them out! Sometimes before I can get them on paper they are +gone--no one knows where, and the worst of all is that they never come +back. It is far greater fun to play the piano, or play football, or go +rowing. + + +READING AND STUDY + +I love to read, and my favorite of all books is _The Three Musketeers_. +I have also read something of Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, and many +other writers. I like parts of the great Spanish novel _Don Quixote_, +but I find it hard to read as a whole. I think that music students ought +to read a great deal. It makes them think, and it gives them poetical +thoughts. + +Music is, after all, only another kind of poetry, and if we get poetical +ideas from books we become more poetical, and our music becomes more +beautiful. The student who thinks only of hammering down keys at the +piano cannot play in a manner in which people will take pleasure. Piano +playing is so much more than merely pressing down keys. One has to tell +people things that cannot be told in words--that is what music is. + + +AT THE CONCERT + +I do not know what it is to be nervous at concerts. I have played so +much and I am always so sure of what I am going to play that nervousness +is out of the question. Of course, I am anxious about the way in which +audiences will receive my playing. I want to please them so much and +don't want them to applaud me because I am a boy, but would rather have +them come as real music-lovers to enjoy the music itself. If I cannot +bring pleasure to them in that way I do not deserve to be before the +public. + +My concerts are usually about one hour in length, although I sometimes +play encores for some time after the concert. I make it a practice not +to eat for a few hours before the concert, as doctors have told my +mother that my mind will be in better shape. I want to thank the many +friends I have made among the students who have come to my concerts, and +I hope that I may have told them some things which will help them in +their work. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES I + +PEPITO ARRIOLA + +1. Should the talented child be urged or pushed ahead? + +2. In what period of time should a very talented child master the +elementary outlines of technic? + +3. Can Liszt be regarded as a pianistic composer in the same sense as +that in which Chopin is considered pianistic? + +4. How should a very talented child's practice time be divided? + +5. What part does right thinking play in execution? + +6. How should the child's general education be conducted? + +7. Should the education be confined to the classroom? + +8. Should the musical child be encouraged to read fiction? + +9. Does music resemble poetry? + +10. Should one be careful about the body before concerts? + + + + +[Illustration: WILHELM BACHAUS] + +WILHELM BACHAUS + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Wilhelm Bachaus was born at Leipsic, March 24, 1884, two years before +the death of Franz Liszt. Nine years younger than Josef Hofmann and a +trifle more than one-half the age of Paderewski he represents a +different decade from that of other pianists included in this work. +Bachaus studied for nine years with Alois Reckendorf, a Moravian teacher +who was connected with the Leipsic Conservatory for more than thirty +years. Reckendorf had been a student of science and philosophy at the +Vienna and the Heidelberg Universities and was an earnest musician and +teacher with theories of his own. He took an especial interest in +Bachaus and was his only teacher with the exception of one year spent +with d'Albert and "three lessons with Siloti." Although Bachaus +commenced playing when he was eight years old he feels that his +professional _debut_ was made in London in June, 1901, when he played +the tremendously difficult Brahms-Paganini Variations. In 1905, when +Bachaus was only twenty-one, he won the famous Rubinstein Prize at +Paris. This consists of 5000 francs offered every five years to young +men between the ages of twenty and twenty-six. + +(The following conference was conducted in English and German.) + + + + +IV + +THE PIANIST OF TO-MORROW + +WILHELM BACHAUS + + +TO-DAY, YESTERDAY AND TO-MORROW + +"It is somewhat surprising how very little difference exists between the +material used in piano teaching to-day and that employed forty or fifty +years ago. Of course, there has been a remarkable amount of new +technical material, exercises, studies, etc., devised, written and +published, and some of this presents the advantage of being an +improvement upon the old--an improvement which may be termed an +advance--but, taken all in all, the advance has been very slight when +compared with the astonishing advances made in other sciences and other +phases of human progress in this time. + +"It would seem that the science of music (for the processes of studying +the art are undoubtedly scientific) left little territory for new +explorers and inventors. Despite the great number of etudes that have +been written, imagine for one moment what a desert the technic of music +would be without Czerny, Clementi, Tausig, Pischna--to say nothing of +the great works of Scarlatti and Bach, which have an effect upon the +technic, but are really great works of musical art. + + +THE WONDERFUL EFFICACY OF SCALES + +"Personally, I practice scales in preference to all other forms of +technical exercises when I am preparing for a concert. Add to this +arpeggios and Bach, and you have the basis upon which my technical work +stands. Pianists who have been curious about my technical +accomplishments have apparently been amazed when I have told them that +scales are my great technical mainstay--that is, scales plus hard work. +They evidently have thought that I had some kind of alchemic secret, +like the philosopher's stone which was designed to turn the baser metals +into gold. I possess no secrets which any earnest student may not +acquire if he will work in the laboratory of music long enough. There +are certain artistic points which only come with long-continued +experiment. + +"As the chemist finds the desired result by interminable heart-breaking +eliminations, so the artist must weigh and test his means until he finds +the one most likely to produce the most beautiful or the most +appropriate result. But this seeking for the right effect has little to +do with the kind of technic which necessitates one to keep every muscle +employed in piano-playing properly exercised, and I may reiterate with +all possible emphasis that the source of my technical equipment is +scales, scales, scales. I find their continued daily practice not only +beneficial, but necessary. I still find it desirable to practice scales +for half an hour a day. + + +BACH MUSICALLY OMNIPOTENT + +"It seems almost foolish to repeat what has been said so many times +about the wonderful old cantor of Leipsic, Johann Sebastian Bach. +However, there may still be some who have not yet become acquainted with +the indisputable fact that the practice of Bach is the shortest, +quickest road to technical finish. Busoni has enlarged upon Bach, +impossible as that may seem; but as a modern bridge is sometimes built +upon wonderful old foundations, Busoni has taken the idea of Bach and, +with his penetrative and interpretative ability, has been able to make +the meaning more clear and more effective. Any young pianist who aspires +to have his hands in condition to respond to the subtle suggestions of +his brain may acquire a marvelous foundation by the use of scales, Bach +and arpeggios. + + +THE OLD THAT IS EVER NEW + +"I have seen many ways and means tried out. Some seem like an attempt to +save time at the expense of thoroughness. Furthermore, the means which +have produced the great pianists of the past are likely to differ but +little from those which will produce the pianists of the future. + +"The ultra-modern teacher who is inclined to think scales old-fashioned +should go to hear de Pachmann, who practices scales every day. De +Pachmann, who has been a virtuoso for a great many years, still finds +daily practice necessary, and, in addition to scales, he plays a great +deal of Bach. To-day his technic is more powerful and more comprehensive +than ever, and he attributes it in a large measure to the simplest of +means. + + +DIFFICULTIES IN NEW PIANOFORTE COMPOSITIONS + +"I have often been asked if the future of pianoforte composition seemed +destined to alter the technic of the instrument, as did the compositions +of Liszt, for instance. This is a difficult question, but it would seem +that the borderland of pianistic difficulty had been reached in the +compositions and transcriptions of Busoni and Godowsky. The new French +school of Debussy, Ravel and others is different in type, but does not +make any more severe technical demands. + +"However, it is hard for one to imagine anything more complicated or +more difficult than the Godowsky arrangements of the Chopin studies. I +fail to see how pianoforte technic can go much beyond these, unless one +gets more fingers or more hands. Godowsky's treatment of these studies +is marvelous not only from a technical standpoint, but from a musical +standpoint as well. He has added a new flavor to the individual +masterpieces of Chopin. He has made them wonderfully clever and really +very interesting studies in harmony and counterpoint, so that one +forgets their technical intricacies in the beauty of the compositions. +One cannot say that their original beauty has been enhanced, but he has +made them wonderfully fascinating compositions despite their aggravating +complications for the student. + + +MERE DIFFICULTY NO LONGER ASTOUNDS + +"The day when the show of startling technical skill was sufficient to +make a reputation for a pianist is, fortunately, past. The mechanical +playing devices have possibly been responsible for this. The public +refuses to admire anything that can be done by a machine, and longs for +something finer, more subtle, more closely allied to the soul of the +artist. This does not mean, however, that the necessity for a +comprehensive technic is depreciated. Quite the contrary is true. The +need for an all-comprehensive technic is greater than ever before. But +the public demand for the purely musical, the purely artistic, is being +continually manifested. + +"Modern composers are writing with this in view rather than huge +technical combinations. The giant of to-day, to my mind, is indisputably +Rachmaninoff. He is writing the greatest original music for piano of any +living composer. All of his compositions are pianistic and he does not +condescend to pander to a trifling public taste. He is a man with a +great mind, and, in addition to this, he has a delightful sense of +proportion and a feeling for the beautiful, all of which makes him a +composer of the master mould. His compositions will endure as long as +music. + + +MODERN COMPOSITIONS + +"For others of the type of Scriabine I care less, although I am sensible +to the beauty of many of their compositions. They have not, however, +the splendid mould of Rachmaninoff, nor have they his vigorous +originality. Doubtless some of these men will produce great original +compositions in the future. Compositions that are simply not bad are +hardly worth the paper they are written upon, for they will not last as +long. The composition that will last is a great, new, original thought, +inspired, noble and elemental, but worked out with the distinctive +craftsmanship of the great master. + +"I am very partial to Debussy. He has an extraordinary atmosphere, and, +after one has formed a taste for him, his compositions are alluring, +particularly his _Homage a Rameau_, _Jardins sous la pluie_ and _D'un +cahier d'esquisses_, which I have been playing upon my American tour. + + +THE MOST DIFFICULT COMPOSITIONS + +"I have continually been asked, 'What is the most difficult +composition?' The question always amuses me, but I suppose it is very +human and in line with the desire to measure the highest building, the +tallest mountain, the longest river or the oldest castle. Why is such a +premium put upon mere difficulty? Strange to say, no one ever seems to +think it necessary to inquire, 'What is the most beautiful piece?' + +"Difficulty in music should by no means be estimated by technical +complications. To play a Mozart concerto well is a colossally difficult +undertaking. The pianist who has worked for hours to get such a +composition as near as possible to his conception of perfection is never +given the credit for his work, except by a few connoisseurs, many of +whom have been through a similarly exacting experience. Months may be +spent upon comparatively simple compositions, such as the Haydn Sonatas +or the Mozart Sonatas, and the musical public is blind to the additional +finish or polish so evident to the virtuoso. + + +PRAISE THAT IRRITATES + +"The opposite of this is also true. A little show of bravura, possibly +in a passage which has not cost the pianist more than ten minutes of +frivolous practice, will turn many of the unthinking auditors into a +roaring mob. This is, of course, very distressing to the sincere artist +who strives to establish himself by his real worth. + +"Of course, there are some compositions which present difficulties which +few work hard enough to surmount. Among these might be mentioned the +Godowsky-Chopin _etudes_ (particularly the _etude_ in A flat, Opus 25, +No. 1, which is always especially exasperating for the student +sufficiently advanced to approach it); the _Don Juan Fantasie_ of Liszt; +the Brahms-Paganini _variations_ and the Beethoven, Opus 106, which, +when properly played, demands enormous technical skill. One certainly +saves a lot of bother when one discards it from one's repertoire. If +these four pieces are not the most difficult pieces, they are certainly +among the most difficult. + + +WHY NOT SEEK THE BEAUTIFUL? + +"But why seek difficulty when there is so much that is quite as +beautiful and yet not difficult? Why try to make a bouquet of oak trees +when the ground is covered with exquisite flowers? The piano is a solo +instrument and has its limitations. Some piano music is said to sound +orchestral. As a matter of fact, a great deal of it would sound better +with the orchestra. + +"Real piano music is rare. The piano appears to be too small for some of +our modern Titans among the composers. When they write for the piano +they seem to be exhibiting a concealed longing for the one hundred or +more men of the modern orchestra. One of the reasons why the works of +Debussy appeal to me is that he manages to put so much color into his +piano pieces without suggesting the orchestra. Much of his music is +wonderful in this respect, and, moreover, the musicians of the future +will appreciate this fact more and more. + + +EXERCISES THAT GIVE IMMEDIATE HELP + +"No one exercise can be depended upon to meet all the varied conditions +which arise in the practice of the day, but I have frequently employed a +simple exercise which seems to 'coax' the hand into muscular activity in +a very short time. It is so simple that I am diffident about suggesting +it. However, elemental processes lead to large structures sometimes. +The Egyptian pyramids were built ages before the age of steam and +electricity, and scientists are still wondering how those massive stones +were ever put in place. + +"The exercise I use most, apart from scales, is really based upon a +principle which is constantly employed in all scale playing and in all +piano playing, that of putting the thumb over and under the fingers. Did +you ever stop to think how continually this is employed? One hardly goes +one step beyond the elemental grades before one encounters it. It +demands a muscular action entirely different from that of pressing down +the keys either with the finger, forearm or arm motion. + +"Starting with the above-named principle and devising new exercises to +meet the very human need for variety, I play something like this: + +[Illustration] + +"The next form would employ another fingering-- + +[Illustration] + +"The next form might be-- + +[Illustration] + +"These I transpose through several keys, for instance-- + +[Illustration] + +"Note that I am not giving an arbitrary exercise, but simply suggesting +the plan upon which the student may work. There is a great deal of fun +in devising new exercises. It assists in helping the student to +concentrate. Of course, these exercises are only attempted after all the +standard exercises found in books have been exhausted. + + +AVOID TOO COMPLICATED EXERCISES + +"I often think that teachers make a great mistake by giving too +complicated exercises. A complicated exercise leads away from clear +thinking and concentration. The simple exercise will never seem dull or +dry if the pupil's ambition is right. After all, it is not so much what +is done as how it is done. Give less thought to the material and more to +the correction of the means with which one plays. There should be +unceasing variety in studies. A change at every practice period is +advisable, as it gives the pupil new material for thought. There are +hundreds of different exercises in the different books, and the student +has no reason for suffering for want of variety." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES II + +WILHELM BACHAUS + +1. Does the technical material of to-day differ greatly from that of +forty or fifty years ago? + +2. State something of the efficacy of scales. + +3. State three sources of technical material sure to interest the +student. + +4. Do celebrated virtuosos use scales regularly? + +5. State what else besides technical skill is required in these days to +gain recognition as a virtuoso pianist. + +6. Why does Rachmaninoff excel as a composer for pianoforte? + +7. State what may be considered the most difficult of piano +compositions. + +8. Wherein does the appeal of Debussy lie? + +9. Give some simple exercises suitable for daily practice. + +10. Why are too complicated exercises undesirable? + + + + +[Illustration: HAROLD BAUER] + +HAROLD BAUER + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Harold Bauer was born in London, England, April 28, 1875. His father was +an accomplished amateur violinist. Through him, the future virtuoso was +enabled to gain an excellent idea of the beautiful literature of chamber +music. When a boy Mr. Bauer studied privately with the celebrated violin +teacher, Politzer. At the age of ten he became so proficient that he +made his _debut_ as a violinist in London. Thereafter in his tours of +England he met with great success everywhere. + +In the artistic circles of London Mr. Bauer met a musician named Graham +Moore, who gave him some idea upon the details of the technic of +pianoforte playing, which Mr. Bauer had studied or rather "picked up" by +himself, without any thought of ever abandoning his career as a +violinist. Mr. Moore had expected to rehearse some orchestral +accompaniments on a second piano with Paderewski, who was then preparing +some concertos for public performance. Mr. Moore was taken ill and sent +his talented musical friend, Mr. Bauer, in his place. Paderewski +immediately took an interest in his talented accompanist and advised him +to go to Paris to continue his studies with Gorski. + +After many privations in Paris Mr. Bauer, unable to secure engagements +as a violinist, went on a tour of Russia as an accompanist of a singer. +In some of the smaller towns Bauer played an occasional piano solo. +Returning to Paris, he found that he was still unable to secure +engagements as a violinist. His pianistic opportunity came when a +celebrated virtuoso who was to play at a concert was taken ill and Bauer +was asked to substitute. He gradually gave more attention to the piano +and rose to a very high position in the tone world. + + + + +V + +ARTISTIC ASPECTS OF PIANO STUDY + +HAROLD BAUER + + +THE IMMEDIATE RELATION OF TECHNIC TO MUSIC + +"While it gives me great pleasure to talk to the great number of +students studying the piano, I can assure you that it is with no little +diffidence that I venture to approach these very subjects about which +they are probably most anxious to learn. In the first place, words tell +very little, and in the second place, my whole career has been so +different from the orthodox methods that I have been constantly +compelled to contrive means of my own to meet the myriads of artistic +contingencies as they have arisen in my work. It is largely for this +reason that I felt compelled recently to refuse a very flattering offer +to write a book on piano playing. My whole life experience makes me +incapable of perceiving what the normal methods of pianistic study +should be. As a result of this I am obliged with my own pupils to invent +continually new means and new plans for work with each student. + +"Without the conventional technical basis to work upon, this has +necessarily resulted in several aspects of pianoforte study which are +naturally somewhat different from the commonly accepted ideas of the +technicians. In the first place, the only technical study of any kind I +have ever done has been that technic which has had an immediate relation +to the musical message of the piece I have been studying. In other +words, I have never studied technic independently of music. I do not +condemn the ordinary technical methods for those who desire to use them +and see good in them. I fear, however, that I am unable to discuss them +adequately, as they are outside of my personal experience. + + +THE AIM OF TECHNIC + +"When, as a result of circumstances entirely beyond my control, I +abandoned the study of the violin in order to become a pianist, I was +forced to realize, in view of my very imperfect technical equipment, +that in order to take advantage of the opportunities that offered for +public performance it would be necessary for me to find some means of +making my playing acceptable without spending months and probably years +in acquiring mechanical proficiency. The only way of overcoming the +difficulty seemed to be to devote myself entirely to the musical +essentials of the composition I was interpreting in the hope that the +purely technical deficiencies which I had neither time nor knowledge to +enable me to correct would pass comparatively unnoticed, provided I was +able to give sufficient interest and compel sufficient attention to the +emotional values of the work. This kind of study, forced upon me in the +first instance through reasons of expediency, became a habit, and +gradually grew into a conviction that it was a mistake to practice +technic at all unless such practice should conduce to some definite, +specific and immediate musical result. + +"I do not wish to be misunderstood in making this statement, containing, +as it does, an expression of opinion that was formed in early years of +study, but which, nevertheless, I have never since felt any reason to +change. It is not my intention to imply that technical study is +unnecessary, or that purely muscular training is to be neglected. I mean +simply to say that in every detail of technical work the germ of musical +expression must be discovered and cultivated, and that in muscular +training for force and independence the simplest possible forms of +physical exercises are all that is necessary. + +"The singer and the violinist are always studying _music_, even when +they practice a succession of single notes. Not so with the pianist, +however, for an isolated note on the piano, whether played by the most +accomplished artist or the man in the street, means nothing, absolutely +nothing. + + +SEEKING INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION + +"At the time of which I speak, my greatest difficulty was naturally to +give a constant and definite direction to my work and in my efforts to +obtain a suitable muscular training which should enable me to produce +expressive sounds, while I neglected no opportunity of closely observing +the work of pianoforte teachers and students around me. I found that +most of the technical work which was being done with infinite pains and +a vast expenditure of time was not only non-productive of expressive +sounds, but actually harmful and misleading as regards the development +of the musical sense. I could see no object in practicing evenness in +scales, considering that a perfectly even scale is essentially devoid of +emotional (musical) significance. I could see no reason for limiting +tone production to a certain kind of sound that was called 'a good +tone,' since the expression of feeling necessarily demands in many cases +the use of relatively harsh sounds. Moreover, I could see no reason for +trying to overcome what are generally called natural defects, such as +the comparative weakness of the fourth finger for example, as it seemed +to me rather a good thing than otherwise that each finger should +naturally and normally possess a characteristic motion of its own. + +"It is _differences_ that count in art, not similarities. Every +individual expression is a form of art; why not, then, make an artist of +each finger by cultivating its special aptitudes instead of adapting a +system of training deliberately calculated to destroy these individual +characteristics in bringing _all_ the fingers to a common level of +lifeless machines? + +"These and similar reflections, I discovered, were carrying me +continually farther away from the ideals of most of the pianists, +students and teachers with whom I was in contact, and it was not long +before I definitely abandoned all hope of obtaining, by any of the means +I found in use, the results for which I was striving. Consequently, +from that time to the present my work has necessarily been more or less +independent and empirical in its nature, and, while I trust I am neither +prejudiced nor intolerant in my attitude towards pianoforte education in +its general aspect, I cannot help feeling that a great deal of natural +taste is stifled and a great deal of mediocrity created by the +persistent and unintelligent study of such things as an 'even scale' or +a 'good tone.' + +"Lastly, it is quite incomprehensible to me why any one method of +technic should be superior to any other, considering that as far as I +was able to judge, no teacher or pupil ever claimed more for any +technical system than that it gave more technical ability than some +other technical system. I have never been able to convince myself, as a +matter of fact, that one system does give more ability than another; but +even if there were one infinitely superior to all the rest, it would +still fail to satisfy me unless its whole aim and object were to +facilitate musical expression. + +"Naturally, studying in this way required my powers of concentration to +be trained to the very highest point. This matter of concentration is +far more important than most teachers imagine, and the perusal of some +standard work on psychology will reveal things which should help the +student greatly. Many pupils make the mistake of thinking that only a +certain kind of music demands concentration, whereas it is quite as +necessary to concentrate the mind upon the playing of a simple scale as +for the study of a Beethoven sonata. + + +THE RESISTANCE OF THE MEDIUM + +"In every form of art the medium that is employed offers a certain +resistance to perfect freedom of expression, and the nature of this +resistance must be fully understood before it can be overcome. The poet, +the painter, the sculptor and the musician each has his own problem to +solve, and the pianist in particular is frequently brought to the verge +of despair through the fact that the instrument, in requiring the +expenditure of physical and nervous energy, absorbs, so to speak, a +large proportion of the intensity which the music demands. + +"With many students the piano is only a barrier--a wall between them and +music. Their thoughts never seem to penetrate farther than the keys. +They plod along for years apparently striving to make piano-playing +machines of themselves, and in the end result in becoming something +rather inferior. + +"Conditions are doubtless better now than in former years. Teachers give +studies with some musical value, and the months, even years, of keyboard +grind without the least suggestion of anything musical or gratifying to +the natural sense of the beautiful are very probably a thing of the +past. But here again I fear the teachers in many cases make a perverted +use of studies and pieces for technical purposes. If we practice a piece +of real music with no other idea than that of developing some technical +point it often ceases to become a piece of music and results in being a +kind of technical machinery. Once a piece is mechanical it is difficult +to make it otherwise. All the cogs, wheels, bolts and screws which an +overzealous ambition to become perfect technically has built up are made +so evident that only the most patient and enduring kind of an audience +can tolerate them. + + +THE PERVERSION OF STUDIES + +"People talk about 'using the music of Bach' to accomplish some +technical purpose in a perfectly heart-breaking manner. They never seem +to think of interpreting Bach, but, rather, make of him a kind of +technical elevator by means of which they hope to reach some marvelous +musical heights. We even hear of the studies of Chopin being perverted +in a similarly vicious manner, but Bach, the master of masters, is the +greatest sufferer. + +"It has become a truism to say that technic is only a means to an end, +but I very much doubt if this assertion should be accepted without +question, suggesting as it does the advisability of studying something +that is not music and which is believed at some future time to be +capable of being marvelously transformed into an artistic expression. +Properly understood, _technic is art_, and must be studied as such. +There should be no technic in music which is not music _in itself_. + + +THE UNIT OF MUSICAL EXPRESSION + +"The piano is, of all instruments, the least expressive naturally, and +it is of the greatest importance that the student should realize the +nature of its resistance. The action of a piano is purely a piece of +machinery where the individual note has no meaning. When the key is once +struck and the note sounded there is a completed action and the note +cannot then be modified nor changed in the least. The only thing over +which the pianist has any control is the length of the tone, and this +again may not last any longer than the natural vibrations of the +strings, although it may be shortened by relinquishing the keys. It +makes no difference whether the individual note is struck by a child or +by Paderewski--it has in itself no expressive value. In the case of the +violin, the voice and all other instruments except the organ, the +individual note may be modified after it is emitted or struck, and in +this modification is contained the possibility of a whole world of +emotional expression. + +"Our sole means of expression, then, in piano playing lies in the +relation of one note to the other notes in a series or in a chord. +Herein lies the difficulty, the resistance to perfect freedom of which I +have spoken before, the principal subject for intelligence and careful +study, and yet so few students appear to understand it. Their great +effort seems to be to make all the noise in a given series as much alike +as coins from a mint. They come to the piano as their only instrument, +and never seek to take a lesson from the voice or from the other +instruments which have expressive resources infinitely superior to those +possessed by the piano. The principal charm of the piano lies in the +command which the player has over many voices singing together. But +until the pianist has a regard for the individual voice in its relation +to the ensemble he has no means with which to make his work really +beautiful. + +"There is a great need for more breadth in music study. This, as I know, +has been said very often, but it does not hurt to say it again. The more +a man knows, the more he has experienced, the wider his mental vision in +all branches of human information, the more he will have to say. We need +men in music with big minds, wide grasp and definite aims. Musicians are +far too prone to become overspecialized. They seem to have an +unquenchable thirst to master the jargon and the infinite variety of +methods which are thrust upon us in these days rather than a genuine +desire to develop their musical aims. Music is acquiring a technology as +confusing and as extensive as bacteriology. There seems to be no end to +the new kinds of methods in the minds of furtive and fertile inventors. +Each new method in turn seems to breed another, and so on _ad nauseam_. + +"Among other things I would suggest the advisability for pianists to +cultivate some knowledge of the construction of their instrument. +Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless a fact that the average +pianist knows practically nothing of a piano, being in many cases +entirely unaware of such simple things as how the tone is produced. The +function of the pedals is as unknown to them as geology is to the coal +heaver. This ignorance leads frequently to the employment of motions and +methods that can only be characterized as ridiculous in the extreme. + + +MUSIC FIRST, THE INSTRUMENT AFTERWARDS + +"From the manner in which many ambitious and earnest students play, it +would seem that they had their minds fixed upon something which could +not be conveyed to the world in any other form than that of the sounds +which come from the piano. Of course, the piano has an idiom peculiarly +its own, and some composers have employed this idiom with such natural +freedom that their music suffers when transposed for any other +instrument. The music of Chopin is peculiarly pianistic, but it is, +first of all, music, and any one of the wonderful melodies which came +from the fertile brain of the Polish-French genius could be played upon +one of many different instruments besides the piano. The duty of the +interpreter should surely be to think of the composition as such, and to +interpret it primarily as music, irrespective of the instrument. Some +students sit down before the keyboard to 'play' the piano precisely as +though they were going to play a game of cards. They have learned +certain rules governing the game, and they do not dare disobey these +rules. They think of rules rather than of the ultimate result--the +music itself. The idiom of the Italian language is appropriate here. The +Italians do not say 'I play the piano,' but rather 'I sound the piano.' +(_Suono il pianoforte._) If we had a little more 'sounding' of the +piano, that is, producing real musical effects, and a little less +playing on ivory keys, the playing of our students would be more +interesting. + + +VARIETY THE SPICE OF ART + +"It can hardly be questioned that the genesis of all musical art is to +be found in song, the most natural, the most fluent and the most +beautiful form of musical expression. How much every instrumentalist can +learn from the art of singing! + +"It is a physical impossibility for the voice to produce two notes in +succession exactly alike. They may sound very similar, but there is a +difference quite perceptible to the highly trained ear. When a singer +starts a phrase a certain amount of motive power is required to set the +vocal apparatus in vibration. After the first note has been attacked +with the full force of the breath, there is naturally not so much weight +or pressure left for the following notes. It is, however, possible for +the second note to be as loud, or even louder, than the first note. But +in order to obtain the additional force on the second note, it is +necessary to compensate for the lack of force due to the loss of the +original weight or pressure by increasing what might be called the +nervous energy; that is to say, by expelling the breath with +proportionately greater speed. + + +MUSCULAR AND NERVOUS ENERGY + +"The manifestation of nervous energy in this manner is quite different +from the manifestation of muscular energy, although both are, of course, +intimately connected. Muscular energy begins at its maximum and +gradually diminishes to the point of exhaustion, whereas nervous energy +rises in an inconceivably short space of time to its climax, and then +drops immediately to nothing. Nervous energy may be said to be +represented by an increased rapidity of emission. It is what the athlete +would call a 'spurt.' + +"What I have said about the voice applies equally to all other +instruments, the piano and the organ alone excepted. It is obvious that +the playing of the wind instruments must be subjected to the limitations +of the breath, and in the case of the violin and the other stringed +instruments, where the bow supplies the motive power, it is impossible +for two notes played in succession to sound absolutely alike. If the +first note of a phrase is attacked with the weight of the whole bow +behind it, the second note will follow with just so much less weight, +and if the violinist desires to intensify any of the succeeding tones, +he must do so by the employment of the nervous energy I have mentioned, +when a difference in the quality of tone is bound to result. The pianist +should closely observe and endeavor to imitate these characteristics, +which so vividly convey the idea of organic life in all its infinite +variety, and which are inherent in every medium for artistic expression. + + +PHRASING AND BREATHING + +"It would take a book, and by no means a small one, to go into this +matter of phrasing which I am now discussing. Even in such a book there +would doubtless be many points which would be open to assaults for +sticklers in psychological technology. I am not issuing a propaganda or +writing a thesis for the purpose of having something to defend, but +merely giving a few offhand facts that have benefited me in my work. +However, it is my conviction that it is the duty of the pianist to try +to understand the analogy to the physical limitations which surround the +more natural mediums of musical expression--the voice and the +violin--and to apply the result of his observations to his piano +playing. + + +THE NATURAL EFFECT OF EMOTIONS + +"There is another relation between phrasing and breathing which the +student may investigate to advantage. The emotions have a direct and +immediate effect upon the breath, and as the brain informs the nervous +system of new emotional impressions the visible evidences may be first +observed in the breathing. It is quite unnecessary to go into the +physiology or psychology of this, but a little reflection will +immediately indicate what I mean. + +"It is impossible to witness a disastrous accident without showing +mental agitation and excitement in hurried breathing. Joy, anger, fear, +love, tranquillity and grief--all are characterized by different modes +of breathing, and a trained actor must study this with great closeness. + +"The artist at the piano may be said to breathe his phrases. A phrase +that is purely contemplative in character is breathed in a tranquil +fashion without any suggestion of nervous agitation. If we go through +the scale of expression, starting with contemplative tranquillity, to +the climax of dramatic intensity, the breath will be emitted +progressively quicker and quicker. Every musical phrase has some kind of +expressive message to deliver. If a perfectly tranquil phrase is given +out in a succession of short breaths, indicating, as they would, +agitation, it would be a contradiction, just as it would be perfectly +inhuman to suppose that in expressing dramatic intensity it would be +possible to breathe slowly. + +"In conclusion, I would urge students to cultivate a very definite +mental attitude as to what they really desire to accomplish. Do you wish +to make music? If so, _think_ music, and nothing but music, all the +time, down to the smallest detail even in technic. Is your ambition to +play scales, octaves, double notes and trills? Then by all means +concentrate your mind on them to the exclusion of everything else, but +do not be surprised if, when, later on, you want to communicate a +semblance of life to your mechanical motions, you succeed in obtaining +no more than the jerky movements of a clock-work puppet." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES III + +HAROLD BAUER + +1. What is the nature of the technical study done by Harold Bauer? + +2. Should immediate musical results be sought in technical study? + +3. Upon what principle is expression in art based? + +4. Is the utmost concentration necessary in all piano playing? + +5. How may the piano become a barrier between the student and musical +expression? + +6. In what spirit should all studies be played? + +7. Is the piano an expressive instrument? + +8. Should pianists acquire a knowledge of the main feature in the +construction of their instrument? + +9. How may variety in piano playing be achieved? + +10. How is phrasing related to breathing? + + + + +[Illustration: F. BLOOMFIELD-ZEISLER] + +FANNY BLOOMFIELD-ZEISLER + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Mrs. Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler was born at Beilitz, Austrian Silesia, +July 16, 1866. Two years later her parents took her to Chicago. Her +first teachers in Chicago were Bernhard Ziehn and Carl Wolfsohn. At the +age of ten she made a profound impression at a public concert in +Chicago. Two years later she had the good fortune to meet Mme. Essipoff, +who advised her to go to Vienna to study with Theodore Leschetizky. +Accordingly she was taken to the Austrian capital and remained under the +instruction of the noted pedagogue for five years. Starting with the +year 1883, she commenced a series of annual recitals and concerts in +different American cities which made her very famous. In 1893 she toured +Europe, attracting even more attention than in the homeland. Since then +she made several tours of Europe and America, arousing great enthusiasm +wherever she appeared. Her emotional force, her personal magnetism and +her keen processes of analysis compelled critics everywhere to rank her +with the foremost pianists of the day. + + + + +VI + +APPEARING IN PUBLIC + +FANNY BLOOMFIELD-ZEISLER + + +"The secret of success in the career of a virtuoso is not easily +defined. Many elements have to be considered. Given great talent, +success is not by any means assured. Many seemingly extraneous qualities +must be cultivated; many mistakes must be avoided. + +"Let me start out with a caution. No greater mistake could possibly be +made than to assume that frequent public appearances or extended concert +touring in early youth is essential to a great career as a virtuoso. On +the contrary, I would say that such a course is positively harmful. The +'experience' of frequent playing in public is essential if one would get +rid of stage fright or undue nervousness and would gain that repose and +self-confidence without which success is impossible. But such experience +should be had only after the attainment of physical and mental maturity. +A young boy or girl, though ever so much of a prodigy, if taken on an +extensive concert tour, not only becomes unduly self-conscious, +conceited, vain and easily satisfied with his or her work, but--and this +is the all-important point--runs the risk of undermining his or her +health. The precious days of youth should be devoted primarily to the +storing up of health, without which lasting success is impossible. +Nothing is more harmful to sound physical development and mental growth +than the strain of extensive tours. It is true that one great virtuoso +now before the public played frequently before large audiences as an +infant prodigy. But, happily, wise and efficient influences served to +check this mad career. The young artist was placed in the hands of a +great teacher and given a chance to reach full physical maturity and +artistic stature before resuming public appearances. Had it been +otherwise, it is a matter of common belief that this great talent would +have fizzled out. + +"By this I do not mean that the pupil should be prevented from playing +at recitals in the home city. Playing of this kind gives the pupil +confidence and smooths the way for his work as a mature artist. These +performances should be rare, except in the case of performances given in +the home of the pupil or at the teacher's home. What I object to is the +exploitation on a large scale of the infant prodigy. + + +THOROUGH PREPARATION NECESSARY + +"One of the real secrets of success in public appearance is thorough +preparation. In fact there is no talisman, no secret that one can pass +over to another and say, 'Here is my secret, go thou and do likewise.' +What a valuable secret it would be--the mysterious secret processes of +the Krupp Gun Works in Germany would be trifling in comparison. Genuine +worth is, after all, the great essential, and thorough preparation leads +to genuine worth. For instance, I have long felt that the mental technic +that the study of Bach's inventions and fugues afford could not be +supplied by any other means. The peculiar polyphonic character of these +works trains the mind to recognize the separate themes so ingeniously +and beautifully interwoven and at the same time the fingers receive a +kind of discipline which hardly any other study can secure. + +"The layman can hardly conceive how difficult it is to play at the same +time two themes different in character and running in opposite +directions. The student fully realizes this difficulty when he finds +that it takes years to master it. These separate themes must be +individualized; they must be conceived as separate, but their bearing +upon the work as a whole must never be overlooked. + +"The purity of style to be found in Bach, in connection with his +marvelous contrapuntal designs, should be expounded to the student at as +early an age as his intellectual development will permit. It may take +some time to create a taste for Bach, but the teacher will be rewarded +with results so substantial and permanent that all the trouble and time +will seem well worth while. + +"There is also a refining influence about which I would like to speak. +The practice of Bach seems to fairly grind off the rough edges, and +instead of a raw, bungling technic the student acquires a kind of +finish from the study of the old master of Eisenach that nothing else +can give him. + +"I do not mean to be understood that the study of Bach, even if it be +ever so thorough, suffices in itself to give one a perfect technic. +Vastly more is necessary. The student who would fit himself for a +concert career must have the advice of a great teacher and must work +incessantly and conscientiously under his guidance. I emphasize the +study of Bach merely because I find it is not pursued as much as it +deserves. That technical finish is of the very essence of success in +public appearance, goes without saying. It is not only indispensable for +a creditable performance, but the consciousness of possessing it +contributes to that confidence of the player without which he cannot +hope to make an impression upon his audience. + + +LESCHETIZKY AND 'METHOD' + +"Speaking about teachers reminds me to put forth this caution: Do not +pin your faith to a method. There is good and, alas! some bad in most +methods. We hear a great deal these days about the Leschetizky method. +During the five years I was with Leschetizky, he made it very plain that +he had no fixed method in the ordinary sense of the word. Like every +good teacher, he studied the individuality of each pupil and taught him +according to that individuality. It might almost be said that he had a +different method for each pupil, and I have often said that +Leschetizky's method is to have no fixed method. Of course, there are +certain preparatory exercises which with slight variations he wants all +his pupils to go through. But it is not so much the exercises in +themselves as the patience and painful persistence in executing them to +which they owe their virtue. Of course, Leschetizky has his preference +for certain works for their great educational value. He has his +convictions as to the true interpretation to be given to the various +compositions, but those do not form what may properly be called a +method. Personally, I am rather skeptical when anybody announces that he +teaches any particular method. Leschetizky, without any particular +method, is a great force by virtue of his tremendously interesting +personality and his great qualities as an artist. He is himself a +never-ending source of inspiration. At eighty he was still a youth, full +of vitality and enthusiasm. Some student, diffident but worthy, was +always encouraged; another was incited by sarcasm; still another was +scolded outright. Practical illustration on the piano, showing 'how not +to do it,' telling of pertinent stories to elucidate a point, are among +the means which he constantly employed to bring out the best that was in +his pupils. A good teacher cannot insure success and Leschetizky has +naturally had many pupils who will never become great virtuosos. It was +never in the pupils and, no matter how great the teacher, he cannot +create talent that does not exist. + +"The many books published upon the Leschetizky system by his assistants +have merit, but they by no means constitute a Leschetizky system. They +simply give some very rational preparatory exercise that the assistants +give in preparing pupils for the master. Leschetizky himself laughs when +one speaks of his 'method' or 'system.' + +"Success in public appearance will never come through any system or +method except that which works toward the end of making a mature and +genuine artist. + + +WELL-SELECTED PROGRAMS + +"Skill in the arrangement of an artist's programs has much to do with +his success. This matter has two distinct aspects. Firstly, the program +must _look_ attractive, and secondly, it must _sound_ well in the +rendition. When I say the program must look attractive, I mean that it +must contain works which interest concert-goers. It should be neither +entirely conventional, nor should it contain novelties exclusively. The +classics should be represented, because the large army of students +expect to be especially benefited by hearing these performed by a great +artist. Novelties must be placed on the program to make it attractive to +the maturer habitues of the concert room. + +"But more important, to my mind, is the other aspect of program making +which I have mentioned. There must be contrasts in the character and +tonal nature of the compositions played. They must be so grouped that +the interest of the hearers will be not only sustained to the end, but +will gradually increase. It goes without saying that each composition +should have merit and worth as musical literature. But beyond that, +there should be variety in the character of the different compositions: +the classic, the romantic, and the modern compositions should all be +given representation. To play several slow movements or several +vivacious movements in succession would tend to tire the listener. +Anti-climaxes should be avoided. + +"It may truly be said that program making is in itself a high art. It is +difficult to give advice on this subject by any general statement. +Generalizations are too often misleading. I would advise the young +artist to study carefully the programs of the most successful artists +and to attempt to discover the principle underlying their arrangement. + +"One thing which should never be forgotten is that the object of a +concert is not merely to show off the skill of the performer, but to +instruct, entertain and elevate the audience. The bulk of the program +should be composed of standard works, but novelties of genuine worth +should be given a place on the program. + + +PERSONALITY + +"The player's personality is of inestimable importance in winning the +approval of the public. I do not refer particularly to personal beauty, +although it cannot be doubted that a pleasing appearance is helpful in +conquering an audience. What I mean is sincerity, individuality, +temperament. What we vaguely describe as magnetism is often possessed by +players who can lay no particular claim to personal beauty. Some players +seem fairly to hypnotize their audiences--yes, hypnotize them. This is +not done by practicing any species of black art, or by consciously +following any psychological formula, but by the sheer intensity of +feeling of the artist at the moment of performance. + +"The great performer in such moments of passion forgets himself +entirely. He is in a sort of artistic trance. Technical mastery of the +composition being presupposed, the artist need not and does not give +thought to the matter of playing the notes correctly, but, re-creating +in himself what he feels to have been the mood of the composer, +re-creates the composition itself. It is this kind of playing which +establishes an invisible cord, connecting the player's and the hearers' +hearts, and, swayed himself by the feelings of the moment, he sways his +audience. He makes the music he draws from the instrument supreme in +every soul in the audience; his feeling and passion are contagious and +carry the audience away. These are the moments, not only of the greatest +triumph, but of the greatest exultation for the artist. He who cannot +thus sway audiences will never rise above mediocrity. + + +DO NOT ATTEMPT THE IMPOSSIBLE + +"To those who are still in the preparatory stage of development I am +glad to give one word of advice. _Do not play pieces that are away +beyond your grasp._ This is the greatest fault in our American musical +educational systems of to-day. Pupils are permitted to play works that +are technically impossible for them to hope to execute without years of +preparation. What a huge blunder this is! + +"The pupil comes to the teacher, let us say, with the _Second Hungarian +Rhapsody_ of Liszt. It takes some fortitude for the conscientious +teacher to tell the pupil that she should work with the _C Major Sonata_ +of Haydn instead. The pupil, with a kind of confidence that is, to say +the least, dangerous, imagines that the teacher is trying to keep her +back, and often goes to another teacher who will gratify her whim. + +"American girls think that they can do everything. Nothing is beyond +them. This is a country of great accomplishment, and they do not realize +that in music 'Art is long.' The virtuoso comes to a great metropolis +and plays a Moszkowski concerto of great difficulty. The next day the +music stores exhaust their stocks of this work, and a dozen misses, who +might with difficulty play a Mendelssohn _Song With Words_, are buried +in the avalanche of technical impossibilities that the alluring concerto +provides. + + +FOREIGN DEBUTS + +"Unfortunately, a foreign _debut_ seems to be necessary for the artist +who would court the favor of the American public. Foreign pianists get +engagements long before their managers in America ever hear them. In the +present state of affairs, if an American pianist were to have the +ability of three Liszts and three Rubinsteins in one person, he could +only hope for meager reward if he did not have a great European +reputation behind him. + +"The condition is absurd and regrettable, but nevertheless true. We have +many splendid teachers in America--as fine as there are in the world. + +"We have in our larger cities musical audiences whose judgment is as +discriminating as that of the best European audiences. Many an artist +with a great European reputation has come to this country, and, failing +'to make good' in the judgment of our critics and audiences, went back +with his reputation seriously impaired. Nevertheless, as I have stated, +the American artist without a European reputation, has no drawing power +and therefore does not interest the managers and the piano +manufacturers, who nowadays have largely supplanted the managers. This +being so, I can only advise the American artist to do as others had to +do. Go to Europe; give a few concerts in Berlin, London, Vienna or +Paris. Let the concert director who arranges your concerts paper the +house, but be sure you get a few critics in the audience. Have your +criticisms translated, and get them republished in American papers. +Then, if you have real merit, you may get a chance. + +"The interest in music in the United States at the present time is +phenomenal. European peoples have no conception of it. Nowhere in the +world can such interest be found. Audiences in different parts of the +country do not differ very greatly from the standpoint of intelligent +appreciation. When we consider the great uncultured masses of peasants +in Europe and the conditions of our own farmers, especially in the West, +there is no basis of comparison. America is already a musical country, a +very musical country. It is only in its failure to properly support +native musicians that we are subject to criticism. + + +PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS + +"To the young man or woman who would learn 'The Secret of Public +Appearance' I would say: + +"1. Look deeply into your natural qualifications. Use every morsel of +judgment you possess to endeavor to determine whether you are talented +or simply 'clever' at music. Court the advice of unbiased professional +musicians and meditate upon the difficulties leading to a successful +career, and do not decide to add one more musician to the world until +you are confident of your suitability for the work. Remember that this +moment of decision is a very important time and that you may be upon the +threshold of a dangerous mistake. Remember that there are thousands of +successful and happy teachers for one successful virtuoso. + +"2. After you have determined to undertake the career of the concert +performer let nothing stand in the way of study, except the +consideration of your health. Success with a broken-down body and a +shattered mind is a worthless conquest. Remember that if you wish a +permanent position you must be thoroughly trained in all branches of +your art. + +"3. Avoid charlatanism and the kind of advertisement that will bring you +notoriety at the sacrifice of your self-respect and the respect of your +best friends. Remember that real worth is, after all, the thing that +brings enduring fame. + +"4. Study the public. Seek to find out what pleases it, but never lower +the standards of your art. Read the best literature. Study pictures. +Travel. Broaden your mind. Acquire general culture. + +"5. Be careful of your stage deportment. Endeavor to do nothing at the +keyboard that will emphasize any personal eccentricity. Always be +sincere and true to your own nature, but within these limits try to make +a pleasing impression. + +"6. Always be your own severest critic. Be not easily satisfied with +yourself. Hitch your wagon to a star. Let your standard of perfection be +the very highest. Always strive to reach that standard. Never play in +public a piece that you have not thoroughly mastered. There is nothing +more valuable than public confidence. Once secured, it is the greatest +asset an artist can possess. + +"I have repeatedly been asked to give ten rules for practice. + +"It is not possible to formulate ten all-comprehensive rules that could +be applied in every case, but the following suggestions will be found +valuable to many students: + +"1. Concentrate during every second of your practice. To concentrate +means to bring all your thinking powers to bear upon one central point +with the greatest possible intensity. Without such concentration nothing +can be accomplished during the practice period. One hour of concentrated +thinking is worth weeks of thoughtless practice. It is safe to say that +years are being wasted by students in this country who fail to get the +most out of their practice because they do not know how to concentrate. +A famous thinker has said: 'The evidence of superior genius is the power +of intellectual concentration.' + +"2. Divide your practice time into periods of not more than two hours. +You will find it impossible to concentrate properly if you attempt to +practice more than two hours at a time. Do not have an arbitrary program +of practice work, for this course is liable to make your work +monotonous. For one who practices four hours (and that is enough for +almost any student), one hour for purely technical work, one hour for +Bach, and two hours for pieces is to be recommended. + +"3. In commencing your practice, play over your piece once or twice +before beginning to memorize. Then, after working through the entire +composition, pick out the more difficult passages for special attention +and reiteration. + +"4. Always practice slowly at first. This is simply another way of +telling the pupil to concentrate. Even after you have played your piece +at the required speed and with reasonable confidence that it is correct, +never fail to go back now and then and play it at the speed at which you +learned it. This is a practice which many virtuosos follow. Pieces that +they have played time and time again before enthusiastic audiences are +re-studied by playing them very slowly. This is the only real way to +undo mistakes that are bound to creep into one's performance when pieces +are constantly played in a rapid tempo. + +"5. Do not attempt to practice your whole piece at first. Take a small +section or even a phrase. If you take a longer section than say sixteen +bars, you will find it difficult to avoid mistakes. Of course, when the +piece is mastered you should have all these sections so unified that you +can play the entire composition smoothly and without a break. + +"6. First memorize _mentally_ the section you have selected for study, +and then practice it. If you do not know it well enough to practice it +from memory, you have not grasped its musical content, but are playing +mechanically. + +"7. Occasionally memorize backwards, that is, take the last few measures +and learn them thoroughly, then take the preceding measures and +continue in this way until the whole is mastered. Even after you have +played the piece many times, this process often compels a concentration +that is beneficial. + +"8. When studying, remember that practice is simply a means of +cultivating habits. If you play correctly from the start you will form +good habits; if you play carelessly and faultily your playing will grow +continually worse. Consequently, play so slowly and correctly from the +start that you may insure the right fingering, phrasing, tone, touch +(staccato, legato, portamento, etc.), pedaling and dynamic effects. If +you postpone the attainment of any of these qualities to a later date +they are much more difficult to acquire. + +"9. Always listen while you are playing. Music is intended to be heard. +If you do not listen to your own playing it is very probable that other +people will not care to listen to it either. + +"10. Never attempt to play anything in public that you have just +finished studying. When you are through working upon a piece, put it +away to be musically digested, then after some time repeat the same +process, and again the third time, when your piece will, have become a +part of yourself." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES IV + +FANNY BLOOMFIELD-ZEISLER + +1. How should the public appearances of talented children be controlled? + +2. What is the best material for the development of a mental technic? + +3. Should one pin one's faith to any one method? + +4. What combines to make a program attractive? + +5. What should be artist's main object in giving a concert? + +6. What part does personality play in the performer's success? + +7. What is one of the greatest faults in musical educational work in +America? + +8. How should practice time be divided? + +9. May one memorize "backwards"? + +10. Why should one listen while playing? + + + + +FERRUCCIO BENVENUTO BUSONI + +Biographical + + +Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni was born at Empoli, near Florence, Italy, +April 1, 1866. His father was a clarinetist and his mother whose maiden +name was Weiss, indicating her German ancestry was an excellent pianist. +His first teachers were his parents. So pronounced was his talent that +he made his debut at the age of eight in Vienna, Austria. He then +studied in the Austrian city of Graz with W. A. Remy, whose right name +was Dr. Wilhelm Mayer. This able teacher aside from being a learned +jurist was also devoted to music and had among his other pupils no less +a person than Felix Weingartner. + +In 1881 Busoni toured Italy and was made a member of the Reale Accademia +Filharmonica at Bologna. In 1886 he went to reside at Leipsic. Two years +later he became teacher of pianoforte at the Helsingfors Conservatory in +the Finnish capital. In 1890 he captured the famous Rubinstein prizes +for both pianoforte and composition. In the same year he became +Professor of pianoforte playing at the Moscow Imperial Conservatory. The +next year he accepted a similar position in the New England Conservatory +at Boston,--returning to Europe for another tour in 1893. After many +successful tours he accepted the position of director of the +Meisterschule at the Imperial Conservatory in Vienna. His compositions +include over one hundred published opus numbers, the most pretentious +probably being his _Choral Concerto_. His editions of Bach are +masterpieces of technical and artistic erudition. + +(The following Conference was conducted in English.) + +[Illustration: FERRUCCIO B. BUSONI] + + + + +VII + +IMPORTANT DETAILS IN PIANO STUDY + +FERRUCCIO BENVENUTO BUSONI + + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DETAIL + +"Some years ago I met a very famous artist whose celebrity rested upon +the wonderful colored glass windows that he had produced. He was +considered by most of his contemporaries the greatest of all makers of +high-art windows. His fame had extended throughout the artistic circles +of all Europe. A little remark he made to me illustrates the importance +of detail better than anything of which I can think at present. + +"He said, 'If a truly great work of art in the form of a stained glass +window should be accidentally shattered to little bits, one should be +able to estimate the greatness of the whole window by examining one of +the fragments even though all the other pieces were missing.' + +"In fine piano playing all of the details are important. I do not mean +to say that if one were in another room that one could invariably tell +the ability of an artist by hearing him strike one note, but if the note +is heard in relation to the other notes in a composition, its +proportionate value should be so delicately and artistically estimated +by the highly trained performer, that it forms part of the artistic +whole. + +"For instance, it is quite easy to conceive of compositions demanding a +very smooth running performance in which one jarring or harsh note +indicating faulty artistic calculation upon the part of the player would +ruin the entire interpretation. As examples of this one might cite the +Bach _Choral Vorspiel_, _Nun Freut euch_, of which I have made an +arrangement, and such a composition as the Chopin Prelude Opus 28, No. +3, with its running accompaniment in the left hand. + +"It is often perfection in little things which distinguishes the +performance of the great pianist from that of the novice. The novice +usually manages to get the so-called main points, but he does not work +for the little niceties of interpretation which are almost invariably +the defining characteristic of the interpretations of the real +artist--that is, the performer who has formed the habit of stopping at +nothing short of his highest ideal of perfection. + + +LEARNING TO LISTEN + +"There is a detail which few students observe which is of such vast +importance that one is tempted to say that the main part of successful +musical progress depends upon it. This is the detail of learning to +listen. Every sound that is produced during the practice period should +be heard. That is, it should be heard with ears open to give that sound +the intelligent analysis which it deserves. + +"Anyone who has observed closely and taught extensively must have +noticed that hours and hours are wasted by students strumming away on +keyboards and giving no more attention to the sounds they produce than +would the inmates of a deaf and dumb asylum. These students all expect +to become fine performers even though they may not aim to become +virtuosos. To them the piano keyboard is a kind of gymnasium attached to +a musical instrument. They may of course acquire strong fingers, but +they will have to learn to listen before they can hope to become even +passable performers. + +"At my own recitals no one in the audience listens more attentively than +I do. I strive to hear every note and while I am playing my attention is +so concentrated upon the one purpose of delivering the work in the most +artistic manner dictated by the composer's demands and my conception of +the piece, that I am little conscious of anything else. I have also +learned that I must continually have my mind alert to opportunities for +improvement. I am always in quest of new beauties and even while playing +in public it is possible to conceive of new details that come like +revelations. + +"The artist who has reached the period when he fails to be on the +outlook for details of this kind and is convinced that in no possible +way could his performances be improved, has reached a very dangerous +stage of artistic stagnation which will result in the ruin of his +career. There is always room for improvement, that is the development of +new details, and it is this which gives zest and intellectual interest +to the work of the artist. Without it his public efforts would become +very tame and unattractive. + + +SELF DEVELOPMENT + +"In my own development as an artist it has been made evident to me, time +and time again, that success comes from the careful observance of +details. All students should strive to estimate their own artistic +ability very accurately. A wrong estimate always leads to a dangerous +condition. If I had failed to attend to certain details many years ago, +I would have stopped very far short of anything like success. + +"I remember that when I concluded my term as professor of piano at the +New England Conservatory of Music I was very conscious of certain +deficiencies in my style. Notwithstanding the fact that I had been +accepted as a virtuoso in Europe and in America and had toured with +great orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, I knew better +than anyone else that there were certain details in my playing that I +could not afford to neglect. + +"For instance, I knew that my method of playing the trill could be +greatly improved and I also knew that I lacked force and endurance in +certain passages. Fortunately, although a comparatively young man, I was +not deceived by the flattery of well-meaning, but incapable critics, who +were quite willing to convince me that my playing was as perfect as it +was possible to make it. Every seeker of artistic truth is more widely +awake to his own deficiencies than any of his critics could possibly be. + +"In order to rectify the details I have mentioned as well as some I have +not mentioned, I have come to the conclusion that I must devise an +entirely new technical system. Technical systems are best when they are +individual. Speaking theoretically, every individual needs a different +technical system. Every hand, every arm, every set of ten fingers, every +body and, what is of greatest importance, every intellect is different +from every other. I consequently endeavored to get down to the basic +laws underlying the subject of technic and make a system of my own. + +"After much study, I discovered what I believed to be the technical +cause of my defects and then I returned to Europe and for two years I +devoted myself almost exclusively to technical study along the +individual lines I had devised. To my great delight details that had +always defied me, the rebellious trills, the faltering bravura passages, +the uneven runs, all came into beautiful submission and with them came a +new delight in playing. + + +FINDING INDIVIDUAL FAULTS + +"I trust that my experience will set some ambitious piano students to +thinking and that they may be benefited by it. There is always a way of +correcting deficiencies if the way can only be found. The first thing, +however, is to recognize the detail itself and then to realize that +instead of being a detail it is a matter of vast importance until it has +been conquered and brought into submission. In playing, always note +where your difficulties seem to lie. Then, when advisable, isolate those +difficulties and practice them separately. This is the manner in which +all good technical exercises are devised. + +"Your own difficulty is the difficulty which you should practice most. +Why waste time in practicing passages which you can play perfectly well? +One player may have difficulty in playing trills, while to another +player of equal general musical ability trills may be perfectly easy. In +playing arpeggios, however, the difficulties which prove obstacles to +the players may be entirely reversed. The one who could play the trill +perfectly might not be able, under any circumstance, to play an arpeggio +with the requisite smoothness and true legato demanded, while the +student who found the trill impossible possesses the ability to run +arpeggios and cadenzas with the fluency of a forest rivulet. + +"All technical exercises must be given to the pupil with great +discretion and judgment just as poisonous medicines must be administered +to the patient with great care. The indiscriminate giving of technical +exercises may impede progress rather than advance the pupil. Simply +because an exercise happens to come in a certain position in a book of +technical exercises is no reason why the particular pupil being taught +needs that exercise at that particular time. Some exercises which are +not feasible and others which are inexpedient at a certain time, may +prove invaluable later in the pupil's progress. + +"Take the famous Tausig exercises, for instance. Tausig was a master of +technic who had few, if any, equals in his time. His exercises are for +the most part very ingenious and useful to advanced players, but when +some of them are transposed into other keys as their composer demands +they become practically impossible to play with the proper touch, etc. +Furthermore, one would be very unlikely to find a passage demanding such +a technical feat in the compositions of any of the great masters of the +piano. Consequently, such exercises are of no practical value and would +only be demanded by a teacher with more respect for tradition than +common sense. + + +DETAILS OF PHRASING AND ACCENTUATION + +"Some students look upon phrasing as a detail that can be postponed +until other supposedly more important things are accomplished. The very +musical meaning of any composition depends upon the correct +understanding and delivery of the phrases which make that composition. +To neglect the phrases would be about as sensible as it would be for the +great actor to neglect the proper thought division in the interpretation +of his lines. The greatest masterpiece of dramatic literature whether it +be _Romeo and Juliet_, _Antigone_, _La Malade Imaginaire_ or _The Doll's +House_ becomes nonsense if the thought divisions indicated by the +verbal phrases are not carefully determined and expressed. + +"Great actors spend hours and hours seeking for the best method of +expressing the author's meaning. No pianist of ability would think of +giving less careful attention to phrasing. How stupid it would be for +the actor to add a word that concluded one sentence to the beginning of +the next sentence. How erroneous then is it for the pupil to add the +last note of one phrase to the beginning of the next phrase. Phrasing is +anything but a detail. + +"Fine phrasing depends first upon a knowledge of music which enables one +to define the limitations of the phrase and then upon a knowledge of +pianoforte playing which enables one to execute it properly. Phrasing is +closely allied to the subject of accentuation and both subjects are +intimately connected with that of fingering. Without the proper fingers +it is often impossible to execute certain phrases correctly. Generally, +the accents are considered of importance because they are supposed to +fall in certain set parts of given measures, thus indicating the meter. + +"In instructing very young pupils it may be necessary to lead them to +believe that the time must be marked in a definite manner by such +accents, but as the pupil advances he must understand that the measure +divisions are inserted principally for the purpose of enabling him to +read easily. He should learn to look upon each piece of music as a +beautiful tapestry in which the main consideration is the principal +design of the work as a whole and not the invisible marking threads +which the manufacturer is obliged to put in the loom in order to have a +structure upon which the tapestry may be woven. + + +BACH, BACH, BACH + +"In the study of the subject of accentuation and phrasing it would not +be possible for anyone to recommend anything more instructive than the +works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The immortal Thueringian composer was the +master-weaver of all. His tapestries have never been equalled in +refinement, color, breadth and general beauty. Why is Bach so valuable +for the student? This is an easy question to answer. It is because his +works are so constructed that they compel one to study these details. +Even if the student has only mastered the intricacies of the _Two Voice +Inventions_, it is safe to say that he has become a better player. More +than this, Bach forces the student to think. + +"If the student has never thought before during his practice periods, he +will soon find that it is quite impossible for him to encompass the +difficulties of Bach without the closest mental application. In fact, he +may also discover that it is possible for him to work out some of his +musical problems while away from the keyboard. Many of the most +perplexing musical questions and difficulties that have ever confronted +me have been solved mentally while I have been walking upon the street +or lying in bed at night. + +"Sometimes the solution of difficult details comes in the twinkling of +an eye. I remember that when I was a very young man I was engaged to +play a concerto with a large symphony orchestra. One part of the +concerto had always troubled me, and I was somewhat apprehensive about +it. During one of the pauses, while the orchestra was playing, the +correct interpretation came to me like a flash. I waited until the +orchestra was playing very loud and made an opportunity to run over the +difficult passage. Of course, my playing could not be heard under the +_tutti_ of the orchestra, and when the time came for the proper delivery +of the passage it was vastly better than it would have been otherwise. + +"I never neglect an opportunity to improve, no matter how perfect a +previous interpretation may have seemed to me. In fact, I often go +directly home from the concert and practice for hours upon the very +pieces that I have been playing, because during the concert certain new +ideas have come to me. These ideas are very precious, and to neglect +them or to consider them details to be postponed for future development +would be ridiculous in the extreme." + + +QUESTIONS ON STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANO PLAYING + +SERIES V + +FERRUCCIO BENVENUTO BUSONI + +1. What is it which distinguishes the performance of the great pianist +from that of the novice? + +2. Upon what detail of interpretation does musical performance most +depend? + +3. Should the student continually estimate his own ability? + +4. Which difficulty should you practice most? + +5. What was the principle which made the Tausig exercises valuable? + +6. Upon what does fine phrasing depend? + +7. Why is it that the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach are so +useful in piano study? + +8. How may complex musical problems be solved mentally? + +9. Is it advisable to isolate difficulties and practice them separately? + +10. How should one seize opportunities to improve? + + + + +TERESA CARRENO + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Teresa Carreno was born at Caracas, Venezuela, December 22, 1853. She +descended from one of the foremost families of Spanish America, which +boasted of Simon Bolivar "the Washington of South America" as one of its +members. Artists have been known among her ancestors as far back as the +fourteenth century when the famous painter Carreno lived in Spain. + +Mme. Carreno's first teacher was her father. Later she studied with a +German teacher in her native country. At seven she played the _Rondo +Capriccio_ of Mendelssohn with great _eclat_. A revolution obliged the +Carreno family to move to New York. The death of a friend to whom funds +had been entrusted placed the party of eighteen refugees in dire straits +and a concert was arranged at which the tiny Teresa came to the front +and secured sufficient means for their existence. + +Gottschalk, then in the height of his fame in New York, became the +child's next teacher. She remained with him for two years. Then she went +to Paris and became a pupil of Georges Mathias, the famous disciple of +Chopin. Her success as a virtuoso pianist in Europe excited the +attention of Rubinstein who devoted a great deal of time to giving her +invaluable advice and instruction in interpretation. Indeed Rubinstein +was so proud of her that he repeatedly introduced her as his daughter in +art and would jokingly say "Are not our hands exactly alike?" + +Mme. Carreno's brilliance, force, breadth of thought and almost sensuous +love for the beautiful made her numerous tours through all of the +music-loving countries remarkably successful. + +[Illustration: TERESA CARRENO] + + + + +VIII + +DISTINCTIVE PIANO PLAYING + +TERESA CARRENO + + +EARLY EVIDENCES OF INDIVIDUALITY + +It is difficult for me to discuss the subject of individuality without +recollecting one of the most impressive and significant events of my +entire career. When I was taken to Europe as a child, for further study, +it was my good fortune to meet and play for the immortal Franz Liszt. He +seemed deeply interested in my playing, and with the kindliness for +which he was always noted he gave me his blessing, a kind of artistic +sacrament that has had a tremendous influence upon all my work as an +artist. He laid his hand upon my head and among other things said: +"Little girl, with time you will be one of us. Don't imitate anyone. +Keep yourself true to yourself. Cultivate your individuality and do not +follow blindly in the paths of others." + +In this one thought Liszt embodied a kind of a pedagogical sermon which +should be preached every day in all the schools, conservatories and +music studios of the world. Nothing is so pitiful as the evidences of a +strong individuality crushed out by an artificial educational system +which makes the system itself of paramount importance and the individual +of microbic significance. + +The signs of individuality may be observed in little folks at a very +early age. With some children they are not very pronounced, and the +child seems like hundreds of others without any particular inclination, +artistic or otherwise. It is then that the teacher's powers of +divination should be brought into play. Before any real progress can be +made the nature of the child must be studied carefully. In the case of +other children, the individuality is very marked at an early age. As a +rule, the child with the marked individuality is the one from whom the +most may be expected later in life. Sometimes this very individuality is +mistaken for precocity. This is particularly the case with musicians. In +a few instances the individuality of the master has been developed late +in life, as was the case of Richard Wagner, whose early individual +tendencies were toward the drama rather than music. + + +NEW PROBLEMS AT EVERY STEP + +The teacher in accepting a new pupil should realize that there at once +arises new problems at every step. The pupil's hand, mind, body and soul +may be in reality different from those of every other pupil the teacher +has taught. The individual peculiarities of the hand should be carefully +considered. If the hand has long, tapering fingers, with the fingers +widely separated, it will need quite different treatment from that of +the pupil with a short, compact, muscular hand. If the pupil's mind +indicates mental lethargy or a lack of the proper early educational +training, this must be carefully considered by the teacher. + +If the pupil's body is frail and the health uncertain, surely the +teacher will not think of prescribing the same work she would prescribe +for a robust, energetic pupil who appears never to have had a sick day. +One pupil might be able to practice comfortably for four and five hours +a day, while another would find her energy and interest exhausted in two +hours. In fact, I would consider the study of individuality the +principal care or study of the teacher. + +The individuality of different virtuoso performers is very marked. +Although the virtuoso aspires to encompass all styles--that is, to be +what you would call an "all-around" player--it is, nevertheless, the +individuality of the player that adds the additional charm to the +piano-recital. You hear a great masterpiece executed by one virtuoso, +and when you hear the same composition played by another you will detect +a difference, not of technical ability or of artistic comprehension, but +rather of individuality. Rembrandt, Rubens and Vandyke might have all +painted from the same model, but the finished portrait would have been +different, and that difference would have been a reflection of the +individuality of the artist. + + +THE TEACHER'S RESPONSIBILITY + +Again let me emphasize the necessity for the correct "diagnosis" of the +pupil's individuality upon the part of the teacher. Unless the right +work is prescribed by the teacher, the pupil will rarely ever survive +artistically. It is much the same as with the doctor. If the doctor +gives the wrong medicine and the patient dies, surely the doctor is to +blame. It makes no difference whether the doctor had good intentions or +not. The patient is dead and that is the end of all. I have little +patience with these people who have such wonderful intentions, but who +have neither the ability, courage nor willingness to carry out these +intentions. Many teachers would like to accomplish a very great deal for +their pupils, but alas! they are either not able or they neglect those +very things which make the teacher's work a mission. One of the +teacher's greatest responsibilities lies in determining at first upon a +rational educational course by divining the pupil's individuality. +Remember that pupils are not all like sheep to be shorn in the same +identical fashion with the same identical shears. + + +EDWARD MACDOWELL'S INDIVIDUALITY + +One of the most remarkable cases of a pronounced musical individuality +was that of the late Edward MacDowell, who came to me for instruction +for a considerable time. He was then quite youthful, and his motives +from the very first were of the highest and noblest. His ideals were so +lofty that he required little stimulation or urging of any kind. Here it +was necessary to study the pupil's nature very carefully, and provide +work that would develop his keenly artistic individuality. I remember +that he was extremely fond of Grieg, and the marked and original +character of the Norwegian tone-poet made a deep impression upon him. He +was poetical, and loved to study and read poetry. To have repressed +MacDowell in a harsh or didactic manner would have been to have +demolished those very characteristics which, in later years, developed +in such astonishing fashion that his compositions have a distinctiveness +and a style all their own. + +It gives me great pleasure to place his compositions upon my programs +abroad, and I find that they are keenly appreciated by music lovers in +the old world. If MacDowell had not had a strong individuality, and if +he had not permitted this individuality to be developed along normal +lines, his compositions would not be the treasures to our art that they +are. + + +DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALITY THROUGH POETRY + +If the teacher discovers a pupil with apparent musical talent, but whose +nature has not been developed to appreciate the beautiful and romantic +in this wonderful world of ours, he will find it quite impossible to +alter the pupil's individuality in this respect by work at the keyboard +alone. The mundane, prosaic individual who believes that the sole aim of +musical study is the acquisition of technic, or the magic of digital +speed, must be brought to realize that this is a fault of individuality +which will mar his entire career unless it is intelligently corrected. +Years and years spent in practice will not make either a musician or a +virtuoso out of one who can conceive of nothing more than how many times +he can play a series of notes within the beats of the metronome, beating +208 times a minute. + +Speed does not constitute virtuosity, nor does the ability to unravel +the somewhat intricate keyboard puzzles of Bach and Brahms make in +itself fine piano playing. The mind of the artist must be cultured; in +fact, quite as cultured as that of the composer who conceived the music. +Culture comes from the observation of many things: Nature, architecture, +science, machinery, sculpture, history, men and women, and poetry. I +advise aspiring music students to read a great deal of poetry. + +I find great inspiration in Shakespeare, inspiration which I know is +communicated to my interpretations of musical masterpieces at my +concerts. Who can remain unmoved by the mystery and psychology of +_Hamlet_, the keen suffering and misery of _King Lear_, the bitter hate +and revenge of _Othello_, the sweet devotion of _Romeo and Juliet_, the +majesty of _Richard III_, and the fairy beauty of _A Midsummer Night's +Dream_? In this wonderful kaleidoscope of all the human passions one can +find a world of inspiration. I am also intensely fond of Goethe, Heine, +and Alfred de Musset. It gives me pleasure to compare them to the great +masters of music. Shakespeare I compare to Brahms, Goethe to Bach and +Beethoven, and Heine and Musset to Chopin and Liszt. + + +CULTIVATING VIVACITY AND BRILLIANCY + +Vivacity and brilliancy in playing are largely matters of temperament +and a fluent technic. I owe a great deal in this respect to Gottschalk. +When he came back to America fresh from the hands of the inimitable +Chopin, he took the most minute pains to cultivate this characteristic +in my playing. Chopin's own playing was marked by delicacy and an +intensity that was apart from the bravura playing of most of the artists +of his time. Gottschalk was a keen observer, and he did everything +possible to impart this style to me. I have used the studies of Czerny, +Liszt, Henselt and Clementi to develop brilliancy with pupils. + +It should be remembered that the root of all brilliant playing lies in +one thing--accuracy. Without accuracy any attempt at brilliancy must +result in "mussiness." It is impossible to explain these things by means +of books and theories. Remember what Goethe says: "Alle Theorie is grau, +mein Freund" (all theory is foggy or hard to comprehend). One can say +fifty times as much in twenty minutes as one can put in a book. Books +are necessary, but by no means depend entirely upon books for technical +instruction. + +Individuals who are careless possess a trait that will seriously mar +their individuality as musicians and artists. Carelessness is so often +taken for "abandon" in playing. "Abandon" is something quite different +and pertains to that unconsciousness of technical effort which only +comes to the artist after years of practice. To play with "abandon" and +miss a few notes in this run, play a few false notes in the next, strike +the wrong bass note here and there, mumble trills and overlook the +correct phrasing entirely, with the idea that you are doing the same +thing you have seen some great virtuoso do, is simply the superlative +degree of carelessness. + +To one whose individuality is marred by carelessness let me recommend +very slow playing, with the most minute attention to detail. Technically +speaking, Czerny and Bach are of great value in correcting carelessness. +In Czerny the musical structure of the compositions is so clearly and +openly outlined that any error is easily detected, while in Bach the +structure is so close and compact that it is difficult to make an error +without interrupting the movement of some other voice that will reveal +the error. The main consideration, however, is personal carefulness, and +it makes little difference what the study is, so long as the student +himself takes great pains to see that he is right, and exactly right, +before he attempts to go ahead. Most musicians, however, would say that +Bach was the one great stone upon which our higher technical structure +must firmly stand. + +Some individuals are so superficial and so "frothy" that it is difficult +to conceive of their doing anything serious or really worth while. It is +very hard for the teacher to work with such a pupil, because they have +not realized themselves as yet. They have not looked into their lives +and discerned those things which make life of most importance. Life is +not all play, nor is it all sorrow. But sorrow often does much to +develop the musician's character, to make him look into himself and +discover his more serious purposes. This might also be accomplished by +some such means of self-introspection as "Christian Science." Although I +am not a "Christian Scientist," I am a great believer in its wonderful +principles. + +The greatest care must be taken in developing the individualities of the +superficial pupils. To give them Bach or Brahms at the outstart would be +to irritate them. They must be led to a fondness for music of a deeper +or more worthy character by gradual steps in that direction. In my own +case I was fortunate in having the advice of mature and famous +musicians, and as a child was given music of a serious order only. I +have always been grateful for this experience. At one of my first New +York concerts I had the honor of having Theodore Thomas as first +violinist, and I well remember his natural bent for music of a serious +order, which was in a decided contrast to the popular musical taste of +the times. + + +THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING MUSICAL HISTORY + +Every composer has a pronounced individuality. To the experienced +musician this individuality becomes so marked that he can often detect +the composer's style in a composition which he has never heard. The +artist studies the individuality of the composer through the study of +his biography, through the study of musical history in general and +through the analysis of individual compositions. + +Every music student should be familiar with the intensely necessary and +extremely valuable subject of musical history. How else can he become +familiar with the personal individualities of the great composers? The +more I know of Chopin, Beethoven, Scarlatti or Mendelssohn as men, and +the more I know of the times in which they lived, the closer I feel to +the manner in which they would have wished their compositions +interpreted. Consider how markedly different are the individualities of +Wagner and Haydn, and how different the interpretations of the works of +these masters should be. + +Strauss and Debussy are also very different in their methods of +composition. Strauss seems to me a tremendous genius who is inventing a +new musical language as he goes. Debussy does not appeal to me in the +same manner. He always seems to be groping for musical ideas, while with +Strauss the greatness of his ideas is always evident and all-compelling. + +In closing, let me say that _Time_, _Experience_ and _Work_ are the +moulders of all individuality. Few of us close our days with the same +individualities which become evident in our youth. We are either +growing better or worse all the time. We rarely stand still. To the +musician work is the great sculptor of individuality. As you work and as +you think, so will you be. No deed, no thought, no hope is too +insignificant to fail to influence your nature. As through work we +become better men and women, so through work do we become better +musicians. Carlyle has beautifully expressed this thought in "Past and +Present" thus: "The latest Gospel in this world is, 'Know thy work and +do it.' Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other +blessedness. He has a WORK, a life purpose; he has found it and will +follow it." + + +QUESTIONS ON STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANO PLAYING + +SERIES VI + +TERESA CARRENO + +1. Why should imitation be avoided? + +2. Should individuality in playing be developed at an early age? + +3. Should individual physical peculiarities be taken into consideration? + +4. In what way was Edward MacDowell's individuality marked? + +5. How may individuality be developed through poetry? + +6. What studies are particularly useful in the cultivation of brilliant +playing? + +7. What is the best remedy for careless playing? + +8. How must superficial pupils be treated? + +9. Why is the study of musical history so important? + +10. What may be called the sculptor of individuality in music? + + + + +[Illustration: O. GABRILOWITSCH] + +OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Ossip Gabrilowitsch was born in St. Petersburg, February 8, 1878. His +father was a well-known jurist of the Russian capital. His brothers were +musical and his first teacher was one of his brothers. Later, he was +taken to Anton Rubinstein who earnestly advocated a career as a +virtuoso. Accordingly he entered the classes of Victor Tolstoff at the +St. Petersburg Conservatory, then under the supervision of Rubinstein +himself. His frequent personal conferences with the latter were of +immense value to him. Thereafter he went to Vienna and studied with +Leschetizky for two years. He has made many tours of Europe and America +as a piano virtuoso and has also appeared as an orchestral conductor +with pronounced success. He was a great friend of the late Mark Twain +(Samuel L. Clemens) and married one of his daughters. + +(The following conference was conducted in English.) + + + + +IX + +ESSENTIALS OF TOUCH + +OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH + + +"Modern pianoforte teachers in many instances seem to make deliberate +attempts to complicate the very simple matter of touch. In the final +analyses the whole study of touch may be resolved into two means of +administering force to the keyboard, _i. e._, weight and muscular +activity. The amount of pressure brought to bear upon the keys depends +upon the amount of arm weight and upon the quickness with which the +muscles of the hand, forearm, full-arm and back permit the key to be +struck. Upon these two means of administering force must depend whatever +differentiation in dynamic power and tonal quality the player desires to +produce. The various gradations of tone which the virtuoso's hand and +arm are trained to execute are so minute that it is impossible for me to +conceive of a scientific instrument or scale to measure them. +Physiologists have attempted to construct instruments to do this, but +little of value has come from such experiments. + + +A RIGID ARM UNDESIRABLE + +"Only a comparatively few years ago thousands of teachers were insisting +upon having their pupils keep the arms in a still, even rigid, condition +during practice. This naturally resulted in the stiffest imaginable +kind of a touch, and likewise in a mechanical style of playing that made +what has come to be known in later days as 'tone color' impossible. + +"At this day the finger touch as it was formerly known has almost gone +out of existence. By finger touch I refer to the old custom of holding +the hand and forearm almost rigid and depending upon the muscular +strength of the fingers for all tonal effects. In fact, I so rarely +employ the finger touch, except in combination with the arm touch, that +it is almost an insignificant factor as far as my own playing is +concerned. By this the reader must not think that the training of the +fingers, and particularly the finger tips, is to be neglected. But this +training, to my mind, is not so much a matter of acquiring digital +strength to produce force as to accustom the fingers to strike the notes +with the greatest possible accuracy and speed. This belongs rather to +the realm of technic than to that of touch, and behind all technic is +the intellect of the player. Technic is a matter of training the finger +tips to attack and leave the keys under the absolute discipline of the +brain. Touch has a much broader and wider significance. It is touch that +reveals the soul of the player. + + +TOUCH A DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC + +"Touch is the distinguishing characteristic which makes one player's +music sound different from that of another, for it is touch that +dominates the player's means of producing dynamic shading or tone +quality. I know that many authorities contend that the quality of tone +depends upon the instrument rather than upon the performer. +Nevertheless, I am reasonably confident that if I were to hear a number +of pianists play in succession upon the same instrument behind a screen +and one of these performers were to be my friend, Harold Bauer, I could +at once identify his playing by his peculiarly individual touch. In +fact, the trained ear can identify different individual characteristics +with almost the same accuracy that we identify different voices. One +could never forget Leschetizky's touch, or that of many another +contemporary pianist. + +"No matter how wonderful the pianist's technic--that is, how rapidly and +accurately he can play passages of extraordinary difficulty, it is quite +worthless unless he possesses that control over his touch which enables +him to interpret the composer's work with the right artistic shading. A +fine technic without the requisite touch to liberate the performer's +artistic intelligence and 'soul' is like a gorgeous chandelier without +the lights. Until the lights are ignited all its beauty is obscured in +darkness. With an excellent technic and a fine touch, together with a +broad musical and general education and artistic temperament, the young +player may be said to be equipped to enter the virtuoso field. + + +COMBINING DIFFERENT TOUCHES + +"As I have intimated, if the fingers are used exclusively a terribly dry +tone must result. The full-arm touch, in which I experience a complete +relaxation of the arm from the shoulder to the finger tips, is the +condition I employ at most times. But the touches I use are combinations +of the different finger, hand and arm touches. These lead to myriads of +results, and only the experienced performer can judge where they should +be applied to produce desired effects. + +"You will observe by placing your hand upon my shoulder that even with +the movement of the single finger a muscular activity may be detected at +the shoulder. This shows how completely relaxed I keep my entire arm +during performance. It is only in this way that I can produce the right +kind of singing tone in cantabile passages. Sometimes I use one touch in +one voice and an entirely different touch in another voice. The +combinations are kaleidoscopic in their multiplicity. + + +MECHANICAL METHODS DANGEROUS + +"I have never been in favor of the many automatic and mechanical methods +of producing touch. They are all dangerous to my mind. There is only one +real way of teaching, and that is through the sense of hearing of the +pupil. The teacher should go to the piano and produce the desired tonal +effect, and the pupil should listen and watch the teacher. Then the +pupil should be instructed to secure a similar result, and the teacher +should persevere until the audible effect is nearly the same. If the +pupil, working empirically, does not discover the means leading to this +effect, the teacher should call the pupil's attention to some of the +physical conditions leading to the result. If the teacher is unable to +play well enough to illustrate this, and to secure the right kind of +touch from his pupils, he has no business to be a teacher of advanced +students. All the theory in the world will never lead to the proper +results. + +"Rubinstein paid little or no attention to the theory of touch, and, in +fact, he frequently stated that he cared little about such things, but +who could hear Rubinstein's touch without being benefited? I believe +that in teaching touch the teacher should first give his model of the +touch required and then proceed from this positive ideal, by means of +the so-called Socratic method of inducing the pupil to produce a similar +result through repeated questions. In this way the pupil will not be +obliged to resign his individuality, as would be the case if he followed +strict technical injunctions and rules. + + +STUDENTS SHOULD HEAR VIRTUOSOS + +"For the same reason it is advisable for the pupil to hear many fine +pianists. He should never miss an opportunity to attend the concerts of +great virtuosos. I can frankly say that I have learned as much from +hearing the concerts of great performers as I have from any other source +of educational inspiration. The pupil should listen intelligently and +earnestly. When he hears what appeals to him as a particularly fine +tonal effect, he should endeavor to note the means the pianist employs +to produce this effect. + +"He must, however, learn to discriminate between affection or needless +movement and the legitimate means to an end. Consequent upon a relaxed +full arm is the occasional dropping of the wrist below the level of the +keyboard. A few great players practice this at a public recital, and lo! +and behold! a veritable cult of 'wrist-droppers' arises and we see +students raising and lowering the wrist with exaggerated mechanical +stiffness and entirely ignoring the important end in which this wrist +dropping was only an incident. + + +METHODS, AND STILL MORE METHODS + +"I am continually amused at the thousand and one different ways of +striking the keys that teachers devise and then attach with the label +'method.' These varied contortions are, after all, largely a matter of +vision, and have little effect upon the real musical results that the +composition demands. Touch, as I have previously said, all comes down to +the question of the degree of weight applied to the keyboard and the +degree of quickness with which it is applied. In rapid octave and +staccato passages the hand touch is largely used. This is the touch +most dependent upon local muscular activity. Aside from this the +combination of muscular and weight touch almost invariably obtain. + + +DON'T NEGLECT EAR TRAINING + +"I desire to reiterate that if the ideal touch is presented to the +pupil's mind, through the medium of the ear, he will be much more +successful in attaining the artistic ends required. The pupil must +realize clearly _what is good_ and _what is bad_, and his _aural sense_ +must be continually educated in this respect. He should practice slowly +and carefully at the keyboard until he is convinced that his arm is at +all times relaxed. He cannot make his sense of touch too sensitive. He +should even be able to sense the weight or upward pressure which brings +the pianoforte key back into position after it has been depressed. The +arm should feel as if it were floating, and should never be tense. + +"When I am playing I do not think of the arm motion. I am, of course, +absorbed in the composition being performed. A relaxed arm has become +second nature to me. It comes by itself. Players are rarely able to tell +just how they produce their results. There are too many contributing +factors. Even with the best-known performers the effects differ at +different performances. It is impossible for the performer to give a +program repeatedly in identically the same manner. If he did succeed in +doing this, his playing would soon become stereotyped. + +"The teacher should, from the very beginning, seek to avoid stiffness +and bad hand positions, such as crooked fingers or broken-in knuckles. +If these details are neglected the pupil is liable to go through his +entire musical career greatly hampered. I would earnestly advise all +teachers to discourage the efforts of pupils to attain virtuoso heights +unless they are convinced beyond the possibility of a doubt that the +pupil has marvelous talent. The really great performers seem to be +endowed with a 'God-given' insight in the matter of both technic and +touch. They are unquestionably born for it. They possess the right +mental and physical capacity for success. No amount of training would +make a Normandy dray horse that could compete with a Kentucky +thoroughbred on the race course. It is a pitiful sight to watch students +who could not possibly become virtuosos slave year after year before an +ivory and ebony tread-mill, when, if they realized their lack of +personal qualifications, they could engage in teaching or in some other +professional or mercantile line and take a delight in their music as an +avocation that they would never find in professional playing. + + +ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION PARAMOUNT + +"To some, the matter of touch is of little significance. They are +apparently born with an appreciation of tonal values that others might +work years to attain in vain. Those who imagine that touch is entirely +a matter of finger tips are greatly mistaken. The ear is quite as +important as the organs employed in administering the touch to the +keyboard. The pianist should in reality not think of the muscles and +nerves in his arm, nor of the ivory and ebony keys, nor of the hammers +and strings in the interior of the instrument. He should think first and +always of the kind of tone he is eliciting from the instrument, and +determine whether it is the most appropriate tonal quality for the +proper interpretation of the piece he is playing. He must, of course, +spend years of hard thought and study in cultivating this ability to +judge and produce the right touch, but the performer who is more +concerned about the technical claims of a composition than its musical +interpretation can only hope to give an uninteresting, uninspired, +stilted performance that should rightly drive all intelligent hearers +from his audience hall." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES VII + +OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH + +1. What are the two means of administering touch? + +2. State the effect of a rigid arm upon piano playing. + +3. Can a pianist's playing be distinguished by touch? + +4. How do the muscles of the shoulder come into action in piano playing? + +5. How should the sense of hearing be employed in piano playing? + +6. How did Rubinstein regard the theory of touch? + +7. When is the hand touch generally employed? + +8. How should the arm feel during the act of touch? + +9. Does the virtuoso hamper himself with details of technic during a +performance? + +10. What should be the pianist's first thought during the moment of +performance? + + + + +LEOPOLD GODOWSKY + +BIOGRAPHICAL + +Leopold Godowsky was born at Wilna, Russia (Russian Poland), February +13, 1870. His father was a physician. When Godowsky was nine years old +he made his first public appearance as a pianist and met with +instantaneous success--success so great that a tour of Germany and +Poland was arranged for the child. When thirteen he entered the Royal +High School for Music in Berlin as the _protege_ of a rich banker of +Koenigsberg. There he studied under Bargeil and Rudorff. In 1884 he +toured America together with Ovide Musin, the violin virtuoso. Two years +later he became the pupil of Saint-Saens in Paris. In 1887 and 1888 he +toured France and visited London, where he received a command to appear +at the British Court. In 1890 he returned to America and made this +country his home for ten years, appearing frequently in concert and +engaging in several tours. In 1894-1895 he became head of the piano +department of the South Broad Street Conservatory, Philadelphia. He then +became director of the Piano Department of the Chicago Conservatory and +held this position for five years. In 1900 Godowsky appeared in Berlin +and was immediately recognized as one of the great piano masters of his +time. In 1909 he became director of the Master School of Piano Playing +connected with the Imperial Conservatory of Vienna (a post previously +held by Emil Sauer and F. B. Busoni). His success as a teacher has been +exceptional. His compositions, particularly his fifty studies upon +Chopin Etudes, have won the admiration of the entire musical world. + +[Illustration: LEOPOLD GODOWSKY] + + + + +X + +THE REAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TECHNIC + +LEOPOLD GODOWSKY + + +IDEAS UPON TECHNIC OFTEN ERRONEOUS + +"It is quite impossible in a short talk to earnest music students to do +more than discuss a few of the more important points in the subject +proposed. It may safely be said at the start, however, that the popular +conception of technic is quite an erroneous one and one that deserves +correction. It is highly necessary that the student should have a +correct attitude of mind regarding this matter. First of all, I +distinguish between what might be called mere mechanics and technic. + +"The art of piano playing as a whole seems to divide itself into three +quite distinct channels when it is considered from the educational +standpoint. The first channel is that of mechanics. This would naturally +include all that pertains to that branch of piano study which has to do +with the exercises that develop the hand from the machine +standpoint--that is, make it capable of playing with the greatest +possible rapidity, the greatest possible power, when power is needed and +also provide it with the ability to play those passages which, because +of fingering or unusual arrangement of the piano keys, are particularly +difficult to perform. + + +THE BRAIN SIDE OF PIANO STUDY + +"In the second channel we would find the study of the technic of the art +of playing the instrument. Technic differs from the mechanics of piano +playing in that it has properly to do with the intellectual phase of the +subject rather than the physical. It is the brain side of the study not +the digital or the manual. To the average student who is short-sighted +enough to spend hours hammering away at the keyboard developing the +mechanical side of his work, a real conscious knowledge of the great +saving he could effect through technic, would be a godsend. Technic +properly has to do with Rhythm, Tempo, Accent, Phrasing, Dynamics, +Agogics, Touch, etc. + +"The excellence of one's technic depends upon the accuracy of one's +understanding of these subjects and his skill in applying them to his +interpretations at the keyboard. Mechanical skill, minus real technical +grasp, places the player upon a lower footing than the piano-playing +machines which really do play all the notes, with all the speed and all +the power the operator demands. Some of these instruments, indeed, are +so constructed that many of the important considerations that we have +placed in the realm of technic are reproduced in a surprising manner. + + +THE EMOTIONS IN PIANO PLAYING + +"However, not until man invents a living soul, can piano playing by +machine include the third and vastly important channel through which we +communicate the works of the masters to those who would hear them. That +channel is the emotional or artistic phase of piano playing. It is the +channel which the student must expect to develop largely through his own +inborn artistic sense and his cultivated powers of observation of the +playing of master pianists. It is the sacred fire communicated from one +art generation to the next and modified by the individual emotions of +the performer himself. + +"Even though the performer may possess the most highly perfected +mechanism, technical mastery which enables him to play great +masterpieces effectively, if he does not possess the emotional insight, +his performances will lack a peculiar subtlety and artistic power that +will deprive him of becoming a truly great pianist. + + +INSPIRING THE STUDENT + +"Exercises for the mechanical side of pianoforte playing abound. Czerny +alone wrote over one thousand opus numbers. There have also been +valuable attempts to provide books to assist the student in his +technical work, but it should always be remembered that this depends +first of all upon understanding and then upon the ability to translate +that understanding to the instrument. + +"There can never be any exercises in the emotional side of the student's +work other than the entire literature of the instrument. One may as well +try to capture the perfume of the flower as define the requirements of +the emotional in pianoforte playing. A great deal may be done to inspire +the student and suggest ideas which may bring him to the proper artistic +appreciation of a passage, but it is this very indefinability which +makes the emotional phase one of the most important of all. Attendance +at the recitals of artistic pianists is of great help in this +connection. + +"The student, however, may learn a vast amount about real piano technic +and apply his knowledge to his playing through the medium of the proper +studies. For instance, in the subject of touch alone, there is a vast +store of valuable information which can be gained from a review of the +progressive steps through which this significant phase of the subject +has passed during the last century. The art of piano playing, considered +apart from that of the similar instruments which preceded the piano, is +very little over one hundred years old. + + +CHANGES IN THE MECHANISM OF THE INSTRUMENT + +"During this time many significant changes have been made in the +mechanism of the instrument and in the methods of manufacture. These +changes in the nature of the instrument have in themselves doubtless had +much to do with changes in methods of touch as have the natural +evolutions coming through countless experiments made by teachers and +performers. Thus we may speak of the subject of touch as being divided +into three epochs, the first being that of Czerny (characterized by a +stroke touch), the second being that of the famous Stuttgart +Conservatory (characterized by a pressure touch), and the third or new +epoch which is characterized by weight playing. All my own playing is +based upon the last named method, and I had the honor of being one of +the first to make application of it when I commenced teaching some +twenty years ago. + + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WEIGHT PLAYING + +"In this method of playing, the fingers are virtually 'glued to the +keys' in that they leave them the least possible distance in order to +accomplish their essential aims. This results in no waste motion of any +kind, no loss of power and consequently the greatest possible +conservation of energy. In this manner of playing the arm is so relaxed +that it would fall to the side if the keyboard were removed from beneath +it. Since the hand and the arm are relaxed the back (top) of the hand is +almost on a level with the forearm. + +"The high angular stroke which characterized the playing of the Czerny +epoch and which could hardly fail to cause tired muscles and unbearably +stiff playing, is seen very little in these days. By means of it the +student was taught to deliver a blow to the keyboard--a blow which +permitted very little modification to the requirements of modern +technic. + +"In my experience as a pianist and as a teacher, I have observed that +the weight touch allows the greatest possible opportunity for the proper +application of those all-important divisions of technic without which +piano playing is not only inartistic, but devoid of all interest. +Weight playing permits nothing to interfere with discriminative +phrasing, complicated rhythmical problems, the infinitely subtle +variation of time for expressive purposes now classed under the head of +agogics, all shades of dynamic gradation; in fact everything that falls +in the domain of the artist pianist. + + +MOULDING THE FINGERS TO THE KEYS + +"In weight playing the fingers seem to mould the piano keys under them, +the hand and arm are relaxed, but never heavy. The maximum of relaxation +results in the minimum of fatigue. In legato playing, for instance, the +fingers rest upon the fleshy part behind the tip rather than immediately +upon the tip as they would in passage work when the player desired to +have the effect of a string of pearls. The sensation in legato playing +is that of pulling back rather than striking the keys. In passages where +force is required the sensation is that of pushing. + +"Much might be said of the sensibility of the finger tips as they come +in contact with the ivory and ebony keys. Most every artist has a strong +consciousness that there is a very manifest relation between his +emotional and mental conditions and his tactile sense, that is his +highly developed sense of feeling at the finger tips on the keyboard. +However, the phenomena may be explained from the psychological +standpoint, it is nevertheless true that the feeling of longing, +yearning, hope or soulful anticipation, for instance, induces a totally +different kind of touch from that of anger, resentment or hate. + +"The artist who is incapable of communicating his emotions to the +keyboard or who must depend upon artifice to stimulate emotions rarely +electrifies his audiences. Every concert is a test of the artist's +sincerity, not merely an exhibition of his prowess, or his acrobatic +accomplishments on the keyboard. He must have some vital message to +convey to his audience or else his entire performance will prove +meaningless, soulless, worthless. + +"That which is of great importance to him is to have the least possible +barrier between his artistic conception of the work he would interpret +and the sounds that are conveyed to the ears of his audience. If we +obliterate the emotional side and depend upon artifice or what might be +called in vulgar parlance "tricks of the trade," pianism will inevitably +descend to a vastly lower level. By cultivating a sensibility in touch +and employing the technical means which will bring the interpreter's +message to the world with the least possible obstruction, we reach the +highest in the art. Those who would strain at gnats might contend that +with the machinery of the instrument itself, intervening between the +touch at the keyboard and the sounding wires, would make the influence +of the emotions though the tactile sense (sense of touch) is wholly +negligible. To this I can only reply that the experience of the artist +and the teacher is always more reliable, more susceptible to finer +appreciations of artistic values than that of the pure theorist, who +views his problems through material rather than spiritual eyes. Every +observing pianist is familiar with the remarkable influence upon the +nerves of the voice-making apparatus that any emotion makes. Is it not +reasonable to suppose that the finger tips possess a similar sensibility +and that the interpretations of any highly trained artist are duly +affected through them? + + +INDIVIDUALITY, CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT + +"Indeed, Individuality, Character and Temperament are becoming more and +more significant in the highly organized art of pianoforte playing. +Remove these and the playing of the artist again becomes little better +than that of a piano-playing machine. No machine can ever achieve the +distinguishing charm that this trinity brings to pianoforte playing. +Whether the performer is a 'genius' who has carefully developed the +performance of a masterpiece until it evidences that distinguishing mark +of the authoritative interpretation, or whether he is a 'talent' who +improvises as the mood of the moment inspires him and never plays the +same composition twice in anything like a similar manner, he need not +fear the rivalry of any machine so long as he preserves his +individuality, character and temperament. + + +GENIUS AND WORK + +"The fault with many students, however, is the very erroneous idea that +genius or talent will take the place of study and work. They minimize +the necessity for a careful painstaking consideration of the infinite +details of technic. To them, the significance of the developments of +Bach, Rameau, and Scarlatti in fingering means nothing. They are content +with the superficial. They are incapable of comparing the value of the +advances made by Von Buelow, Tausig and other innovators whose lives were +given to a large extent to the higher development of the technic of the +instrument. They struggle laboriously at the keyboard, imagining that +they are dealing with the problem of technic, when in reality they are +doing little more than performing a drill in a kind of musical +gymnasium--a necessary drill to be sure, but at the same time quite +worthless unless directed by a brain trained in the principles of the +technic of the art. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES VIII + +LEOPOLD GODOWSKY + +1. How may the mechanics of playing be distinguished from the larger +subject of technic? + +2. With what has technic to do? + +3. What channel in the study of pianoforte must the pupil develop most +thoroughly? + +4. Name three epochs into which the subject of touch may be divided. + +5. How does weight playing differ from the high angular playing of the +Czerny epoch? + +6. How should the fingers rest in legato playing? + +7. What may be said of the sensitiveness of the finger tips? + +8. By what device may pianism descend to a lower level? + +9. What qualities must the student preserve above all things? + +10. Will genius or talent take the place of study and work? + + + + +[Illustration: KATHARINE GOODSON] + +KATHARINE GOODSON + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Miss Katharine Goodson was born at Watford, Herts, England. She +commenced the study of music at so very youthful an age that she made +several appearances in the English Provinces before she was twelve years +of age. Her talent aroused such interest that she was sent to the Royal +Academy of Music in London. There she was placed under the artistic +guidance of one of the foremost English teachers of pianoforte, Oscar +Beringer, with whom she remained for six years. This was followed by +four years under Leschetizky in Vienna. + +Leschetizky saw splendid opportunities in such talented and regularly +trained material and is said to have given particularly careful +attention to Miss Goodson. It is not surprising that upon her return to +London Miss Goodson made a profound impression upon the musical public +and laid the foundation for a splendid reputation. She toured in +England, Germany, Austria and America with great success. In the Grove +Dictionary, her playing is described in the following manner: "It is +marked by an amount of verve and animation that are most rare with the +younger English pianists. She has a great command of tone gradation, +admirable technical finish, genuine musical taste and considerable +individuality of style." In 1903 Miss Goodson married Mr. Arthur Hinton, +one of the most brilliant of modern English composers. + + + + +XI + +ANALYZING MASTERPIECES + +KATHARINE GOODSON + + +THE NATURAL TENDENCY TO ANALYZE + +"Judging from the mischievous investigations of things in general, which +seem so natural for the small boy to make, it would appear that our +tendency to analyze things is innate. We also have innumerable +opportunities to observe how children, to say nothing of primitive +people, struggle to construct--to put this and that together for the +purpose of making something new--in other words, to employ the opposite +process to analysis, known as synthesis. Moreover, it does not demand +much philosophy to perceive that all scientific and artistic progress is +based upon these very processes of analysis and synthesis. We pull +things apart to find out how they are made and what they are made of. We +put them together again to indicate the mastery of our knowledge. + +"The measure of musicianship is the ability to do. All the analyzing in +the world will not benefit the pupil unless he can give some visible +indications of his proficiency. Indeed, important as the process is, it +is possible to carry it to extremes and neglect the building process +which leads to real accomplishment. + + +THE FIRST STEP IN ANALYZING A NEW PIECE + +"A great many of the pupils who have come to me indicate a lamentable +neglect in an understanding of the very first things which should have +been analyzed by the preparatory teachers. It is an expensive process to +study with a public artist unless the preparation has been thoroughly +made. Reputation naturally places a higher monetary value upon the +services of the virtuoso, and for the student to expect instruction in +elementary points in analysis is obviously an extravagance. The +virtuoso's time during the lesson period should be spent in the finer +study of interpretation--not in those subjects which the elementary +teacher should have completed. Often the teacher of an advanced pupil is +deceived at the start and assumes that the pupil has a knowledge, which +future investigations reveal that he does not possess. + +"For instance, the pupil should be able to determine the general +structure of a piece he is undertaking and should be so familiar with +the structure that it becomes a form of second nature to him. If the +piece is a sonata he should be able to identify the main theme and the +secondary theme whenever they appear or whenever any part of them +appears. Inability to do this indicates the most superficial kind of +study. + +"The student should know enough of the subject of form in general to +recognize the periods into which the piece is divided. Without this +knowledge how could he possibly expect to study with understanding? +Even though he has passed the stage when it is necessary for him to mark +off the periods, he should not study a new piece without observing the +outlines--the architectural plans the composer laid down in constructing +the piece. It is one thing for a Sir Christopher Wren to make the plans +of a great cathedral like St. Paul's and quite another thing for him to +get master builders to carry out those plans. By studying the composer's +architectural plan carefully the student will find that he is saving an +immense amount of time. For example, let us consider the Chopin _F Minor +Fantasie_. In this composition the main theme comes three times, each +time in a different key. Once learned in one key, it should be very +familiar in the next key. + +"The student should also know something of the history of the dance, and +he should be familiar with the characteristics of the different national +dances. Each national dance form has something more than a rhythm--it +has an atmosphere. The word atmosphere may be a little loose in its +application here, but there seems to be no other word to describe what I +mean. The flavor of the Spanish bolero is very different from the +Hungarian czardas, and who could confound the intoxicating swirl of the +Italian tarantella with the stately air of cluny lace and silver rapiers +which seems to surround the minuet? The minuet, by the way, is +frequently played too fast. The minuet from Beethoven's Eighth Symphony +is a notable example. Many conductors have made the error of rushing +through it. Dr. Hans Richter conducts it with the proper tempo. This +subject in itself takes a tremendous amount of consideration and the +student should never postpone this first step in the analysis of the +works he is to perform. + + +THE POETIC IDEA OF THE PIECE + +"Despite the popular impression that music is imitative in the sense of +being able to reproduce different pictures and different emotions, it is +really very far from it. The subject of program music and illustrative +music is one of the widest in the art, and at the same time one of the +least definite. Except in cases like the Beethoven _Pastoral Symphony_, +where the composer has made obvious attempts to suggest rural scenes, +composers do not as a rule try to make either aquarelles or cycloramas +with their music. They write music for what it is worth as music, not as +scenery. Very often the public or some wily publisher applies the title, +as in the case of the _Moonlight Sonata_ or some of the Mendelssohn +_Songs Without Words_. Of course there are some notable exceptions, and +many teachers may be right in trying to stimulate the sluggish +imaginations of some pupils with fanciful stories. However, when there +is a certain design in a piece which lends itself to the suggestion of a +certain idea, as does, for instance, the Liszt-Wagner _Spinning Song_ +from the _Flying Dutchman_, it is interesting to work with a specific +picture in view--but never forgetting the real beauty of the piece +purely as a beautiful piece of music. + +"Some pieces with special titles are notoriously misnamed and carry no +possible means of definitely intimating what the composer intended. Even +some forms are misleading in their names. The _Scherzos_ of Chopin are +often very remote from the playful significance of the word--a +significance which is beautifully preserved in the _Scherzos_ of +Mendelssohn. + + +STUDYING THE RHYTHM + +"A third point in analyzing a new piece might be analyzing the rhythm. +It is one thing to understand or to comprehend a rhythm and another to +preserve it in actual playing. Rhythm depends upon the arrangement of +notes and accents in one or two measures which give a characteristic +swing to the entire composition. Rhythm is an altar upon which many +idols are smashed. Sometimes one is inclined to regard rhythm as a kind +of sacred gift. Whatever it may be, it is certainly most difficult to +acquire or better to absorb. A good rhythm indicates a finely balanced +musician--one who knows how and one who has perfect self-control. All +the book study in the world will not develop it. It is a knack which +seems to come intuitively or 'all at once' when it does come. My meaning +is clear to anyone who has struggled with the problem of playing two +notes against three, for at times it seems impossible, but in the +twinkling of an eye the conflicting rhythms apparently jump into place, +and thereafter the pupil has little difficulty with them. + +"Rhythmic swing is different from rhythm, but is allied to it as it is +allied to tempo. To get the swing--the impelling force--the student must +have played many pieces which have a tendency to develop this swing. The +big waltzes of Moszkowski are fine for this. If one of Leschetizky's +pupils had difficulty with rhythm he almost invariably advised them to +go to hear the concerts of that king of rhythm and dance, Eduard +Strauss. Dances are invaluable in developing this sense of +rhythm--swift-moving dances like the bolero and the tarantella are +especially helpful. Certain pieces demand a particularly strict +observance of the rhythm, as does the Opus 42 of Chopin, in which the +left hand must adhere very strictly to the Valse rhythm. + + +THE ANALYSIS OF PHRASES + +"The ability to see the phrases by which a composition is built, clearly +and readily, simplifies the study of interpretation of a new piece +wonderfully. This, of course, is difficult at first, but with the proper +training the pupil should be able to see the phrases at a glance, just +as a botanist in examining a new flower would divide it in his mind's +eye into its different parts. He would never mistake the calyx for a +petal, and he would be able to determine at once the peculiarities of +each part. In addition to the melodic phrases the pupil should be able +to see the metrical divisions which underlie the form of the piece. He +should be able to tell whether the composition is one of eight-measure +sections or four-measure sections, or whether the sections are +irregular. + +"What a splendid thing it would be if little children at their first +lessons were taught the desirability of observing melodic phrases. +Teachers lay great stress upon hand formation, with the object of +getting the pupil to keep the hand in a perfect condition--a condition +that is the result of a carefully developed habit. Why not develop the +habit of noting the phrases in the same way? Why not a little mind +formation? It is a great deal nearer the real musical aim than the mere +digital work. The most perfectly formed hand in the world would be +worthless for the musician unless the mind that operates the hand has +had a real musical training." + + +STUDYING THE HARMONY + +"Every piano student ought to have a knowledge of harmony. But this +knowledge should be a practical one. What do I mean by a practical +knowledge of harmony? Simply this--a knowledge of harmony which +recognizes the ear as well as the eye. There are students of harmony who +can work out some harmonic problem with the skill of an expert +mathematician and yet they never for one single moment think of the +music their notes might make. This is due to the great neglect of the +study of ear-training in early musical education. + +"To be able to recognize a chord when you see it on paper is not nearly +such an acquisition as the ability to recognize the same chord when it +is played. The student who can tell a diminished seventh, or an +augmented sixth at a glance, but who could not identify the same chords +when he saw them through his ears instead of his eyes is severely +handicapped. But how many musicians can do this? Ear-training should be +one of the first of all studies. It may be acquired more easily in +childhood if the student is not naturally gifted with it, and it is the +only basis of a thorough knowledge of harmony. The piano teacher cannot +possibly find time to give sufficient instruction in the subject of +harmony at the piano lesson. It demands a separate period, and in most +cases it is necessary and advisable to have a separate teacher; that is, +one who has made a specialty of harmony. + +"The piano itself is of course a great help to the student in the study +of harmony, providing the student listens all the time he is playing. +Few adult piano students study string instruments, such as the violin or +'cello--instruments which cultivate the perception of hearing far more +than can the piano. For this reason all children should have the +advantage of a course in ear-training. This should not be training for +pitch alone, but for quality of tone as well. It may be supplemented +with exercises in musical dictation until the pupil is able to write +down short phrases with ease after he has heard them once. A pupil who +has had such a training would make ideal material for the advanced +teacher, and because of the greatly developed powers of the pupil would +be able to memorize quicker and make much better progress. In fact, +ear-training and harmony lead to great economy of time. For instance, +let us suppose that the pupil has a chord like the following in a +sonata: + +[Illustration] + +If the same chord appeared again in the piece it would probably be found +in the key of the dominant, thus: + +[Illustration] + +It seems very obvious that if the pupil could perceive the harmonic +relationship between these two chords he would be spared the trouble of +identifying an entirely different chord when he finds the repetition of +it merely in another key. This is only one of scores of instances where +a knowledge of the harmonic structure proves to be of constant +importance to the student. + + +A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF TOUCH EFFECTS + +"Here again we find an interminable subject. Although there are only a +few principal divisions into which the subject of touch might be +divided, the number of different subdivisions of these best known +methods of striking the keys to produce artistic effects is very +considerable. The artist working day in and day out at the keyboard will +discover some subtle touch effects which he will always associate with a +certain passage. He may have no logical reason for doing this other than +that it appeals to his artistic sense. He is in all probability +following no law but that of his own musical taste and sense of hearing. + +It is this more than anything else which gives individuality to the +playing of the different virtuosos and makes their efforts so different +from the playing of machines. Time and time again mechanical efforts +have been made to preserve all these infinite subtilities and some truly +wonderful machines have been invented, but not until the sculptor's +marble can be made to glow with the vitality of real flesh can this be +accomplished. Wonderful as the mechanical inventions are there is always +something lacking. + +"Here, again, ear-training will benefit the pupil who is studying with a +virtuoso teacher. It is impossible to show exactly how certain touches +produce certain effects. The ear, however, hears these effects, and if +the pupil has the right kind of persistence he will work and work until +he is able to reproduce the same effect that he has heard. Then it will +be found that the touch he employs will be very similar to that used by +the virtuoso he has heard. It may take weeks to show a certain pupil a +kind of touch. The pupil with the trained ear and the willingness to +work might be able to pick up the same touch and produce the same effect +after a few days. A highly developed sense of hearing is of immense +value to the student who attends concerts for the purpose of promoting +his musical knowledge. + + +THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE TEACHER + +"The more one contemplates this subject the more one realizes the +responsibilities of the teacher in the first years of music study. Of +all the pupils who commence in the art there are but few who make it a +part of their lives; many of those who do continue find themselves +handicapped when they reach the more advanced stages of the journey, +owing to inefficient early training. At the period when their time is +the most valuable to them they have to take up studies which should have +been mastered eight or ten years before. The elementary teachers all +over the world have a big responsibility. If they belittle their work +with children and pine for the kind of teaching which the virtuosos +attempt to do, let them realize that they are in a sense the foundation +of the structure, and although perhaps not as conspicuous as the spire +which towers up into the skies, they are certainly of equal importance." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES IX + +KATHARINE GOODSON + +1. Is analysis natural to children? + +2. When should the first steps in analysis be made? + +3. Why is a knowledge of the different dance forms desirable? + +4. What may be said of the poetic idea of the piece? + +5. What indicates a finely balanced musician? + +6. Should phrase analysis be taught at an early age? + +7. Is the ability to identify a chord by hearing more important than the +ability to identify it by sight? + +8. Does a trained ear help in the acquisition of touch? + +9. What may the pupil learn from concerts? + +10. When is the teacher's responsibility greatest? + + + + +JOSEF HOFMANN + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Josef Hofmann was born at Cracow, Russia, January 20, 1877. His father +was an exceptionally successful teacher and was for a time Professor of +Harmony and Composition at the Warsaw Conservatory. The elder Hofmann's +talents were by no means limited to teaching, however, since he +conducted the Opera at Warsaw for many performances. He undertook the +training of his son with great care and since the child showed +remarkable promise the musicians of Russia took an extraordinary +interest in him. He appeared in public at the age of six and before he +was ten years of age he was the most celebrated child prodigy of his +time. He traveled thousands of miles, including tours of America, +playing complicated classical compositions in a manner which surprised +musicians everywhere. Fortunately for his health and education his tours +were terminated in time for him to study for the advanced work of the +more mature artist. Accordingly he was placed with the great Anton +Rubinstein with whom he remained for two years. At seventeen he resumed +his concert work again appearing in Dresden in 1894. By thoroughly +dignified methods, scholarly analysis, and his natural poetical sense +Hofmann introduced new ideas in virtuosoship which made him immensely +popular at once. + +[Illustration: JOSEF HOFMANN] + + + + +XII + +PROGRESS IN PIANO STUDY + +JOSEF HOFMANN + + +The question of progress in pianoforte playing is one that admits of the +widest possible discussion. One is frequently asked whether the manner +of playing the pianoforte has undergone any change since the time of +Hummel, and, if it has advanced, of what nature are the advances, and to +what particular condition are the advances due. Johann Nepomuk Hummel, +it will be remembered, was contemporary with Beethoven, and was, in +fact, a kind of bridge between the old and the new. He made his debut at +a concert given by Mozart at Dresden. For a time he was a kind of +assistant _kapellmeister_ to Haydn, and indeed many at that time thought +his works were quite on a par with those of the great master, Beethoven. +Hummel was a really great virtuoso, and was noted for his remarkable +improvisations. His style of playing was taken as a model in his time, +and consequently we may safely start with this epoch by way of example. + + +WHAT DETERMINES CHANGES IN PLAYING + +It is sometimes said that the changes in the construction of the piano +have caused a different treatment of it, but this reasoning is +superficial, inasmuch as the structural changes of the instrument +itself are called forth by the ever-increasing demands of the _composer_ +made upon the instrument. So long as the tone quality, action and nature +of the instrument sufficed for compositions of the type of those of +Domenico Scarlatti, or Francois Couperin, or Rameau, there was little +need for change, but as the more modern composers longed for new and +more comprehensive effects, the piano-makers kept up with their desires +and aims. Thus it is that after all is said and done, the composer, and +the composer only, is responsible for the changes. The literature of the +piano determines them. It is the same in the advancement of piano +technic and interpretation. The composers conceive new and often +radically different musical ideas. These in turn demand a new manner of +interpretation. This kind of evolution has been going on continually +since the invention of the instrument and is going on to-day, only it is +more difficult for us to see it in the present than it is to review it +in the past. + +The general mental tendencies of the times, the artistic and cultural +influences of the world taken as a whole, have also had a conspicuous +though somewhat less pronounced share in these matters since they +inevitably exert an influence upon the interpreter. Speaking from a +strictly pianistic point of view, it is the player's individuality, +influenced by the factors just stated, which is the determining element +in producing new pianistic tendencies. It is thus very evident that +progress in piano playing since the epoch of Hummel has been enormous. + + +THE NEW TECHNIC AND THE OLD + +You ask me what are the essential differences between the modern technic +and the technic of the older periods? It is very difficult to discuss +this question off-hand and it is one which might better be discussed in +an article of a different character. One difficulty lies in the +regrettable tendency of modern technic toward being a purpose in itself. +Judging from the manner in which some ambitious young players work, +their sole aim is to become human piano-playing machines quite without +any real musical consciousness. Before radically condemning this +tendency, however, it should be remembered that it has brought us many +undeniable advantages. It cannot be doubted that we owe to the ingenious +investigators of technical subjects greater possibilities in effective +polyphonic playing, economy of power and arm motion, larger +participation of the mind in the acquisition of technic, and numerous +other praiseworthy factors in good piano playing. In the olden days, +while technical exercises were by no means absent, they were not nearly +so numerous, and more time was given to the real musical elements in the +study of the musical compositions themselves. If the excellent technical +ideas to be found in some of the systems of to-day are employed solely +to secure real musical and artistic effects--that is, effects based +upon known aesthetic principles--the new technic will prove valuable, and +we should be very grateful for it. However, as soon as it becomes an +objective point in itself and succeeds in eclipsing the higher purposes +of musical interpretation, just so soon should it be abolished. If the +black charcoal sketch which the artist puts upon canvas to use as an +outline shows through the colors of the finished painting, no +masterpiece will result. Really artistic piano playing is an +impossibility until the outlines of technic have been erased to make way +for true interpretation from the highest sense of the word. There is +much more in this than most young artists think, and the remedy may be +applied at once by students and teachers in their daily work. + + +TECHNIC SINCE LISZT + +Again you ask whether technic has made any significant advance since the +time of Franz Liszt. Here again you confront me with a subject difficult +to discuss within the confines of a conference. There is so much to be +said upon it. A mere change in itself does not imply either progress or +retrogression. It is for this reason we cannot speak of progress since +the time of Liszt. To play as Liszt did--that is, exactly as he did, as +a mirror reflects an object--would not be possible to anyone unless he +were endowed with an individuality and personality exactly like that of +Liszt. Since no two people are exactly alike, it is futile to compare +the playing of any modern pianist with that of Franz Liszt. To discuss +accurately the playing of Liszt from the purely technical standpoint is +also impossible because so much of his technic was self-made, and also a +mere manual expression of his unique personality and that which his own +mind had created. He may perhaps never be equalled in certain respects, +but on the other hand there are unquestionably pianists to-day who would +have astonished the great master with their technics--I speak +technically, purely technically. + + +DEFINITE METHODS ARE LITTLE MORE THAN STENCILS + +I have always been opposed to definite "methods"--so-called--when they +are given in an arbitrary fashion and without the care of the +intelligent teacher to adapt special need to special pupils. Methods of +this kind can only be regarded as a kind of musical stencil, or like the +dies that are used in factories to produce large numbers of precisely +similar objects. Since art and its merits are so strangely dependent +upon individuality (and this includes anatomical individuality as well +as psychological individuality), an inflexible method must necessarily +have a deadening effect upon its victims. + +The question of whether special technical studies of an arbitrary +nature, such as scale studies, should be extensively used is one which +has been widely debated, and I fear will be debated for years to come. +Let us understand first, there is a wide difference between studying +and practicing. They resemble each other only in so far as they both +require energy and time. Many sincere and ambitious students make the +great mistake of confounding these two very essential factors of +pianistic success. Study and practice really are quite widely removed +from each other, and at the same time they are virtually inseparable. +The real difference lies in the amount and quality of the two elements. +Practice means a large number of repetitions, with a fair amount of +attention to mere correctness of notes, fingering, etc. Under ordinary +circumstances and conditions it usually means a great sacrifice of time +and a comparatively small investment of mentality. + +Study, on the contrary, implies first of all mental activity of the +highest and most concentrated type. It _presupposes_ absolute accuracy +in notes, time, fingerings, etc., and implies the closest possible +attention to those things which are generally, though erroneously, +regarded as lying outside of technic, such as tonal beauty, dynamic +shading, rhythmical matters, and the like. Some have the happy gift of +combining practice with study, but this is rare. + +Hence, in the question of scale exercises, etc., if the word "study" is +meant in the true sense, I can only say that the study of scales is more +than necessary--it is indispensable. The pedagogical experts of the +world are practically unanimous upon this subject. The injunction, +"study," applies not only to scales, but to all forms of technical +discipline, which only too often are "practiced" without being studied. +I will not deny that mere practicing, as I have defined it, may bring +some little benefit, but this benefit is gained at an enormous +expenditure of time and physical and mental exertion. Oh! the endless +leagues that ambitious fingers have traveled over ivory keys! Only too +often they race like automobiles on a race-course--in a circle--and +after having gone innumerable miles, and spent a tremendous amount of +energy, they arrive at the same point from which they started, exhausted +and worn, with very little to show for their work, and no nearer their +real goal than when they started. The proportion in which mental and +physical activity is compounded, determines, to my mind, the distinction +between practicing and real study. One might also say that the +proportion in which real study enters into the daily work of the student +determines the success of the student. + + +THE STUDY OF DETAILS IMPERATIVE + +Study demands that the student shall delve into the minute details of +his art, and master them before he attempts to advance. Only the most +superficial students fail to do this in these days. All of the better +trained teachers insist upon it, and it is hard for the pupil to skim +through on the thinnest possible theoretical ice, as they did in past +years. The separate study of embellishments, for instance, is decidedly +necessary, especially in connection with the embellishments introduced +by the writers of the early eighteenth century. + +In the study of embellishments it is vitally important for the student +to remember one or two very important points in connection with his +investigation. One point is the understanding of the nature of the +instrument for which the composer wrote when he had the embellishment in +mind. The instruments of the early eighteenth century were characterized +by a tone so thin and of such short duration that the composers and +players (and it should be remembered that in those days practically all +of the great composers played, and most of the great performers were +composers) had to resort to all kind of subterfuges and tricks to +produce the deception of a prolonged tone. For instance, they had a +method of moving the finger to and fro (sideways) upon a key after it +was struck. Thus they produced a sort of vibrato, not unlike that of +which we have received an overdose in recent years from violinists and +'cellists. This vibrato (German, _Bebung_) was marked like our modern +"shake," thus, + +[Illustration] + +but if we interpret it as a "shake" we commit a grave error. We ought +never to regard it as a "shake," unless it is obviously an integer of +the melody. + +The other point to be considered in the study of embellishments is +taste, or rather, let me say, "fashion," for the fashion of those times +which over-indulged in ornamentation and over-loaded everything with it, +from architecture to dress, was by no means an insignificant factor in +music. The point is important because it involves the element of +"concessions" which the composers, voluntarily or from habit, made to +the public of their day. I seriously question the necessity of retaining +these often superabundant embellishments in their entirety, for I +contend that we study antique works on account of their musical +substance and not for the sake of gewgaws and frills which were either +induced by the imperfections of the instrument or by the vitiated taste +of times to which the composer had to yield willy-nilly. + +It is, of course, a very difficult and responsible task to determine +what to retain and what to discard. This, to a large extent, must depend +upon what part the ornament plays in the melody of the composition, +whether it is really an integral part or an artificial excrescence. By +all means never discard any embellishment which may serve to emphasize +the melodic curve, or any one which may add to its declamatory +character. A well-educated taste assisted by experience will be a fairly +reliable guide in this matter. However, it is hardly advisable for +amateurs with limited training to attempt any home editing of this kind. + +Those embellishments which we do regain should in all cases be executed +as the composer of the piece would desire to hear them executed if he +could become acquainted with the instruments of to-day. This, of course, +places the study of ornamentation with the many auxiliary musical +branches which demand special and separate attention. Johann Sebastian +Bach's son, Phillip Emanuel Bach, realized this, and gave years to the +proper exposition of embellishments. However, the student should realize +that the study of embellishments is only a part of the great whole and +he should not be misled into accepting every little shake or other +little frippery, and then magnifying it into a matter of more vital +importance than the piece itself. + + +WELL-MEANING ADVISERS + +The student should form the habit of determining things for himself. He +will soon find that he will be surrounded with many well-meaning +advisers who, if they have their own way, may serve to confuse him. Some +virtuosos regard their well-meaning admirers and entertainers as the +worst penalties of the virtuoso life. Whether they are or are not must, +of course, depend upon the artist's character. If he accepts their +compliments and courtesies as an expression of the measure of pleasure +_they derived_ from his playing, he has tacitly allowed for that share +in their pleasure which is due to their power of appreciation, and he +can therefore only rejoice in having provided something worthy of it. +The manner of their expression, the observations they make, the very +wording of their compliments will reveal, quickly enough, whether he +has a case of real appreciation before him, or a mere morbid mania to +hobnob with celebrities, or at least with people who by nature of their +professional work are often compelled against their own desires to hold +a more or less exposed position in the public eye. If he deals with the +latter and still allows their compliments to go further than the +physical ear, he must be a man of a character so weak as to make it +doubtful that he will ever produce anything worthy of sincere and +earnest appreciation. More young students are misled by blatant flattery +than anything else. They become convinced that their efforts are +comparable with those of the greatest artist, and the desire for +improvement diminishes in direct ratio to the rate in which their +opinion of their own efforts increases. The student should continually +examine his own work with the same acuteness that he would be expected +to show were he teaching another. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES X + +JOSEF HOFMANN + +1. Has piano playing progressed since the time of Hummel? + +2. How have the changes in the structure of the instrument affected +pianistic progress? + +3. Why should students avoid becoming "piano-playing machines"? + +4. What must be the sole aim in employing a technical exercise? + +5. Will the technic of Liszt ever be excelled? + +6. Why are stencil-like methods bad? + +7. Is scale study indispensable? + +8. Must the student know the characteristics of the instrument for which +the composer wrote? + +9. What part did fashion play in the introduction of embellishments? + +10. Why should the student determine problems for himself? + + + + +[Illustration: JOSEF LHEVINNE] + +JOSEF LHEVINNE + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Josef Lhevinne is one of the last noted Russian pianists to attain +celebrity in America. At his first appearance in New York he amazed the +critics and music lovers by the virility of his style, the +comprehensiveness of his technic and by his finely trained artistic +judgment. Lhevinne was born at Moscow, in 1874. His father was a +professional musician, playing "all instruments except the piano." It is +not surprising that his four sons became professional musicians. Three +are pianists and one is a flutist. When Josef was four his father +discovered that he had absolute pitch, and encouraged by this sign of +musical capacity placed the child under the instruction of some students +from the conservatory. At six Lhevinne became the pupil of a +Scandinavian teacher named Grisander. When eight he appeared at a +concert and aroused much enthusiasm by his playing. At twelve he became +the pupil of the famous Russian teacher, Wassili Safonoff, at the +conservatory at Moscow, remaining under his instruction for six years. +At the same time his teachers in theory and composition were Taneieff +and Arensky. In 1891 Rubinstein selected him from all the students at +the conservatory to play at a concert given under the famous master's +direction. After that Lhevinne had frequent conferences with the great +pianist, and attributes much of his success to his advice. In 1895 he +won the famous Rubinstein Prize in Berlin. From 1902 to 1906 he was +Professor of Piano at the conservatory at Moscow. One year spent in +military service in Russia proved a compulsory setback in his work, and +was a serious delay in his musical progress. Lhevinne came to America in +1907 and has been here five times since then. His wife is also an +exceptionally fine concert pianist. + + + + +XIII + +PIANO STUDY IN RUSSIA + +JOSEF LHEVINNE + + +RUSSIA'S MANY KEYBOARD MASTERS + +"Russia is old, Russia is vast, Russia is mighty. Eight and one-half +million square miles of empire not made up of colonies here and there +all over the world, but one enormous territory comprising nearly one +hundred and fifty million people, of almost as many races as one finds +in the United States, that is Russia. Although the main occupation of +the people is the most peaceful of all labor--agriculture--Russia has +had to deal with over a dozen wars and insurrections during a little +more than a century. In the same time the United States has had but +five. War is not a thing to boast about, but the condition reflects the +unrest that has existed in the vast country of the Czar, and it is not +at all unlikely that this very unrest is responsible for the mental +activity which has characterized the work of so many artists of Russian +birth. + +Although Russia is one of the most venerable of the European nations, +and although she has absorbed other territory possessed by races even +more venerable than herself, her advance in art, letters and music is +comparatively recent. When Scarlatti, Handel, and Bach were at their +height, Russia, outside of court circles, was still in a state of +serfdom. Tolstoi was born as late as 1828, Turgenieff in 1818 and +Pushkin, the half-negro poet-humorist, was born in 1799. Contemporary +with these writers was Mikhail Ivanovitch Glinka--the first of the great +modern composers of Russia. Still later we come to Wassili Vereschagin, +the best known of the Russian painters, who was not born until 1842. It +may thus be seen that artistic development in the modern sense of the +term has occurred during the lifetime of the American republic. Reaching +back into the centuries, Russia is one of the most ancient of nations, +but considered from the art standpoint it is one of the newest. + +The folk songs that sprang from the hearts of the people in sadness and +in joy indicated the unconcealable talent of the Russian people. They +were longing to sing, and music became almost as much a part of their +lives as food. It is no wonder then that we find among the names of the +Russian pianists such celebrities as Anton Rubinstein, Nicholas +Rubinstein, Essipoff, Siloti, Rachmaninoff, Gabrilowitsch, Scriabin, de +Pachmann, Safonoff, Sapellnikoff and many others. It seems as though the +Russian must be endowed by nature with those characteristics which +enable him to penetrate the artistic maze that surrounds the wonders of +music. He comes to music with a new talent, a new gift and finds first +of all a great joy in his work. Much the same might be said of the +Russian violinists and the Russian singers, many of whom have met with +tremendous success. + + +WITH THE MUSICAL CHILD IN RUSSIA + +The Russian parent usually has such a keen love for music that the child +is watched from the very first for some indication that it may have +musical talent. The parent knows how much music brings into the life of +the child and he never looks upon the art as an accomplishment for +exhibition purposes, but rather as a source of great joy. Music is +fostered in the home as a part of the daily existence. Indeed, business +is kept far from the Russian fireside and the atmosphere of most homes +of intelligent people is that of culture rather than commerce. If the +child is really musical the whole household is seized with the ambition +to produce an artist. In my own case, I was taught the rudiments of +music at so early an age that I have no recollection of ever having +learned how to begin. It came to me just as talking does with the +average child. At five I could sing some of the Schumann songs and some +of those of Beethoven. + + +THE KIND OF MUSIC THE RUSSIAN CHILD HEARS + +The Russian child is spared all contact with really bad music. That is, +he hears for the most part either the songs of the people or little +selections from classical or romantic composers that are selected +especially with the view of cultivating his talent. He has practically +no opportunity to come in contact with any music that might be described +as banal. America is a very young country and with the tension that one +sees in American life on all sides there comes a tendency to accept +music that may be most charitably described as "cheap." Very often the +same themes found in this music, skilfully treated, would make worthy +musical compositions. "Rag-time," and by this I refer to the peculiar +rhythm and not to the bad music that Americans have come to class under +this head, has a peculiar fascination for me. There is nothing +objectionable about the unique rhythm, any more than there is anything +iniquitous about the gypsy melodies that have made such excellent +material for Brahms, Liszt and Sarasate. The fault lies in the clumsy +presentation of the matter and its associations with vulgar words. The +rhythm is often fascinating and exhilarating. Perhaps some day some +American composer will glorify it in the Scherzo of a Symphony. + +In Russia, teachers lay great stress upon careful grading. Many teachers +of note have prepared carefully graded lists of pieces, suitable to each +stage of advancement. I understand that this same purpose is +accomplished in America by the publication of volumes of the music +itself in different grades, although I have never seen any of these +collections. The Russian teacher of children takes great care that the +advancement of the pupil is not too rapid. The pupil is expected to be +able to perform all the pieces in one grade acceptably before going to +the next grade. I have had numerous American pupils and most of them +seem to have the fault of wanting to advance to a higher step long +before they are really able. This is very wrong, and the pupil who +insists upon such a course will surely realize some day that instead of +advancing rapidly he is really throwing many annoying obstacles directly +in his own path. + + +INSTRUCTION BOOKS + +Many juvenile instruction books are used in Russia just as in America. +Some teachers, however, find that with pupils starting at an advanced +age it is better to teach the rudiments without a book. This matter of +method is of far greater importance than the average teacher will admit. +The teacher often makes the mistake of living up in the clouds with +Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, and Brahms, never realizing that the pupil is +very much upon the earth, and that no matter how grandly the teacher may +play, the pupil must have practical assistance within his grasp. The +main duty in all elementary work is to make the piano study interesting, +and the teacher must choose the course likely to arouse the most +interest in the particular pupil. + + +OPPORTUNITIES FOR VIRTUOSO-STUDENTS IN RUSSIA + +It may surprise the American student to hear that there are really more +opportunities for him to secure public appearances right here in his own +country than in Russia. In fact, it is really very hard to get a start +in Russia unless one is able to attract the attention of the public very +forcibly. In America the standard may not be so high as that demanded in +the musical circles of Russia, but the student has many chances to play +that would never come to him in the old world. There, the only chance +for the young virtuoso is at the conservatory concerts. There are many +music schools in Russia that must content themselves with private +recitals, but the larger conservatories have public concerts of much +importance, concerts that demand the attendance of renowned artists and +compel the serious interest of the press. However, these concerts are +few and far between, and only one student out of many hundreds has a +chance to appear at them. + +One singular custom obtains in Russia in reference to concerts. The +pianist coming from some other European country is paid more than the +local pianist. For instance, although I am Russian by birth, I reside in +Germany and receive a higher rate when I play in Russia than does the +resident artist. In fact, this rate is often double. The young virtuoso +in the early stages of his career receives about one hundred roubles an +appearance in Russia, while the mature artist receives from 800 to 1000. +The rouble, while having an exchange value of only fifty cents in United +States currency, has a purchasing value of about one dollar in Russia. + + +WHY RUSSIAN PIANISTS ARE FAMED FOR TECHNIC + +The Russian pianist is always famed for his technical ability. Even the +mediocre artists possess that. The great artists realize that the +mechanical side of piano playing is but the basis, but they would no +sooner think of trying to do without that basis than they would of +dispensing with the beautiful artistic temples which they build upon the +substantial foundation which technic gives to them. The Russian pianists +have earned fame for their technical grasp because they give adequate +study to the matter. Everything is done in the most solid, substantial +manner possible. They build not upon sands, but upon rock. For instance, +in the conservatory examinations the student is examined first upon +technic. If he fails to pass the technical examination he is not even +asked to perform his pieces. Lack of proficiency in technic is taken as +an indication of a lack of the right preparation and study, just as the +lack of the ability to speak simple phrases correctly would be taken as +a lack of preparation in the case of the actor. + +"Particular attention is given to the mechanical side of technic, the +exercises, scales and arpeggios. American readers should understand that +the full course at the leading Russian conservatories is one of about +eight or nine years. During the first five years, the pupil is supposed +to be building the base upon which must rest the more advanced work of +the artist. The last three or four years at the conservatory are given +over to the study of master works. Only pupils who manifest great talent +are permitted to remain during the last year. During the first five +years the backbone of the daily work in all Russian schools is scales +and arpeggios. All technic reverts to these simple materials and the +student is made to understand this from his very entrance to the +conservatory. As the time goes on the scales and arpeggios become more +difficult, more varied, more rapid, but they are never omitted from the +daily work. The pupil who attempted complicated pieces without this +preliminary technical drill would be laughed at in Russia. I have been +amazed to find pupils coming from America who have been able to play a +few pieces fairly well, but who wonder why they find it difficult to +extend their musical sphere when the whole trouble lies in an almost +total absence of regular daily technical work systematically pursued +through several years. + +"Of course, there must be other technical material in addition to +scales, but the highest technic, broadly speaking, may be traced back to +scales and arpeggios. The practice of scales and arpeggios need never be +mechanical or uninteresting. This depends upon the attitude of mind in +which the teacher places the pupil. In fact, the teacher is largely +responsible if the pupil finds scale practice dry or tiresome. It is +because the pupil has not been given enough to think about in scale +playing, not enough to look out for in nuance, evenness, touch, rhythm, +etc., etc. + + +MODERN RUSSIAN INFLUENCE IN MUSICAL ART + +"Most musicians of to-day appreciate the fact that in many ways the most +modern effects sought by the composers who seek to produce extremely new +effects have frequently been anticipated in Russia. However, one signal +difference exists between the Russians with ultra-modern ideas and the +composers of other nations. The Russian's advanced ideas are almost +always the result of a development as were those of Wagner, Verdi, +Grieg, Haydn and Beethoven. That is, constant study and investigations +have led them to see things in a newer and more radical way. In the case +of such composers as Debussy, Strauss, Ravel, Reger and others of the +type of musical Philistine it will be observed that to all intents and +purposes, they started out as innovators. Schoenberg is the most recent +example. How long will it take the world to comprehend his message if he +really has one? Certainly, at the present time, even the admirers of the +bizarre in music must pause before they confess that they understand the +queer utterings of this newest claimant for the palm of musical +eccentricity. With Debussy, Strauss and others it is different, for the +skilled musician at once recognizes an astonishing facility to produce +effects altogether new and often wonderfully fascinating. With Reger one +seems to be impressed with tremendous effort and little result. Strauss, +however, is really a very great master; so great that it is difficult to +get the proper perspective upon his work at this time. It is safe to say +that all the modern composers of the world have been influenced in one +way or another by the great Russian masters of to-day and yesterday. +Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Glazounov, Rachmaninov, Moussorgsky, +Arensky, Scriabine and others, have all had a powerful bearing upon the +musical thought of the times. Their virility and character have been due +to the newness of the field in which they worked. The influence of the +compositions of Rubinstein and Glinka can hardly be regarded as Russian +since they were so saturated with European models that they might be +ranked with Gluck, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Meyerbeer far better than with +their fellow-countrymen who have expressed the idiom of Russia with +greater veracity." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XI + +JOSEF LHEVINNE + +1. Is music a part of the daily life of the child in the Russian home? + +2. In what does the Russian teacher of children take great care? + +3. Why are Russian pianists famed for their technical ability? + +4. How are examinations conducted in Russia? + +5. What would be thought of the Russian pupil who attempted pieces +without the proper preliminary scale work? + +6. Need the practice of scales be mechanical and uninteresting? + +7. Why do some pupils find technical studies tiresome? + +8. How does Russian musical progress in composition differ from that of +other musical nations? + +9. Has Russian music influenced the progress of other musical nations? + +10. How may the compositions of Rubinstein and Glinka be regarded? + + + + +[Illustration: V. DE PACHMANN] + +VLADIMIR DE PACHMANN + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Vladimir de Pachmann was born at Odessa, Russia, July 27, 1848. His +first teacher was his father, who was a musical enthusiast and a fine +performer upon the violin. The elder de Pachmann was a Professor of Law +at the University of Vienna and at first did not desire to have his son +become anything more than a cultured amateur. In his youth de Pachmann +was largely self taught and aside from hearing great virtuosos at +concerts and modeling his playing to some extent after theirs he had no +teachers until 1866 when he went to the Vienna Conservatory to study +with the then celebrated teacher, Joseph Dachs. Dachs was a concert +pianist of the old school. Academic perfection was his goal and he could +not understand such a pupil as de Pachmann who was able to get results +by what seemed un-academic means. After one year with Dachs de Pachmann +toured Russia with great success and since then has made repeated tours +of the entire musical world. He never gave any serious attention to +musical composition. As an interpreter of the works of Chopin no one in +recent times has ever excelled de Pachmann, but he also gave numerous +recitals showing a great breadth of style in the performances of works +of the other great masters particularly Brahms and Liszt. + +(The following conference was conducted in English, German, French and +Italian.) + + + + +XIV + +SEEKING ORIGINALITY + +VLADIMIR DE PACHMANN + + +THE MEANING OF ORIGINALITY + +"Originality in pianoforte playing, what does it really mean? Nothing +more than the interpretation of one's real self instead of the +artificial self which traditions, mistaken advisors and our own natural +sense of mimicry impose upon us. Seek for originality and it is gone +like a gossamer shining in the morning grass. Originality is in one's +self. It is the true voice of the heart. I would enjoin students to +listen to their own inner voices. I do not desire to deprecate teachers, +but I think that many teachers are in error when they fail to encourage +their pupils to form their own opinions. + +"I have always sought the individual in myself. When I have found him I +play at my best. I try to do everything in my own individual way. I work +for months to invent, contrive or design new fingerings--not so much for +simplicity, but to enable me to manipulate the keys so that I may +express the musical thought as it seems to me it ought to be expressed. +See my hand, my fingers--the flesh as soft as that of a child, yet +covering muscles of steel. They are thus because I have worked from +childhood to make them thus. + +"The trouble with most pupils in studying a piece is that when they +seek individuality and originality, they go about it in the wrong way, +and the result is a studied, stiff, hard performance. Let them listen to +the voice, I say; to the inner voice, the voice which is speaking every +moment of the day, but to which so many shut the ears of their soul. + +"Franz Liszt--ah, you see I bow when I mention the name--you never heard +Franz Liszt? Ah, it was the great Liszt who listened--listened to his +inner voice. They said he was inspired. He was simply listening to +himself. + + +MACHINE TEACHING + +"_Nun, passen Sie mal auf!_ I abominate machine teaching. A certain +amount of it may be necessary, but I hate it. It seems so brutal--so +inartistic. Instead of leading the pupil to seek results for himself, +they lay down laws and see that these laws are obeyed, like _gendarmes_. +It is possible, of course, by means of systematic training, to educate a +boy so that he could play a concerto which he could not possibly +comprehend intelligently until he became at least twenty years older; +but please tell, what is the use of such a training? Is it artistic? Is +it musical? Would it not be better to train him to play a piece which he +could comprehend and which he could express in his own way? + +"Of course I am not speaking now of the boy Mozarts, the boy Liszts or +other freaks of nature, but of the children who by machine-made methods +are made to do things which nature never intended that they should do. +This forcing method to which some conservatories seem addicted reminds +one of those men who in bygone ages made a specialty of disfiguring the +forms and faces of children, to make dwarfs, jesters and freaks out of +them. Bah! + + +ORIGINALITY THE ROAD TO PERMANENT FAME + +"Originality in interpretation is of course no more important than +originality in creation. See how the composers who have been the most +original have been the ones who have laid the surest foundation for +permanent fame. Here again true originality has been merely the highest +form of self-expression. _Non e vero?_ When the composer has sought +originality and contrived to get it by purposely taking out-of-the-way +methods, what has he produced? Nothing but a horrible sham--a structure +of cards which is destroyed by the next wind of fashion. + +"Other composers write for all time. They are original because they +listen to the little inner voice, the true source of originality. It is +the same in architecture. Styles in architecture are evolved, not +created, and whenever the architect has striven for bizarre effects he +builds for one decade only. The architects who build for all time are +different and yet how unlike, how individual, how original is the work +of one great architect from that of another. + + +THE MOST ORIGINAL COMPOSERS + +"The most original of all composers, at least as they appear to me, is +Johann Sebastian Bach. Perhaps this is because he is the most sincere. +Next I should class Beethoven, that great mountain peak to whose heights +so few ever soar. Then would come in order Liszt, Brahms, Schumann, +Chopin, Weber, and Mendelssohn. Schumann more original than Chopin? Yes, +at least so it seems to me. That is, there is something more +distinctive, something more indicative of a great individuality speaking +a new language. + +"Compare these men with composers of the order of Abt, Steibelt, +Thalberg, and Donizetti, and you will see at once what I mean about +originality being the basis of permanent art. For over twenty years my +great fondness for mineralogy and for gems led me to neglect in a +measure the development of the higher works of these composers, but I +have realized my error and have been working enormously for years to +attain the technic which their works demand. Some years ago I felt that +technical development must cease at a certain age. This is all idiocy. I +feel that I have now many times the technic I have ever had before and I +have acquired it all in recent years. + + +SELF-HELP THE SECRET OF MANY SUCCESSES + +"No one could possibly believe more in self-help than I. The student who +goes to a teacher and imagines that the teacher will cast some magic +spell about him which will make him a musician without working, has an +unpleasant surprise in store for him. When I was eighteen I went to +Dachs at the Vienna Conservatory. He bade me play something. I played +the _Rigoletto_ paraphrase of Liszt. Dachs commented favorably upon my +touch but assured me that I was very much upon the wrong track and that +I should study the _Woltemperirtes Klavier_ of Bach. He assured me that +no musical education could be considered complete without an intimate +acquaintance with the Bach fugues, which of course was most excellent +advice. + +"Consequently I secured a copy of the fugues and commenced work upon +them. Dachs had told me to prepare the first prelude and fugue for the +following lesson. But Dachs was not acquainted with my methods of study. +He did not know that I had mastered the art of concentration so that I +could obliterate every suggestion of any other thought from my mind +except that upon which I was working. He had no estimate of my youthful +zeal and intensity. He did not know that I could not be satisfied unless +I spent the entire day working with all my artistic might and main. + +"Soon I saw the wonderful design of the great master of Eisenach. The +architecture of the fugues became plainer and plainer. Each subject +became a friend and each answer likewise. It was a great joy to observe +with what marvelous craftsmanship he had built up the wonderful +structures. I could not stop when I had memorized the first fugue, so I +went to the next and the next and the next. + + +A SURPRISED TEACHER + +"At the following lesson I went with my book under my arm. I requested +him to name a fugue. He did, and I placed the closed book on the rack +before me. After I had finished playing he was dumfounded. He said, 'You +come to me to take lessons. You already know the great fugues and I have +taught you nothing.' Thinking that I would find Chopin more difficult to +memorize, he suggested that I learn two of the etudes. I came at the +following lesson with the entire twenty-four memorized. Who could +withstand the alluring charm of the Chopin etudes? Who could resist the +temptation to learn them all when they are once commenced? + +"An actor learns page after page in a few days, and why should the +musician go stumbling along for months in his endeavor to learn +something which he could master in a few hours with the proper interest +and the burning concentration without which all music study is a farce? + +"It was thus during my entire course with Dachs. He would suggest the +work and I would go off by myself and learn it. I had practically no +method. Each page demanded a different method. Each page presented +entirely new and different technical ideas." + + +DEEP THOUGHT NECESSARY + +"As a rule piano students do not think deeply enough. They skim over the +really difficult things and no amount of persuasion will make them +believe some very simple things difficult. Take the scale of C Major, +for instance. This scale is by far the most difficult of all. To play it +with true legato, at any desired degree of force or speed, in any +desired rhythm and with any desired touch, is one of the most difficult +achievements in all music. Yet the young pupil will literally turn up +his nose at the scale of C Major and at the same time claim that he is +perfectly competent to play a Beethoven Sonata. + +"The scale of C should be learned step by step until the practice habits +are so formed that they will reign supreme while playing all the other +scales. This is the way to secure results--go deep into things. Pearls +lie at the bottom of the sea. Most pupils seem to expect them floating +upon the surface of the water. They never float, and the one who would +have his scales shine with the beauty of splendid gems must first dive +deep for the gems. + +"But what is the use of saying all this? To tell it to young pupils +seems to be a waste of words. They will go on making their mistakes and +ignoring the advice of their teachers and mentors until the great +teacher of all--experience--forces them to dive for the hidden riches. + + +TAKE TIME TO DO THINGS WELL + +"Every pianist advances at a rate commensurate with his personal +ability. Some pianists are slow in development. Others with wonderful +natural gifts go ahead very quickly. The student will see some pianist +make wonderful progress and will sometimes imitate him without giving +the time or effort to study that the other pianist has given. The artist +will spend months upon a Chopin valse. The student feels injured if he +cannot play it in a day. + +"Look, I will play the wonderful Nocturne of Chopin in G, Opus No. 2. +The legato thirds seem simple? Ah, if I could only tell you of the years +that are behind those thirds. The human mind is peculiar in its methods +of mastering the movements of the fingers, and to get a great +masterpiece so that you can have supreme control over it at all times +and under all conditions demands a far greater effort than the ordinary +non-professional music lover can imagine. + + +MASTERING ARTISTIC DETAILS + +"Each note in a composition should be polished until it is as perfect as +a jewel--as perfect as an Indian diamond--those wonderful scintillating, +ever-changing orbs of light. In a really great masterpiece each note has +its place just as the stars, the jewels of heaven, have their places in +their constellations. When a star moves it moves in an orbit that was +created by nature. + +"Great musical masterpieces owe their existence to mental forces quite +as miraculous as those which put the heavens into being. The notes in +compositions of this kind are not there by any rule of man. They come +through the ever mystifying source which we call inspiration. Each note +must bear a distinct relation to the whole. + +"An artist in jewels in making a wonderful work of art does not toss his +jewels together in any haphazard way. He often has to wait for months to +get the right ruby, or the right pearl, or the right diamond to fit in +the right place. Those who do not know might think one gem just like +another, but the artist knows. He has been looking at gems, examining +them under the microscope. There is a meaning in every facet, in every +shade of color. He sees blemishes which the ordinary eye would never +detect. + +"Finally he secures his jewels and arranges them in some artistic form, +which results in a masterpiece. The public does not know the reason why, +but it will instantly realize that the work of the artist is in some +mysterious way superior to the work of the bungler. Thus it is that the +mind of the composer works spontaneously in selecting the musical jewels +for the diadem which is to crown him with fame. During the process of +inspiration he does not realize that he is selecting his jewels with +lightning rapidity, but with a highly cultivated artistic judgment. When +the musical jewels are collected and assembled he regards the work as a +whole as the work of another. He does not realize that he has been +going through the process of collecting them. Schubert failed to +recollect some of his own compositions only a few days after he had +written them. + + +SOMETHING NO ONE CAN TEACH + +"Now the difficulty with students is that they do not take time to +polish the jewels which the composers have selected with such keen +aesthetic discernment. They think it enough if they merely succeed in +playing the note. How horrible! A machine can play the notes, but there +is only one machine with a soul and that is the artist. To think that an +artist should play only the notes and forget the glories of the +inspiration which came in the composer's mind during the moment of +creation. + +"Let me play the D flat Chopin Nocturne for you. Please notice how the +notes all bear a relation to each other, how everything is in right +proportion. Do you think that came in a day? Ah, my friend, the +polishing of those jewels took far longer than the polishing of the +Kohinoor. Yet I have heard young girls attempt to play this piece for +me--expecting approbation, of course, and I am certain that they could +not have practiced upon it more than a year or so. They evidently think +that musical masterpieces can be brought into being like the cobwebs +which rise during the night to be torn down by the weight of the dew of +the following morning. _Imbecillita!_ + + +THE BEST TEACHER + +"They play just as their teachers have told them to play, which is of +course good as far as it goes. But they stop at that, and no worthy +teacher expects his pupil to stop with his instruction. The best teacher +is the one who incites his pupil to penetrate deeper and learn new +beauties by himself. A teacher in the highest sense of the word is not a +mint, coining pupils as it were and putting the same stamp of worth upon +each pupil. + +"The great teacher is an artist who works in men and women. Every pupil +is different, and he must be very quick to recognize these differences. +He should first of all teach the pupil that there are hundreds of things +which no teacher can ever hope to teach. He must make his pupil keenly +alert to this. There are hundreds of things about my own playing which +are virtually impossible to teach. I would not know how to convey them +to others so that they might be intelligently learned. Such things I +have found out for myself by long and laborious experimentation. The +control of my fifth finger in certain fingerings presented endless +problems which could only be worked out at the keyboard. Such things +give an individuality to the pianist's art, something which cannot be +copied. + +"Have you ever been in a foreign art gallery and watched the copyists +trying to reproduce the works of the masters? Have you ever noticed that +though they get the form, the design, and even the colors and also that +with all these resemblances there is something which distinguishes the +work of the master from the work of the copyist, something so wonderful +that even a child can see it? You wonder at this? _Pourquoi?_ No one can +learn by copying the secret the master has learned in creating. + + +THE BASIS OF GREATNESS + +"Here we have a figure which brings out very clearly the real meaning of +originality in piano playing and at the same time indicates how every +pupil with or without a teacher should work for himself. Why was the +great Liszt greater than any pianist of his time? Simply because he +found out certain pianistic secrets which Czerny or any of Liszt's +teachers and contemporaries had failed to discover. + +"Why has Godowsky--_Ach! Godowsky, der ist wirklich ein grosser +Talent_--how has he attained his wonderful rank? Because he has worked +out certain contrapuntal and technical problems which place him in a +class all by himself. I consider him the greatest master of the +mysteries of counterpoint since the heyday of classical polyphony. Why +does Busoni produce inimitable results at the keyboard? Simply because +he was not satisfied to remain content with the knowledge he had +obtained from others. + +"This then is my life secret--work, unending work. I have no other +secrets. I have developed myself along the lines revealed to me by my +inner voice. I have studied myself as well as my art. I have learned to +study mankind through the sciences and through the great literary +treasures, you see; I speak many languages fluently, I have stepped +apace with the crowd, I have drunk the bitter and the sweet from the +chalices of life, but remember, I have never stopped, and to-day I am +just as keenly interested in my progress as I was many years ago as a +youth. The new repertoire of the works of Liszt and Brahms and other +composers demanded a different technic, a bigger technic. What exquisite +joy it was to work for it. Yes, _mio amico_, work is the greatest +intoxication, the greatest blessing, the greatest solace we can know. +Therefore work, work, work. But of all things, my good musical friends +in America, remember the old German proverb: + + "'_Das mag die beste Musik sein + Wenn Herz und Mund stimmt ueberein._'" + +("Music is best when the heart and lips (mouth) speak together.") + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XII + +VLADIMIR DE PACHMANN + +1. What does originality in pianoforte playing really mean? + +2. State something of the evils of the forcing methods of training +applied to young children. + +3. Have the compositions of the most original composers been the most +enduring? + +4. Name seven of the most original composers for the pianoforte. + +5. Must the pupil continually help himself? + +6. What is considered the most difficult scale to learn? + +7. Is a great virtuoso obliged to practice years in order to secure +results? + +8. How may piano study be compared with the polishing of beautiful +jewels? + +9. Tell what characteristics a great teacher must have. + +10. What lies at the foundation of pianistic greatness? + + + + +MAX PAUER + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Prof. Max Pauer was born in London, England, October 31, 1866, and is +the son of the eminent musical educator, Ernst Pauer, who settled in +England in 1851, and aside from filling many of the foremost positions +in British musical life, also produced a great number of instructive +works, which have been of immeasurable value in disseminating musical +education in England. His work on _Musical Forms_ is known to most all +music students. Prof. Max Pauer studied with his father at the same time +his parent was instructing another famous British-born pianist, Eugen +d'Albert. At the age of fifteen he went to Karlsruhe, where he came +under the instruction of V. Lachner. In 1885 he returned to London and +continued to advance through self-study. In 1887 he received the +appointment at the head of the piano department in the Cologne +Conservatory. This position he retained for ten years, until his +appointment at Stuttgart, first as head teacher in the piano department +and later as director of the School. During this period the organization +of the famous old conservatory has changed totally. The building +occupied was very old and unfit for modern needs. The new conservatory +building is a splendid structure located in one of the most attractive +parts of the city. The old methods, old equipment, old ideas have been +abandoned, and a wholly different atmosphere is said to pervade the +institution, while all that was best in the old _regime_ has been +retained. Prof. Pauer made his _debut_ as a virtuoso pianist in London. +Since then he has toured all Europe except the Latin countries. He has +published several compositions for the piano. His present tour of +America is his first in the New World. + +[Illustration: MAX PAUER] + + + + +XV + +MODERN PIANISTIC PROBLEMS + +MAX PAUER + + +ACQUIRING THE REQUISITE TECHNIC + +"The preservation of one's individuality in playing is perhaps one of +the most difficult, and at the same time one of the most essential tasks +in the study of the pianoforte. The kind of technical study that passes +the student through a certain process, apparently destined to make him +as much like his predecessors as possible, is hardly the kind of technic +needed to make a great artist. Technical ability, after all is said and +done, depends upon nothing more than physiologically correct motion +applied to the artistic needs of the masterpiece to be performed. It +implies a clear understanding of the essentials in bringing out the +composer's idea. The pupil must not be confused with inaccurate +thinking. For instance, we commonly hear of the 'wrist touch.' More +pupils have been hindered through this clumsy terminology than I should +care to estimate. There cannot be a wrist touch since the wrist is +nothing more than a wonderful natural hinge of bone and muscle. With the +pupil's mind centered upon his wrist he is more than likely to stiffen +it and form habits which can only be removed with much difficulty by the +teacher. This is only an instance of one of the loose expressions with +which the terminology of technic is encumbered. When the pupil comes to +recognize the wrist as a _condition_ rather than a thing he will find +that the matter of the tight, cramped wrist will cease to have its +terrors. In fact, as far as touch itself is concerned, the motion of the +arm as a whole is vastly more important than that of the wrist. The +wrist is merely part of the apparatus which communicates the weight of +the arm to the keyboard. + + +INNOVATORS SHOULD BE PIANISTS + +"In my opinion the technical needs of the piano are likely to be far +better understood by the virtuoso pianist than by one who has never been +through the experiences which lead to the concert platform. Please do +not infer that I would say that all teachers should be virtuoso +pianists. I am referring particularly to the makers of methods. I am +continually confronted in my teaching with all manner of absurd ideas in +piano technic. For instance, one pupil will come and exhibit an exercise +which requires her to press hard upon the keyboard after the note is +struck. Just why there should be this additional waste of nerve force +when it can have no possible effect upon the depressed key I have never +been able to find out. There is enough nervous energy expended in +pianoforte study as it is without exacting any more from the pupil. +Pupils are frequently carried away with some technical trick of this +kind like a child with a new toy. They do these things without ever +consulting their own judgment." + +The whole idea of technic then is to achieve a position _through_ +conscious effort, where one may _dispense with_ conscious effort. Not +until this can be accomplished can we hope for real self-expression in +playing. Nothing is so odious as the obtrusion of technic in any work of +art. Technic is the trellis concealed beneath the foliage and the +blossoms of the bower. When the artist is really great all idea of +technic is forgotten. He must be absorbed by the sheer beauty of his +musical message, his expression of his musical self. In listening to +Rubinstein or to Liszt one forgot all idea of technic, and it must be so +with all great artists in every branch of art in every age. What we +claim when we attend a recital is the individual artist, unrestrained by +mechanical bonds. + +Very few of the great masters of pianoforte playing have delved very +deeply into the technical pedagogical side of their art, as for instance +have Tausig, Ehrlich or Joseffy, all of whom have produced remarkable +works on technic. Liszt's contribution to the technic of the instrument +was made through his pieces, not through exercises; his contributions to +the Lebert and Stark Stuttgart Conservatory method consist of two +well-known concert studies. Personally, I am opposed to set methods, +that is, those that pretend to teach the pupil factory-wise. Of what +value is the teacher if he is not to apply his knowledge with the +discretion that comes with experience? + +Deppe's influence to this day is far more theoretical than practical. +This does not imply that Deppe did not evolve some very useful ideas in +pianoforte work. All of present technic is a common heritage from many +investigators and innovators. Pianoforte teaching, as a matter of fact, +is one of the most difficult of all tasks. It is easy to teach it along +conventional "cut and dried" method lines, but the teachers of real +importance are those who have the ability, the gift, the inclination and +the experience to make a brand new method for every pupil. + +In order to develop the means to communicate one's message through one's +art with the greatest effectiveness, there must be a mastery of the +delicate balance between natural tendencies and discipline. If the +student is subjected to too much discipline, stiff, angular results may +be expected. If the student is permitted to play with the flabby +looseness which some confuse with natural relaxation, characterless +playing must invariably result. The great desideratum is the fine +equilibrium between nature and discipline. This may seem an unnecessary +observation to some, but many students never seem to be able to strike +the happy medium between marching over the keys like a regiment of +wooden soldiers, or crawling over them like a lot of spineless +caterpillars. + + +AVOID MACHINE-LIKE PLAYING + +There is a certain "something" which defines the individuality of the +player, and it seems well nigh impossible to say just what this +something is. Let us by all means preserve it. Imagine the future of +music if every piece were to be played in the selfsame way by every +player like a series of ordinary piano playing machines. The remarkable +apparatus for recording the playing of virtuosos, and then reproducing +it through a mechanical contrivance, is somewhat of a revelation to the +pianist who tries it for the first time. In the records of the playing +of artists whose interpretations are perfectly familiar to me, there +still remain unquestioned marks of individuality. Sometimes these marks +are small shortcomings, but which, nevertheless, are so slight that they +do no more than give character. Look at a painting by Van Dyke, and then +at one upon a similar subject by Rembrandt, and you will realize how +these little characteristics influence the whole outward aspect of an +art work. Both Van Dyke and Rembrandt were Dutchmen, and, in a sense, +contemporaries. They used pigments and brushes, canvas and oil, yet the +masterpieces of each are readily distinguishable by any one slightly +familiar with their styles. It is precisely the same with pianists. All +of us have arms, fingers, muscles and nerves, but what we have to say +upon the keyboard should be an expression of our own minds, not a +replica of some stereotyped model. + +When I listened to the first record of my own playing, I heard things +which seemed unbelievable to me. Was I, after years of public playing, +actually making mistakes that I would be the first to condemn in any one +of my own pupils? I could hardly believe my ears, and yet the +unrelenting machine showed that in some places I had failed to play both +hands exactly together, and had been guilty of other errors no less +heinous, because they were trifling. I also learned in listening to my +own playing, as reproduced, that I had unconsciously brought out certain +nuances, emphasized different voices and employed special accents +without the consciousness of having done so. Altogether it made a most +interesting study for me, and it became very clear that the personality +of the artist must permeate everything that he does. When his technic is +sufficiently great it permits him to speak with fluency and +self-expression, enhancing the value of his work a thousandfold. + + +BROAD UNDERSTANDING NECESSARY + +"It would be a great mistake for the student to imagine that by merely +acquiring finger dexterity and a familiarity with a certain number of +pieces he may consider himself proficient. There is vastly more to +piano-playing than that. He must add to his digital ability and his +repertoire and comprehensive grasp of the principles of music itself. +The pupil should strive to accomplish as much as possible through mental +work. The old idea of attempting to play every single study written by +Czerny, or Cramer or the other prolific writers of studies is a huge +mistake. A judicious selection from the works of these pedagogical +writers is desirable but certainly not all of them. They are at best +only the material with which one must work for a certain aim, and that +aim should be high artistic results. It should be realized by all +students and teachers that this same study material, excellent in +itself, may actually produce bad results if not properly practiced. I +have repeatedly watched students practicing industriously, but becoming +worse and worse and actually cultivating faults rather than approaching +perfection. The student must always remember that his fingers are only +the outward organs of his inner consciousness, and while his work may be +mechanical in part he should never think mechanically. The smallest +technical exercise must have its own direction, its own aim. Nothing +should be done without some definite purpose in view. The student should +have pointed out to him just what the road he must travel is, and where +it leads to. The ideal teacher is the one who gives the pupil something +to take home and work out at home, not the one who works out the +student's lesson for him in the class room. The teacher's greatest +mission is to raise the consciousness of the pupil until he can +appreciate his own powers for developing an idea. + + +FREEDOM FROM CONVENTION + +"Oh the horror of the conventional, the absolutely right, the human +machine who cannot make an error! The balance between the frigidly +correct and the abominably loose is a most difficult one to maintain. It +is, of course, desirable that the young student pass through a certain +period of strict discipline, but if this discipline succeeds in making +an automaton, of what earthly use is it? Is it really necessary to +instruct our little folks to think that everything must be done in a +"cut and dried" manner? Take the simple matter of time, for instance. +Listen to the playing of most young pupils and you will hear nothing but +a kind of "railroad train" rhythm. Every measure bumps along precisely +like the last one. The pupil has been taught to observe the bar signs +like stone walls partitioning the whole piece off into sections. The +result as a whole is too awful to describe. As a matter of fact, the bar +signs, necessary as they are as guide-posts when we are learning the +elements of notation, are often the means of leading the poorly trained +pupil to a wholly erroneous interpretation. For instance, in a passage +like the following from Beethoven's F minor Sonata, Opus 2, No. 1 +(dedicated to Joseph Haydn), Beethoven's idea must have been the +following: + +[Illustration] + +before it was divided into measures by bar lines as now found printed: + +[Illustration] + +The trouble with the pupil in playing the above is that he seems +inclined to observe the bar lines very carefully and lose all idea of +the phrase as a whole. Music should be studied by phrases, not by +measures. In studying a poem you strive first of all to get the poet's +meaning as expressed in his phrases and in his sentences; you do not try +to mumble a few words in an arbitrary manner. The pupil who never gets +over the habit of playing in measures, who never sees the composer's +message as a whole rather than in little segments can never play +artistically. Many students fail to realize that in some pieces it is +actually misleading to count the beats in the measure. The rhythm of the +piece as a whole is often marked by a series of measures, and one must +count the measures as units rather than the notes in the measures. For +instance, the following section from a Chopin Valse, Opus 64, No. 1 +(sometimes called the _Minute Valse_), may best be counted by counting +the measures thus: + +[Illustration] + +Every pupil knows that the first beat in each ordinary measure of +four-quarter time carries a strong accent, the third beat the next +strongest, and the second and fourth beats still weaker accents. In a +series of measures which may be counted in fours, it will be found that +the same arrangement often prevails. The pupil will continually meet +opportunities to study his work along broader lines, and the wonderful +part of it all is that music contains so much that is interesting and +surprising, that there need be no end to his investigations. Every page +from a master work that has been studied for years is likely to contain +some unsolved problem if the student can only see it right and hunt for +it. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XIII + +MAX PAUER + +1. Define technical ability. + +2. Describe some useless technical tricks. + +3. Do great pianists devote much time to writing upon piano technic? + +4. State the evils of too much discipline. + +5. How may machine-like playing be avoided? + +6. State how faults are most frequently developed. + +7. Why must one seek to avoid conventions? + +8. Should music be studied by phrases or measures? + +9. Play the Chopin Valse Opus 64, No. 1, indicating how it may best be +counted. + +10. Where must the student find his problems? + + + + +[Illustration: S. V. RACHMANINOFF] + +S. V. RACHMANINOFF + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Sergei Vassilievitch Rachmaninoff was born at Novgorod, Russia, April +1st, 1873. At the Moscow Conservatory he was placed under the +instruction of Siloti who had been one of the favorite Russian pupils of +Franz Liszt. This master imparted a very facile technic to Rachmaninoff +and made him so thoroughly acquainted with the best literature of the +instrument that his compositions became recognized at once as those of a +thorough master of the keyboard. His teacher in composition was Arensky, +who in addition to his skill in the technic of the art had a fund of +melody which is a delight to all those who know his works. In 1891 +Rachmaninoff won the great gold medal at the Moscow Conservatory and his +work as a composer commenced to attract favorable attention throughout +all Europe. In addition to this his ability as a pianist attracted wide +notice and his tours have been very successful. His compositions have +been cast in many different forms from opera to songs and piano pieces. +His most popular work is _the Prelude in C Sharp Minor_ which is in the +repertoire of all advanced students. His appointment as Supervisor +General of the Imperial conservatories of Russia was one of the highest +distinctions that could be conferred in the land of the Czar. The +correct pronunciation of the name as given by the composer is +Rokh-mahn-ee-noff. + +(The following conference was conducted in German.) + + + + +XVI + +ESSENTIALS OF ARTISTIC PLAYING + +S. V. RACHMANINOFF + + +FORMING THE PROPER CONCEPTION OF A PIECE + +It is a seemingly impossible task to define the number of attributes of +really excellent pianoforte playing. By selecting ten important +characteristics, however, and considering them carefully, one at a time, +the student may learn much that will give him food for thought. After +all, one can never tell in print what can be communicated by the living +teacher. In undertaking the study of a new composition it is highly +important to gain a conception of the work as a whole. One must +comprehend the main design of the composer. Naturally, there are +technical difficulties which must be worked out, measure by measure, but +unless the student can form some idea of the work in its larger +proportions his finished performance may resemble a kind of musical +patchwork. Behind every composition is the architectural plan of the +composer. The student should endeavor, first of all, to discover this +plan, and then he should build in the manner in which the composer would +have had him build. + +You ask me, "How can the student form the proper conception of the work +as a whole?" Doubtless the best way is to hear it performed by some +pianist whose authority as an interpreter cannot be questioned. However, +many students are so situated that this course is impossible. It is also +often quite impossible for the teacher, who is busy teaching from +morning to night, to give a rendering of the work that would be +absolutely perfect in all of its details. However, one can gain +something from the teacher who can, by his genius, give the pupil an +idea of the artistic demands of the piece. + +If the student has the advantage of hearing neither the virtuoso nor the +teacher he need not despair, if he has talent. Talent! Ah, that is the +great thing in all musical work. If he has talent he will see with the +eyes of _talent_--that wonderful force which penetrates all artistic +mysteries and reveals the truths as nothing else possibly can. Then he +grasps, as if by intuition, the composer's intentions in writing the +work, and, like the true interpreter, communicates these thoughts to his +audience in their proper form. + + +TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY + +It goes without saying, that technical proficiency should be one of the +first acquisitions of the student who would become a fine pianist. It is +impossible to conceive of fine playing that is not marked by clean, +fluent, distinct, elastic technic. The technical ability of the +performer should be of such a nature that it can be applied immediately +to all the artistic demands of the composition to be interpreted. Of +course, there may be individual passages which require some special +technical study, but, generally speaking, technic is worthless unless +the hands and the mind of the player are so trained that they can +encompass the principal difficulties found in modern compositions. + +In the music schools of Russia great stress is laid upon technic. +Possibly this may be one of the reasons why some of the Russian pianists +have been so favorably received in recent years. The work in the leading +Russian conservatories is almost entirely under supervision of the +Imperial Musical Society. The system is elastic in that, although all +students are obliged to go through the same course, special attention is +given to individual cases. Technic, however, is at first made a matter +of paramount importance. All students must become technically +proficient. None are excused. It may be interesting to hear something of +the general plan followed in the Imperial music schools of Russia. The +course is nine years in duration. During the first five years the +student gets most of his technical instruction from a book of studies by +Hanon, which is used very extensively in the conservatories. In fact, +this is practically the only book of strictly technical studies +employed. All of the studies are in the key of "C." They include scales, +arpeggios, and other forms of exercises in special technical designs. + +At the end of the fifth year an examination takes place. This +examination is twofold. The pupil is examined first for proficiency in +technic, and later for proficiency in artistic playing--pieces, +studies, etc. However, if the pupil fails to pass the technical +examination he is not permitted to go ahead. He knows the exercises in +the book of studies by Hanon so well that he knows each study by number, +and the examiner may ask him, for instance, to play study 17, or 28, or +32, etc. The student at once sits at the keyboard and plays. + +Although the original studies are all in the key of "C," he may be +requested to play them in any other key. He has studied them so +thoroughly that he should be able to play them in any key desired. A +metronomic test is also applied. The student knows that he will be +expected to play the studies at certain rates of speed. The examiner +states the speed and the metronome is started. The pupil is required, +for instance, to play the E flat major scale with the metronome at 120, +eight notes to the beat. If he is successful in doing this, he is marked +accordingly, and other tests are given. + +Personally, I believe this matter of insisting upon a thorough technical +knowledge is a very vital one. The mere ability to play a few pieces +does not constitute musical proficiency. It is like those music boxes +which possess only a few tunes. The student's technical grasp should be +all-embracing. + +Later the student is given advanced technical exercises, like those of +Tausig. Czerny is also very deservedly popular. Less is heard of the +studies of Henselt, however, notwithstanding his long service in +Russia. Henselt's studies are so beautiful that they should rather be +classed with pieces like the studies of Chopin. + + +PROPER PHRASING + +An artistic interpretation is not possible if the student does not know +the laws underlying the very important subject of phrasing. +Unfortunately many editions of good music are found wanting in proper +phrase markings. Some of the phrase signs are erroneously applied. +Consequently the only safe way is for the student to make a special +study of this important branch of musical art. In the olden days phrase +signs were little used. Bach used them very sparingly. It was not +necessary to mark them in those times, for every musician who counted +himself a musician could determine the phrases as he played. But a +knowledge of the means of defining phrases in a composition is by no +means all-sufficient. Skill in executing the phrases is quite as +important. The real musical feeling must exist in the mind of the +composer or all the knowledge of correct phrasing he may possess will be +worthless. + + +REGULATING THE TEMPO + +If a fine musical feeling, or sensitiveness, must control the execution +of the phrases, the regulation of the tempo demands a kind of musical +ability no less exacting. Although in most cases the tempo of a given +composition is now indicated by means of the metronomic markings, the +judgment of the player must also be brought frequently into requisition. +He cannot follow the tempo marks blindly, although it is usually unsafe +for him to stray very far from these all-important musical sign-posts. +The metronome itself must not be used "with closed eyes," as we should +say it in Russia. The player must use discretion. I do not approve of +continual practice with the metronome. The metronome is designed to set +the time, and if not abused is a very faithful servant. However, it +should only be used for this purpose. The most mechanical playing +imaginable can proceed from those who make themselves slaves to this +little musical clock, which was never intended to stand like a ruler +over every minute of the student's practice time. + + +CHARACTER IN PLAYING + +Too few students realize that there is continual and marvelous +opportunity for contrast in playing. Every piece is a piece unto itself. +It should, therefore, have its own peculiar interpretation. There are +performers whose playing seems all alike. It is like the meals served in +some hotels. Everything brought to the table has the same taste. Of +course, a successful performer must have a strong individuality, and all +of his interpretations must bear the mark of this individuality, but at +the same time he should seek variety constantly. A Chopin ballade must +have quite a different interpretation from a Scarlatti Capriccio. There +is really very little in common between a Beethoven Sonata and a Liszt +Rhapsody. Consequently, the student must seek to give each piece a +different character. Each piece must stand apart as possessing an +individual conception, and if the player fails to convey this impression +to his audience, he is little better than some mechanical instrument. +Josef Hofmann has the ability of investing each composition with an +individual and characteristic charm that has always been very delightful +to me. + + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PEDAL + +The pedal has been called the soul of the piano. I never realized what +this meant until I heard Anton Rubinstein, whose playing seemed so +marvelous to me that it beggars description. His mastery of the pedal +was nothing short of phenomenal. In the last movement of the B flat +minor sonata of Chopin he produced pedal effects that can never be +described, but for any one who remembers them they will always be +treasured as one of the greatest of musical joys. The pedal is the study +of a lifetime. It is the most difficult branch of higher pianoforte +study. Of course, one may make rules for its use, and the student should +carefully study all these rules, but, at the same time, these rules may +often be skilfully broken in order to produce some very charming +effects. The rules represent a few known principles that are within the +grasp of our musical intelligence. They may be compared with the planet +upon which we live, and about which we know so much. Beyond the rules, +however, is the great universe--the celestial system which only the +telescopic artistic sight of the great musician can penetrate. This, +Rubinstein, and some others, have done, bringing to our mundane vision +undreamt-of beauties which they alone could perceive. + + +THE DANGER OF CONVENTION + +While we must respect the traditions of the past, which for the most +part are very intangible to us because they are only to be found in +books, we must, nevertheless, not be bound down by convention. +Iconoclasm is the law of artistic progress. All great composers and +performers have built upon the ruins of conventions that they themselves +have destroyed. It is infinitely better to create than to imitate. +Before we can create, however, it is well to make ourselves familiar +with the best that has preceded us. This applies not only to +composition, but to pianoforte playing as well. The master pianists, +Rubinstein and Liszt, were both marvelously broad in the scope of their +knowledge. They knew the literature of the pianoforte in all its +possible branches. They made themselves familiar with every possible +phase of musical advancement. This is the reason for their gigantic +prominence. Their greatness was not the hollow shell of acquired +technic. THEY KNEW. Oh, for more students in these days with the genuine +thirst for real musical knowledge, and not merely with the desire to +make a superficial exhibition at the keyboard! + + +REAL MUSICAL UNDERSTANDING + +I am told that some teachers lay a great deal of stress upon the +necessity for the pupil learning the source of the composer's +inspiration. This is interesting, of course, and may help to stimulate a +dull imagination. However, I am convinced that it would be far better +for the student to depend more upon his real musical understanding. It +is a mistake to suppose that the knowledge of the fact that Schubert was +inspired by a certain poem, or that Chopin was inspired by a certain +legend, could ever make up for a lack of the real essentials leading to +good pianoforte playing. The student must see, first of all, the main +points of musical relationship in a composition. He must understand what +it is that gives the work unity, cohesion, force, or grace, and must +know how to bring out these elements. There is a tendency with some +teachers to magnify the importance of auxiliary studies and minimize the +importance of essentials. This course is wrong, and must lead to +erroneous results. + + +PLAYING TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC + +The virtuoso must have some far greater motive than that of playing for +gain. He has a mission, and that mission is to educate the public. It is +quite as necessary for the sincere student in the home to carry on this +educational work. For this reason it is to his advantage to direct his +efforts toward pieces which he feels will be of musical educational +advantage to his friends. In this he must use judgment and not overstep +their intelligence too far. With the virtuoso it is somewhat different. +He expects, and even demands, from his audience a certain grade of +musical taste, a certain degree of musical education. Otherwise he would +work in vain. If the public would enjoy the greatest in music they must +hear good music until these beauties become evident. + +It would be useless for the virtuoso to attempt a concert tour in the +heart of Africa. The virtuoso is expected to give his best, and he +should not be criticized by audiences that have not the mental capacity +to appreciate his work. The virtuosos look to the students of the world +to do their share in the education of the great musical public. Do not +waste your time with music that is trite or ignoble. Life is too short +to spend it wandering in the barren Saharas of musical trash. + + +THE VITAL SPARK + +In all good pianoforte playing there is a vital spark that seems to make +each interpretation of a masterpiece--a living thing. It exists only for +the moment, and cannot be explained. For instance, two pianists of equal +technical ability may play the same composition. With one the playing is +dull, lifeless and sapless, with the other there is something that is +indescribably wonderful. His playing seems fairly to quiver with life. +It commands interest and inspires the audience. What is this vital spark +that brings life to mere notes? In one way it may be called the intense +artistic interest of the player. It is that astonishing thing known as +inspiration. + +When the composition was originally written the composer was +unquestionably inspired; when the performer finds the same joy that the +composer found at the moment the composition came into existence, then +something new and different enters his playing. It seems to be +stimulated and invigorated in a manner altogether marvelous. The +audience realizes this instantly, and will even sometimes forgive +technical imperfections if the performance is inspired. Rubinstein was +technically marvelous, and yet he admitted making mistakes. +Nevertheless, for every possible mistake he may have made, he gave, in +return, ideas and musical tone pictures that would have made up for a +million mistakes. When Rubinstein was overexact his playing lost +something of its wonderful charm. I remember that upon one occasion he +was playing Balakireff's _Islamei_ at a concert. Something distracted +his attention and he apparently forgot the composition entirely; but he +kept on improvising in the style of the piece, and after about four +minutes the remainder of the composition came back to him and he played +it to the end correctly. This annoyed him greatly and he played the next +number upon the program with the greatest exactness, but, strange to +say, it lost the wonderful charm of the interpretation of the piece in +which his memory had failed him. Rubinstein was really incomparable, +even more so perhaps because he was full of human impulse and his +playing very far removed from mechanical perfection. + +While, of course, the student must play the notes, and all of the notes, +in the manner and in the time in which the composer intended that they +should be played, his efforts should by no means stop with notes. Every +individual note in a composition is important, but there is something +quite as important as the notes, and that is the soul. After all, the +vital spark is the soul. The soul is the source of that higher +expression in music which cannot be represented in dynamic marks. The +soul feels the need for the _crescendos_ and _diminuendos_ intuitively. +The mere matter of the duration of a pause upon a note depends upon its +significance, and the soul of the artist dictates to him just how long +such a pause should be held. If the student resorts to mechanical rules +and depends upon them absolutely, his playing will be soulless. + +Fine playing requires much deep thought away from the keyboard. The +student should not feel that when the notes have been played his task is +done. It is, in fact, only begun. He must make the piece a part of +himself. Every note must awaken in him a kind of musical consciousness +of his real artistic mission. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XIV + +S. V. RACHMANINOFF + +1. Should the student gain an idea of the work as a whole before +attempting detailed study? + +2. How is the matter of digital technic regarded in Russia? + +3. What part should the study of phrasing play in modern music +education? + +4. State how contrast in playing may be accomplished. + +5. What may be considered the most difficult branch of pianoforte study? + +6. What is the law of artistic progress? + +7. How must real musical understanding be achieved? + +8. What is the vital spark in piano playing? + +9. Can one be overexact in playing? + +10. What is the effect of too many mechanical rules? + + + + +[Illustration: A. REISENAUER] + +ALFRED REISENAUER + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Alfred Reisenauer was born at Koenigsberg, Germany, Nov. 1st, 1863. He +was a pupil of his mother, Louis Koehler, and Franz Liszt. His debut as a +pianist was made in Rome, in 1881, at the palace of Cardinal Hohenlohe. +After a concert tour in Germany and a visit to England he studied Law +for one year at the Leipsic University. Not finding this altogether to +his liking he resumed his concert work and commenced a long series of +tours which included all the nooks and corners of the world where one +might find a musical public. He was an accomplished linguist, speaking +many languages very fluently. His work as a composer was not significant +but in certain branches of pianoforte playing he rose to exceptional +heights. He died October 31st, 1907. + + + + +XVII + +SYSTEMATIC MUSICAL TRAINING + +ALFRED REISENAUER + + +"I can never thank my mother enough for the splendid start she gave me +in my early musical life. She was a wonderful woman and a veritable +genius as a teacher. See, I have here to-day on my piano a copy of the +Schumann Sonata in F sharp minor which she herself used and which she +played with a feeling I have never heard equaled. There is one thing in +particular for which I am everlastingly grateful to her. Before I was +taught anything of notes or of the piano keyboard, she took me aside one +day and explained in the simple and beautiful tongue which only a mother +employs in talking to her child, the wonderful natural relationships of +tones used in making music. Whether this was an inspiration, an +intuition, or a carefully thought out plan for my benefit, I cannot +tell, but my mother put into practice what I have since come to consider +the most important and yet the most neglected step in the education of +the child. The fault lies in the fact that most teachers at the start do +not teach music, rather musical notation and the peculiarities of the +instrument. + +Nothing could possibly be more stultifying to the musical instinct of +the child. For instance, the plan generally pursued is to let the child +grope over the white keys of the piano keyboard and play exercises in +the scale of C, until he begins to feel that the whole musical world +lies in the scale of C, with the scales of F and G as the frontiers. The +keys of F sharp, B, D flat and others are looked upon as tremendously +difficult and the child mind reasons with its own peculiar logic that +these keys being so much less used, must, of course be less important. +The black keys upon the keyboard are a '_terra incognita_.' Consequently +at the very start the child has a radically incorrect view of what music +really is. + +"Before notation existed,--before keyboards were invented,--people sang. +Before a child knows anything of notation or a keyboard, it sings. It is +following its natural, musical instinct. Notation and keyboards are +simply symbols of music--cages in which the beautiful bird is caught. +They are not music any more than the alphabet is literature. +Unfortunately, our system of musical symbols and the keyboard itself are +very complex. For the young child it is as difficult as are Calculus and +Algebra for his older brother. As a matter of fact, the keys of F sharp, +B, and D flat major, etc., are only difficult because fate has made them +so. It would have served the musical purpose just as well if the pitch +of the instruments employed had been adjusted so that what is now F +sharp, would be the key of C major. That, however, would not have +simplified matters and we have to receive our long established musical +notation until we can exchange it for a better one. + +"At a very early age, I was taken to Franz Liszt by my mother. Liszt +immediately perceived my natural talent and strongly advised my mother +to continue my musical work. At the same time he said 'As a child I was +exposed to criticism as a Wunderkind (prodigy), through the ignorance of +my parents, long before I was properly prepared to meet the inevitable +consequences of public appearance. This did incalculable damage to me. +Let your child be spared such a fate. My own experience was disastrous. +Do not let your son appear in public until he is a mature artist.' + +"My first teacher, Louis Koehler, was an artist and a great artist, but +he was an artist-teacher rather than an artist-pianist. Compared with +many of his contemporaries his playing suffered immensely, but he made +an art of teaching as few other men have done. He did not play for his +pupils to any extent, nor did he ask them to imitate him in any way. His +playing was usually confined to general illustrations and suggestions. +By these means the individuality of his pupils was preserved and +permitted to develop, so that while the pupil always had an excellent +idea of the authoritative traditions governing the interpretation of a +certain piece, there was nothing that suggested the stilted or wooden +performance of the brainless mimic. He taught his pupils to think. He +was an indefatigable student and thinker himself. He had what many +teachers would have considered peculiar ideas upon technic. + + +KOEHLER'S TECHNICAL SCHEME + +"While he invented many little means whereby technical difficulties +could be more readily overcome than by the existing plan he could not be +called in any way radical. He believed in carrying the technical side of +a pupil's education up to a certain point along more or less +conventional lines. When the pupil reached that point he found that he +was upon a veritable height of mechanical supremacy. Thereafter Koehler +depended upon the technical difficulties presented in the literature of +the instrument to continue the technical efficiency acquired. In other +words, the acquisition of a technic was solely to enable the pupil to +explore the world of music equipped in such a way that he was not to be +overcome by anything. The everlasting continuance of technical exercises +was looked upon by Koehler as a ridiculous waste of time and a great +injury. + +"I also hold this opinion. Let us suppose that I were to sit at the +piano for six or seven hours and do nothing but play conventional finger +exercises. What happens to my soul, psychologically considered, during +those hours spent upon exercises which no man or woman could possibly +find anything other than an irritation? Do not the same exercises occur +in thousands of pieces but in such connection that the mind is +interested? Is it necessary for the advanced pianist to punish himself +with a kind of mental and physical penance more trying, perhaps, than +the devices of the medieval ascetics or the oriental priests of to-day? +No, technic is the Juggernaut which has ground to pieces more musicians +than one can imagine. It produces a stiff, wooden touch and has a +tendency to induce the pianist to believe that the art of pianoforte +playing depends upon the continuance of technical exercises whereas the +acquisition of technical ability should be regarded as the beginning and +not the end. When pupils leave your schools you say that they are having +a 'Commencement.' The acquisition of a technic is only the commencement, +unfortunately too many consider it the end. This may perhaps be the +reason why our conservatories turn out so many bright and proficient +young people who in a few years are buried in oblivion. + + +WITH LISZT + +"When I had reached a certain grade of advancement it was my great +fortune to become associated with the immortal Franz Liszt. I consider +Liszt the greatest man I have ever met. By this I mean that I have never +met, in any other walk of life, a man with the mental grasp, splendid +disposition and glorious genius. This may seem a somewhat extravagant +statement. I have met many, many great men, rulers, jurists, authors, +scientists, teachers, merchants and warriors, but never have I met a man +in any position whom I have not thought would have proved the inferior +of Franz Liszt, had Liszt chosen to follow the career of the man in +question. Liszt's personality can only be expressed by one word, +'colossal.' He had the most generous nature of any man I have ever met. +He had aspirations to become a great composer, greater than his own +measure of his work as a composer had revealed to him. The dire position +of Wagner presented itself. He abandoned his own ambitions--ambitions +higher than those he ever held toward piano virtuosity--abandoned them +completely to champion the difficult cause of the great Wagner. What +Liszt suffered to make this sacrifice, the world does not know. But no +finer example of moral heroism can be imagined. His conversations with +me upon the subject were so intimate that I do not care to reveal one +word. + + +LISZT'S PEDAGOGICAL METHODS + +His generosity and personal force in his work with the young artists he +assisted are hard to describe. You ask me whether he had a certain +method. I reply, he abhorred methods in the modern sense of the term. +His work was eclectic in the highest sense. In one way he could not be +considered a teacher at all. He charged no fees and had irregular and +somewhat unsystematic classes. In another sense he was the greatest of +teachers. Sit at the piano and I will indicate the general plan pursued +by Liszt at a lesson. Reisenauer is a remarkable and witty mimic of +people he desires to describe. The present writer sat at the piano and +played at some length through several short compositions, eventually +coming to the inevitable "Chopin Valse, Op. 69, No. 1, in A flat +major." In the meanwhile, Reisenauer had gone to another room and, after +listening patiently, returned, imitating the walk, facial expression and +the peculiar guttural snort characteristic of Liszt in his later years. +Then followed a long "kindly sermon" upon the emotional possibilities of +the composition. This was interrupted with snorts and went with +kaleidoscopic rapidity from French to German and back again many, many +times. Imitating Liszt he said, + +"First of all we must arrive at the very essence of the thing; the germ +that Chopin chose to have grow and blossom in his soul. It is, roughly +considered, this: + +[Illustration] + +Chopin's next thought was, no doubt: + +[Illustration] + +But with his unerring good taste and sense of symmetry he writes it so: + +[Illustration] + +Now consider the thing in studying it and while playing it from the +composer's attitude. By this I mean that during the mental process of +conception, before the actual transference of the thought to paper, the +thought itself is in a nebulous condition. The composer sees it in a +thousand lights before he actually determines upon the exact form he +desires to perpetuate. For instance, this theme might have gone through +Chopin's mind much after this fashion: + +[Illustration] + +"The main idea being to reach the embryo of Chopin's thought and by +artistic insight divine the connotation of that thought, as nearly as +possible in the light of the treatment Chopin has given it. + +"It is not so much the performer's duty to play mere notes and dynamic +marks, as it is for him to make an artistic estimate of the composer's +intention and to feel that during the period of reproduction he +simulates the natural psychological conditions which affected the +composer during the actual process of composition. In this way the +composition becomes a living entity--a tangible resurrection of the soul +of the great Chopin. Without such penetrative genius a pianist is no +more than a mere machine and with it he may develop into an artist of +the highest type." + + +A UNIQUE ATTITUDE + +Reisenauer's attitude toward the piano is unique and interesting. +Musicians are generally understood to have an affectionate regard for +their instruments, almost paternal. Not so with Reisenauer. He even goes +so far as to make this statement: "I have aways been drawn to the piano +by a peculiar charm I have never been able to explain to myself. I feel +that I must play, play, play, play, play. It has become a second nature +to me. I have played so much and so long that the piano has become a +part of me. Yet I am never free from the feeling that it is a constant +battle with the instrument, and even with my technical resources I am +not able to express all the beauties I hear in the music. While music is +my very life, I nevertheless hate the piano. I play because I can't help +playing and because there is no other instrument which can come as near +imitating the melodies and the harmonies of the music I feel. People say +wherever I go, 'Ah, he is a master.' What absurdity! I the master? Why, +there is the master (pointing to the piano), I am only the slave." + + +THE FUTURE OF PIANOFORTE MUSIC + +An interesting question that frequently arises in musical circles +relates to the future possibilities of the art of composition in its +connection with the pianoforte. Not a few have some considerable +apprehension regarding the possible dearth of new melodic material and +the technical and artistic treatment of such material. "I do not think +that there need be any fear of a lack of original melodic material or +original methods of treating such material. The possibilities of the art +of musical composition have by no means been exhausted. While I feel +that in a certain sense, very difficult to illustrate with words, one +great 'school' of composition for the pianoforte ended with Liszt and +the other in Brahms, nevertheless I can but prophesy the arising of many +new and wonderful schools in the future. I base my prophecy upon the +premises of frequent similar conditions during the history of musical +art. + +"Nevertheless, it is yet my ambition to give a lengthy series of +recitals, with programs arranged to give a chronological aspect of all +the great masterpieces in music. I hope to be enabled to do this before +I retire. It is part of a plan to circle the world in a manner that has +not yet been done." When asked whether these programs were to resemble +Rubinstein's famous historical recitals in London, years ago, he +replied: "They will be more extensive than the Rubinstein recitals. The +times make such a series possible now, which Rubinstein would have +hesitated to give." + +As to American composers, Reisenauer is so thoroughly and +enthusiastically won over by MacDowell that he has not given the other +composers sufficient attention to warrant a critical opinion. I found +upon questioning that he had made a genuinely sincere effort to find +new material in America, but he said that outside of MacDowell, he found +nothing but indifferently good salon-music. With the works of several +American composers he was, however, unfamiliar. He has done little or +nothing himself as a composer and declared that it was not his forte. + + +AMERICAN MUSICAL TASTE + +"I find that American musical taste is in many ways astonishing. Many +musicians who came to America prior to the time of Thomas and Damrosch +returned to Europe with what were, no doubt, true stories of the musical +conditions in America at that time. These stories were given wide +circulation in Europe, and it is difficult for Europeans to understand +the cultured condition of the American people at the present time. +America can never thank Dr. Leopold Damrosch and Theodore Thomas enough +for their unceasing labors. Thanks to the impetus that they gave the +movement, it is now possible to play programs in almost any American +city that are in no sense different from those one is expected to give +in great European capitals. The status of musical education in the +leading American cities is surprisingly high. Of course the commercial +element necessarily affects it to a certain extent; but in many cases +this is not as injurious as might be imagined. The future of music in +America seems very roseate to me and I can look back to my American +concert tours with great pleasure. + + +CONCERT CONDITIONS IN AMERICA + +"One of the great difficulties, however, in concert touring in America +is the matter of enormous distances. I often think that American +audiences rarely hear great pianists at their best. Considering the +large amounts of money involved in a successful American tour and the +business enterprise which must be extremely forceful to make such a tour +possible, it is not to be wondered that enormous journeys must be made +in ridiculously short time. No one can imagine what this means to even a +man of my build." (Reisenauer is a wonderfully strong and powerful man.) +"I have been obliged to play in one Western city one night and in an +Eastern city the following night. Hundreds of miles lay between them. In +the latter city I was obliged to go directly from the railroad depot to +the stage of the concert hall, hungry, tired, travel worn and without +practice opportunities. How can a man be at his best under such +conditions?--yet certain conditions make these things unavoidable in +America, and the pianist must suffer occasional criticism for not +playing uniformly well. In Europe such conditions do not exist owing to +the closely populated districts. I am glad to have the opportunity to +make this statement, as no doubt a very great many Americans fail to +realize under what distressing conditions an artist is often obliged to +play in America." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XV + +ALFRED REISENAUER + +1. What should be the first step in the musical education of the child? + +2. Why was Koehler so successful as a teacher? + +3. Did Liszt follow a method in teaching or was his work eclectic? + +4. Give Liszt's conception of how Chopin developed one of his Valses. + +5. Have the possibilities of the art of musical composition been +exhausted? + +6. Are other great schools of pianoforte playing likely to arise? + +7. What was Reisenauer's opinion of the works of MacDowell? + +8. What may be said of musical taste in America when Reisenauer was +touring this country. + +9. What may be said of the status of American musical education? + +10. What great difficulties do the virtuosos visiting America +encounter? + + + + +[Illustration: EMIL SAUER] + +EMIL SAUER + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Emil Sauer was born in Hamburg, Germany, October 8, 1862. His first +teacher was his mother, who was a fine musician, and who took +exceptional pains with her talented son. From 1879 to 1881 he studied +with Nicholas Rubinstein, brother of the famous Anton Rubinstein. +Nicholas Rubinstein was declared by many to be a far abler teacher than +his brother, who eclipsed him upon the concert platform. From 1884 to +1885 Sauer studied with Franz Liszt. In his autobiographical work, "My +Life," Sauer relates that Liszt at that time had reached an age when +much of his reputed brilliance had disappeared, and the playing of the +great Master of Weimar did not startle Sauer as it did some others. +However, Liszt took a great personal interest in Sauer and prophesied a +great future for him. + +In 1882 Sauer made his first tour as a virtuoso, and met with such favor +that numerous tours of the music-loving countries ensued. The critics +praised his playing particularly for his great clarity, sanity, +symmetrical appreciation of form, and unaffected fervor. For a time +Sauer was at the head of the Meisterschule of Piano-playing, connected +with the Imperial Conservatory in Vienna. + +(The following conference was conducted in German and English.) + + + + +XVIII + +THE TRAINING OF THE VIRTUOSO + +EMIL SAUER + + +One of the most inestimable advantages I have ever had was my good +fortune in having a musical mother. It is to her that I owe my whole +career as an artist. If it had not been for her loving care and her +patient persistence I might have been engaged in some entirely different +pursuit. As a child I was very indifferent to music. I abhorred +practice, and, in fact, showed no signs of pronounced talent until my +twelfth year. But she kept faithfully pegging away at me and insisted +that because my grandfather had been a noted artist and because she was +devoted to music it must be in my blood. + +My mother was a pupil of Deppe, of whom Miss Amy Fay has written in her +book "Music Study in Germany." Deppe was a remarkable pedagogue and had +excellent ideas upon the foundation of a rational system of touch. He +sought the most natural position of the hand and always aimed to work +along the line of least resistance. My mother instilled Deppe's ideas +into me together with a very comprehensive training in the standard +etudes and classics within my youthful technical grasp. For those years +I could not have had a better teacher. Lucky is the child, who like +Gounod, Reisenauer and others, has had the invaluable instruction that +a patient, self-sacrificing mother can give. The mother is the most +unselfish of all teachers, and is painstaking to a fault. + + +SLOW SYSTEMATIC PRACTICE + +She insisted upon slow systematic regular practice. She knew the +importance of regularity, and one of the first things I ever learned was +that if I missed one or two days' practice, I could not hope to make it +up by practicing overtime on the following days. Practice days missed or +skipped are gone forever. One must make a fresh start and the loss is +sometimes not recovered for several days. + +I was also made to realize the necessity of freshness at the practice +period. The pupil who wants to make his practice lead to results must +feel well while practicing. Practicing while tired, either mentally or +physically, is wasted practice. + +Pupils must learn to concentrate, and if they have not the ability to do +this naturally they should have a master who will teach them how. It is +not easy to fix the mind upon one thing and at the same time drive every +other thought away. With some young pupils this takes much practice. +Some never acquire it--it is not in them. Concentration is the vertebrae +of musical success. The student who cannot concentrate had better +abandon musical study. In fact, the young person who cannot concentrate +is not likely to be a conspicuous success in any line of activity. The +study of music cultivates the pupil's powers of concentration perhaps +more than any other study. The notes to be played must be recognized +instantaneously and correctly performed. In music the mind has no time +to wander. This is one of the reasons why music is so valuable even for +those who do not ever contemplate a professional career. + +One hour of concentrated practice with the mind fresh and the body +rested is better than four hours of dissipated practice with the mind +stale and the body tired. With a fatigued intellect the fingers simply +dawdle over the keys and nothing is accomplished. I find in my own daily +practice that it is best for me to practice two hours in the morning and +then two hours later in the day. When I am finished with two hours of +hard study I am exhausted from close concentration. I have also noted +that any time over this period is wasted. I am too fatigued for the +practice to be of any benefit to me. + + +THE NECESSITY FOR A GOOD GENERAL EDUCATION + +Parents make a great mistake in not insuring the general education of +the child who is destined to become a concert performer. I can imagine +nothing more stultifying or more likely to result in artistic disaster +than the course that some parents take in neglecting the child's school +work with an idea that if he is to become a professional musician he +need only devote himself to music. This one-sided cultivation should be +reserved for idiots who can do nothing else. The child-wonder is often +the victim of some mental disturbance. + +I remember once seeing a remarkable child mathematician in Hungary. He +was only twelve years of age and yet the most complicated mathematical +problems were solved in a few seconds without recourse to paper. The +child had water on the brain and lived but a few years. His usefulness +to the world of mathematics was limited solely to show purposes. It is +precisely the same with the so-called musical precocities. They are +rarely successful in after life, and unless trained by some very wise +and careful teacher, they soon become objects for pity. + +The child who is designed to become a concert pianist should have the +broadest possible culture. He must live in the world of art and letters +and become a naturalized citizen. The wider the range of his +information, experience and sympathies, the larger will be the audience +he will reach when he comes to talk to them from the concert platform. +It is the same as with a public speaker. No one wants to hear a speaker +who has led a narrow, crabbed intellectual existence, but the man who +has seen and known the world, who has become acquainted with the great +masterpieces of art and the wonderful achievements of science, has +little difficulty in securing an audience providing he has mastered the +means of expressing his ideas. + + +CLEAN PLAYING VS. SLOVENLY PLAYING + +In the matter of technical preparation there is, perhaps, too little +attention being given to-day to the necessity for clean playing. Of +course, each individual requires a different treatment. The pupil who +has a tendency to play with stiffness and rigidity may be given studies +which will develop a more fluent style. For these pupils' studies, like +those of Heller, are desirable in the cases of students with only +moderate technical ability, while the splendid "etudes" of Chopin are +excellent remedies for advanced pupils with tendencies toward hard, +rigid playing. The difficulty one ordinarily meets, however, is ragged, +slovenly playing rather than stiff, rigid playing. To remedy this +slovenliness, there is nothing like the well-known works of Czerny, +Cramer or Clementi. + +I have frequently told pupils in my "Meisterschule" in Vienna, before I +abandoned teaching for my work as a concert pianist, that they must +learn to draw before they learn to paint. They will persist in trying to +apply colors before they learn the art of making correct designs. This +leads to dismal failure in almost every case. Technic first--then +interpretation. The great concert-going public has no use for a player +with a dirty, slovenly technic no matter how much he strives to make +morbidly sentimental interpretations that are expected to reach the +lovers of sensation. For such players a conscientious and exacting study +of Czerny, Cramer, Clementi and others of similar design is good +musical soap and water. It washes them into respectability and technical +decency. The pianist with a bungling, slovenly technic, who at the same +time attempts to perform the great masterpieces, reminds me of those +persons who attempt to disguise the necessity for soap and water with +nauseating perfume. + + +HEALTH A VITAL FACTOR + +Few people realize what a vital factor health is to the concert pianist. +The student should never fail to think of this. Many young Americans who +go abroad to study break down upon the very vehicle upon which they must +depend in their ride to success through the indiscretions of overwork or +wrong living. The concert pianist really lives a life of privation. I +always make it a point to restrict myself to certain hygienic rules on +the day before a concert. I have a certain diet and a certain amount of +exercise and sleep, without which I cannot play successfully. + +In America one is overcome with the kindness of well-meaning people who +insist upon late suppers, receptions, etc. It is hard to refuse kindness +of this description, but I have always felt that my debt to my audiences +was a matter of prime importance, and while on tour I refrain from +social pleasures of all kinds. My mind and my body must be right or +failure will surely result. + +I have often had people say to me after the performance of some +particularly brilliant number "Ah! You must have taken a bottle of +champagne to give a performance like that." Nothing could be further +from the truth. A half a bottle of beer would ruin a recital for me. The +habit of taking alcoholic drinks with the idea that they lead to a more +fiery performance is a dangerous custom that has been the ruin of more +than one pianist. The performer who would be at his best must live a +very careful, almost abstemious life. Any unnatural excess is sure to +mar his playing and lead to his downfall with the public. I have seen +this done over and over again, and have watched alcohol tear down in a +few years what had taken decades of hard practice and earnest study to +build up. + + +JUDICIOUS USE OF TECHNICAL EXERCISES + +The field of music is so enormous that I have often thought that the +teacher should be very careful not to overdo the matter of giving +technical exercises. Technical exercises are, at best, short cuts. They +are necessary for the student. He should have a variety of them, and not +be kept incessantly pounding away at one or two exercises. As Nicholas +Rubinstein once said to me, "Scales should never be dry. If you are not +interested in them work with them until you become interested in them." +They should be played with accents and in different rhythms. If they are +given in the shapeless manner in which some teachers obliged their +unfortunate pupils to practice them they are worthless. I do not +believe in working out technical exercises at a table or with a dumb +piano. The brain must always work with the fingers, and without the +sound of the piano the imagination must be enormously stretched to get +anything more than the most senseless, toneless, soulless touch. + +Technic with many is unmistakably a gift. I say this after having given +the matter much careful thought. It is like the gift of speech. Some +people are fluent talkers, precisely as some people can do more in two +hours' technical work at the keyboard than others could accomplish with +four. Of course, much can be accomplished with persistent practice, and +a latent gift may be awakened, but it is certainly not given to all to +become able technicalists. Again some become very proficient from the +technical standpoint, but are barren, soulless, uninspired and vapid +when it comes to the artistic and musicianly interpretation of a piece. + +There comes a time to every advanced pianist when such exercises as the +scales, arpeggios, the studies of Czerny and Cramer are unnecessary. I +have not practiced them for some years, but pray do not think that I +attempt to go without exercises. These exercises I make by selecting +difficult parts of famous pieces and practicing them over and over. I +find the concertos of Hummel particularly valuable in this connection, +and there are parts of some of the Beethoven concertos that make +splendid musical exercises that I can practice without the fatal +diminution of interest which makes a technical exercise valueless. + + +STUDY ABROAD + +In the matter of foreign study I think that I may speak without bias, as +I am engaged in teaching and am not likely to resume for some years. I +am _absolutely convinced_ that there are many teachers in America who +are as good as the best in Europe. Nevertheless, I would advise the +young American to secure the best instruction possible in his native +land, and then to go abroad for a further course. It will serve to +broaden him in many ways. + +I believe in patriotism, and I admire the man who sticks to his +fatherland. But, in art there is no such thing as patriotism. As the +conservatory of Paris provides, through the "Prix de Rome," for a three +years' residence in Italy and other countries for the most promising +pupil, so the young American music students should avail themselves of +the advantages of Old World civilization, art, and music. There is much +to be learned from the hustle and vigorous wholesome growth of your own +country that would be of decided advantage to the German students who +could afford a term of residence here. It is narrowing to think that one +should avoid the Old World art centers from the standpoint of American +patriotism. + + +VERSATILITY + +Few people recognize the multifarious requirements of the concert +pianist. He must adjust himself to all sorts of halls, pianos and living +conditions. The difference between one piano and another is often very +remarkable. It sometimes obliges the artist to readjust his technical +methods very materially. Again, the difference in halls is noteworthy. +In a great hall, like the Albert Hall of London, one can only strive for +very broad effects. It is not possible for one to attempt the delicate +shadings which the smaller halls demand. Much is lost in the great hall, +and it is often unjust to determine the pianist's ability by his +exclusively bravura performances in very large auditoriums. + + +CULTIVATING FINGER STRENGTH + +The concert pianist must have great endurance. His fingers must be as +strong as steel, and yet they must be as elastic and as supple as willow +wands. I have always had great faith in the "Kleine Pischna" and the +"Pischna Exercises" in cultivating strength. These exercises are now +world famous, and it would be hard for me to imagine anything better for +this particular purpose. They are somewhat voluminous, but necessarily +so. One conspicuous difficulty with which teachers have to contend is +that pupils attempt pieces requiring great digital strength without ever +having gone through such a course as I advocate above. The result is +that they have all sorts of troubles with their hands through strain. +Some of these troubles are irremediable, others are curable, but cause +annoying delays. I have never had anything of this sort and attribute my +immunity from weeping sinews, etc., to correct hand positions, a loose +wrist and slow systematic work in my youth. + + +VELOCITY + +Velocity depends more upon natural elasticity than strength. Some people +seem to be born with the ability to play rapidly. It is always a matter +of the fingers, but is more a matter of the brain. Some people have the +ability to think very rapidly, and when these people have good supple +hands they seem to be able to play rapidly with comparatively little +study. When you fail to get velocity at first, do not hesitate to lay +the piece aside for several weeks, months or years. Then you will +doubtless find that the matter of velocity will not trouble you. Too +much study upon a piece that fails for the time being to respond to +earnest effort is often a bad thing. Be a little patient. It will all +come out right in the end. If you fuss and fume for immediate results +you may be sadly disappointed. + + +TALENT + +Talent is great and immutable. Take the case of Liszt, for instance. I +recently heard from a reliable source the following interesting story: +One day Liszt was called away from his class at Wiemar by an invitation +to visit the Grand Duke. Von Buelow, then a mature artist, was present, +and he was asked by Liszt to teach the class for the day. Liszt left the +room, and a young student was asked to play one of Liszt's own +compositions. Von Buelow did not like the youth's interpretation, as he +had been accustomed to play the same work on tour in a very different +manner. Consequently he abused the student roundly, and then sat at the +keyboard and was playing to his great satisfaction when the tottering +old master broke in the room and with equal severity reprimanded Von +Buelow, and sat down at the keyboard and gave an interpretation that was +infinitely superior to that of Von Buelow. It was simply a case of +superiority of talent that enabled the aged and somewhat infirm Liszt to +excel his younger contemporary. + + +BE NATURAL + +In closing, let me enjoin all young American music students to strive +for naturalness. Avoid ostentatious movements in your playing. Let your +playing be as quiet as possible. The wrist should be loose. The hands, +to my mind, should be neither high nor low, but should be in line with +the forearm. One should continually strive for quietness. Nothing should +be forced. Ease in playing is always admirable, and comes in time to all +talented students who seek it. The Deppe method of hand position, while +pedantic and unnecessarily long, is interesting and instructive. + +Personally, I advocate the use of the Etudes of Chopin, Moscheles and +the _Etudes Transcendante_ to all advanced pupils. I have used them with +pupils with invariable success. I have also a series of thirteen Etudes +of my own that I have made for the express purpose of affording pupils +material for work which is not adequately covered in the usual course. + +Young Americans have a great future before them. The pupils I have had +have invariably been ones who progress with astonishing rapidity. They +show keenness and good taste, and are willing to work faithfully and +conscientiously, and that, after all, is the true road to success. + + +TALENT COUNTS + +If you think that talent does not count you are very greatly mistaken. +We not infrequently see men who have been engaged in one occupation with +only very moderate success suddenly leap into fame in an entirely +different line. Men who have struggled to be great artists or +illustrators like du Maurier astonish the world with a previously +concealed literary ability. It is foolish not to recognize the part that +talent must play in the careers of artists. Sometimes hard work and +patient persistence will stimulate the mind and soul, and reveal talents +that were never supposed to exist, but if the talent does not exist it +is as hopeless to hunt for it as it is to seek for diamonds in a bowl of +porridge. + +Talented people seem to be born with the knack or ability to do certain +things twice as well and twice as quickly as other people can do the +same things. I well remember that when all Europe was wild over the +"Diabolo" craze my little girl commenced to play with the sticks and the +little spool. It looked interesting and I thought that I would try it a +few times and then show her how to do it. The more I tried the more +exasperated I became. I simply could not make it go, and before I knew +it I had wasted a whole morning upon it. My little daughter took it up +and in a few minutes' practice she was able to do it as well as an +expert. It is precisely the same at the keyboard. What takes some pupils +hours to accomplish others can do in a few seconds with apparently less +effort. The age of the pupil seems to have little to do with musical +comprehension. What does count is talent, that peculiar qualification +which seems to lead the student to see through complex problems as if he +had been solving them through different generations for centuries. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XVI + +EMIL SAUER + +1. Can missed practice periods ever be made up? + +2. Does piano study cultivate concentration? + +3. What is a good arrangement of practice hours? + +4. What are some remedies for slovenly playing? + +5. How is one's playing affected by health? + +6. Are stimulants good or bad? + +7. Is listening important in pianoforte playing? + +8. How may finger strength be cultivated? + +9. Upon what does velocity depend? + +10. What part does talent play in the artist's success? + + + + +[Illustration: X. SCHARWENKA] + +XAVER SCHARWENKA + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Franz Xaver Scharwenka was born at Samter, Posen (Polish Prussia), +January 6, 1850. He was a pupil of Kullak and Wuerst at Kullak's Academy +in Berlin, from which he graduated in 1868. Shortly thereafter he was +appointed a teacher in the same institution. The next year he made his +debut as a virtuoso at the _Singakademie_. For many years thereafter he +gave regular concerts in Berlin in connection with Sauret and Gruenfeld. +In 1874 he gave up his position in the famous Berlin music school and +commenced the career of the touring virtuoso. In 1880 he founded the +Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin together with his brother Philipp +Scharwenka, an able composer. + +In 1891 Scharwenka came to New York to establish a conservatory there. +This, however, was closed in 1898 when Scharwenka returned to Berlin as +Director of the Klindworth-Scharwenka conservatory. He has been the +recipient of numerous honors from the governments of Austria and +Germany. He received the title of "Professor" from the King of Prussia +(Emperor Wilhelm II) and that of Court Pianist from the emperor of +Austria. + +His many concert tours in America and in Europe have established his +fame as a pianist of great intellectual strength as well as strong +poetical force. His compositions, including his four Concertos, have +been widely played, and his opera, _Mataswintha_, has received important +productions. One of his earlier works, the _Polish Dance_, has been +enormously popular for a quarter of a century. + +(The following conference was conducted in German and English.) + + + + +XIX + +ECONOMY IN MUSIC STUDY + +XAVER SCHARWENKA + + +It is somewhat of a question whether any time spent in music study is +actually wasted, since all intellectual activity is necessarily +accompanied by an intellectual advance. However, it soon becomes +apparent to the young teacher that results can be achieved with a great +economy of time if the right methods are used. By the use of the words +"right methods" I do not mean to infer that only one right method +exists. The right method for one pupil might be quite different from +that which would bring about the best results with another pupil. In +these days far more elasticity of methods exists than was generally +sanctioned in the past, and the greatness of the teacher consists very +largely of his ability to invent, adapt, and adjust his pedagogical +means to the special requirements of his pupil. Thus it happens that the +teacher, by selecting only those exercises, etudes and teaching pieces +demanded by the obvious needs of the pupil, and by eliminating +unnecessary material, a much more rapid rate of advancement may be +obtained. One pupil, for instance, might lack those qualities of +velocity and dexterity which many of the etudes of Czerny develop in +such an admirable manner, while another pupil might be deficient in the +singing tone, which is almost invariably improved by the study of +certain Chopin etudes. + + +TIME LOST IN EARLY STUDY + +Although my educational work for many years has been almost exclusively +limited to pupils preparing for careers as teachers and as concert +pianists, I nevertheless have naturally taken a great interest in those +broad and significant problems which underlie the elementary training of +the young music student. I have written quite extensively upon the +subject, and my ideas have been quite definitely expressed in my book, +_Methodik des Klavierspiels: Systematische Darstellung der technischen +und aesthetischen Erfordernisse fuer einen rationellen Lehrgang_. I have +also come in close contact with this branch of musical work in the +Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. + +My observations have led to the firm conviction that much of the time +lost in music study could be saved if the elementary training of the +pupil were made more comprehensive and more secure. It is by no means an +economy of time to hurry over the foundation work of the pupil. It is +also by no means an economy of money to place the beginner in the hands +of a second-rate teacher. There is just as much need for the specialist +to train the pupil at the start as there is for the head of the +"meisterschule" to guide the budding virtuoso. How can we expect the +pupil to make rapid progress if the start is not right? One might as +well expect a broken-down automobile to win a race. The equipment at the +beginning must be of the kind which will carry the pupil through his +entire career with success. If any omissions occur, they must be made up +later on, and the difficulty in repairing this neglect is twice as great +as it would have been had the student received the proper instruction at +the start. + + +EAR-TRAINING + +The training of the ear is of great importance, and if teachers would +only make sure that their pupils studied music with their sense of +hearing as well as with their fingers, much time would be saved in later +work. Young pupils should be taught to listen by permitting them to hear +good music, which is at the same time sufficiently simple to insure +comprehension. Early musical education is altogether too one-sided. The +child is taken to the piano and a peculiar set of hieroglyphics known as +notation is displayed to him. He is given a few weeks to comprehend that +these signs refer to certain keys on the keyboard. He commences to push +down these keys faithfully and patiently and his musical education is +thus launched in what many consider the approved manner. Nothing is said +about the meaning of the piece, its rhythm, its harmonies, its aesthetic +beauties. Nothing is told of the composer, or of the period in which the +piece was written. It would be just about as sensible to teach a pupil +to repeat the sounds of the Chinese language by reading the Chinese +word-signs, but without comprehending the meaning of the sounds and +signs. Is it any wonder that beginners lose interest in their work, and +refuse to practise except when compelled to do so? + +I am most emphatically in favor of a more rational, a more broad, and a +more thorough training of the beginner. Time taken from that ordinarily +given to the senseless, brainless working up and down of the fingers at +the keyboard, and devoted to those studies such as harmony, musical +history, form, and in fact, any study which will tend to widen the +pupil's knowledge and increase his interest, will save much time in +later work. + + +WASTE IN TECHNICAL STUDY + +Geometrically speaking, the shortest distance between two points is a +straight line. Teachers should make every possible effort to find the +straight line of technic which will carry the pupil from his first steps +to technical proficiency without wandering about through endless lanes +and avenues which lead to no particular end. I suppose that all American +teachers hear the same complaint that is heard by all European teachers +when any attempt is made to insist upon thorough practice and adequate +study from the _dilettante_. As soon as the teacher demands certain +indispensable technical studies, certain necessary investigations of the +harmonic, aesthetic or historical problems, which contribute so much to +the excellence of pianistic interpretations, he hears the following +complaint: "I don't want to be a composer" or "I don't want to be a +virtuoso--I only want to play just a little for my own amusement." The +teacher knows and appreciates the pupil's attitude exactly, and while he +realizes that his reasoning is altogether fatuous, it seems well-nigh +impossible to explain to the amateur that unless he does his work right +he will get very little real pleasure or amusement out of it. + +The whole sum and substance of the matter is that a certain amount of +technical, theoretical and historical knowledge must be acquired to make +the musician, before we can make a player. There is the distinction. +Teachers should never fail to remember that their first consideration +should be to make a musician. All unmusical playing is insufferable. No +amount of technical study will make a musician, and all technical study +which simply aims to make the fingers go faster, or play complicated +rhythms, is wasted unless there is the foundation and culture of the +real musician behind it. + +To the sincere student every piece presents technical problems peculiar +to itself. The main objection to all technical study is that unless the +pupil is vitally interested the work becomes monotonous. The student +should constantly strive to avoid monotony in practicing exercises. As +soon as the exercises become dull and uninteresting their value +immediately depreciates. The only way to avoid this is to seek variety. +As I have said in my _Methodik des Klavierspiels_: "The musical and +tonal monotony of technical exercises may be lessened in a measure by +progressive modulations, by various rhythmical alterations, and further +through frequent changes in contrary motion." Great stress should be +laid upon practice in contrary motion. The reason for this is obvious to +all students of harmony. When playing in contrary motion all unevenness, +all breaks in precision and all unbalanced conditions of touch become +much more evident to the ear than if the same exercises were played in +parallel motion. Another important reason for the helpfulness of playing +in contrary motion is not to be undervalued. It is that a kind of +physical 'sympathy' is developed between the fingers and the nerves +which operate them in the corresponding hands. For instance, it is much +easier to play with the fifth finger of one hand and the fifth finger of +the other hand than it is to play with the third finger of one hand and +the fifth finger of another." + + +WASTE IN UNIMPORTANT SUBJECTS + +There is a general impression among teachers to-day that much time might +be saved by a more careful selection of studies, and by a better +adaptation of the studies to particular pupils. For instance, Carl +Czerny wrote over one thousand opus numbers. He wrote some of the most +valuable studies ever written, but no one would think of demanding a +pupil to play all of the Czerny studies, any more than the student +should be compelled to play everything that Loeschhorn, Cramer and +Clementi ever wrote. Studies must be selected with great care and +adapted to particular cases, and if the young teacher feels himself +incapable of doing this, he should either use selections or collections +of studies edited by able authorities or he should place himself under +the advice of some mature and experienced teacher until the right +experience has been obtained. It would not be a bad plan to demand that +all young teachers be apprenticed to an older teacher until the right +amount of experience has been obtained. The completion of a course in +music does not imply that the student is able to teach. Teaching and the +matter of musical proficiency are two very different things. Many +conservatories now conduct classes for teachers, which are excellent in +their way. In the olden days a mechanic had to work side by side with +his master before he was considered proficient to do his work by +himself. How much more important is it that our educators should be +competently trained. They do not have to deal with machinery, but they +do have to deal with the most wonderful of all machines--the human +brain. + +Some studies in use by teachers are undeserving of their popularity, +according to my way of thinking. Some studies are altogether trivial and +quite dispensable. I have never held any particular fondness for Heller +for instance. His studies are tuneful, but they seem to me, in many +cases, weak imitations of the style of some masters such as Schumann, +Mendelssohn, etc., who may be studied with more profit. I believe that +the studies of Loeschhorn possess great pedagogical value. Loeschhorn +was a born teacher: he knew how to collect and present technical +difficulties in a manner designed to be of real assistance to the +student. The studies of Kullak are also extremely fine. + +This is a subject which is far more significant than it may at first +appear. Whatever the student may choose to study after he leaves the +teacher, his work while under the teacher's direction should be focused +upon just those pieces which will be of most value to him. The teacher +should see that the course he prescribes is unified. There should be no +waste material. Some teachers are inclined to teach pieces of a +worthless order to gain the fickle interest of some pupils. They feel +that it is better to teach an operatic arrangement, no matter how +superficial, and retain the interest of the pupil, than to insist upon +what they know is really best for the pupil, and run the risk of having +the pupil go to another teacher less conscientious about making +compromises of this sort. When the teacher has come to a position where +he is obliged to permit the pupil to select his own pieces or dictate +the kind of pieces he is to be taught in order to retain his interest, +the teacher will find that he has very little influence over the pupil. +Pupils who insist upon mapping out their own careers are always +stumbling-blocks. It is far better to make it very clear to the pupil +in the first place that interference of this kind is never desirable, +and that unless the pupil has implicit confidence in the teacher's +judgment it is better to discontinue. + + +BRAIN TECHNIC VERSUS FINGER TECHNIC + +Few pupils realize that hours and hours are wasted at the piano keyboard +doing those things which we are already able to do, and in the quest of +something which we already possess. When we come to think of it, every +one is born with a kind of finger dexterity. Any one can move the +fingers up and down with great rapidity; no study of the pianoforte +keyboard is necessary to do this. The savage in the African wilds is +gifted with that kind of dexterity, although he may never have seen a +pianoforte. Then why spend hours in practicing at the keyboard with the +view of doing something we can already do? It may come as a surprise to +many when I make the statement that they already possess a kind of +dexterity and velocity which they may not suspect. One does not have to +work for years to make the fingers go up and down quickly. It is also a +fact that a few lessons under a really good teacher and a few tickets +for high-class piano recitals will often give the feeling and "knack" of +producing a good touch, for which many strive in vain for years at the +keyboard. + +No, the technic which takes time is the technic of the brain, which +directs the fingers to the right place at the right time. This may be +made the greatest source of musical economy. If you want to save time in +your music study see that you comprehend your musical problems +thoroughly. You must see it right in your mind, you must hear it right, +you must feel it right. Before you place your fingers on the keyboard +you should have formed your ideal mental conception of the proper +rhythm, the proper tonal quality, the aesthetic values and the harmonic +content. These things can only be perfectly comprehended after study. +They do not come from strumming at the keyboard. This, after all, is the +greatest possible means for saving time in music study. + +A great deal might be said upon the subject of the teacher's part in +saving time. The good teacher is a keen critic. His experience and his +innate ability enable him to diagnose faults just as a trained medical +specialist can determine the cause of a disease with accuracy and +rapidity. Much depends upon the diagnosis. It is no saving to go to a +doctor who diagnoses your case as one of rheumatism and treats you for +rheumatic pains, whereas you are really suffering from neurasthenia. In +a similar manner, an unskilled and incompetent teacher may waste much +treasured time in treating you for technical and musical deficiencies +entirely different from those which you really suffer. Great care should +be taken in selecting a teacher for with the wrong teacher not only time +is wasted, but talent, energy, and sometimes that jewel in the crown of +success--"ambition." + + +A CASE IN POINT + +An illustration of one means of wasting time is well indicated in the +case of some pedagogs who hold to old ideas in piano-playing simply +because they are old. I believe in conservatism, but at the same time I +am opposed to conservatism which excludes all progressiveness. The world +is continually advancing, and we are continually finding out new things +as well as determining which of the older methods will prove the best in +the long run. All musical Europe has been upset during the last quarter +of the century over the vital subject of whether the pressure touch is +better than the angular blow touch. There was a time in the past when an +apparent effort was made to make everything pertaining to pianoforte +technic as stiff and inelastic as possible. The fingers were trained to +hop up and down like little hammers--the arm was held stiff and hard at +the side. In fact, it was not uncommon for some teachers to put a book +under the armpit and insist upon their pupils holding it there by +pressing against the body during the practice period. + +H. Ehrlich, who in his day was a widely recognized authority, wrote a +pamphlet to accompany his edition of the Tausig technical studies in +which this system is very clearly outlined. He asserts that Tausig +insisted upon it. To-day we witness a great revolution. The arms are +held freely and rigidity of all kind is avoided. It was found that the +entire system of touch was under a more delicate and sensitive control +when the pressure touch was employed than when the mechanical "hitting" +touch was used. It was also found that much of the time spent in +developing the hitting touch along mechanical lines was wasted, since +superior results could be achieved in a shorter time by means of +pressing and "kneading" the keys, rather than delivering blows to them. +The pressure touch seems to me very much freer and I am emphatically in +favor of it. The older method produced cramped unmusical playing and the +pupil was so restricted that he reminded one for all the world of the +new-fangled skirts ("hobble-skirts") which seem to give our ladies of +fashion so much difficulty just now. + +The American pupils who have come to Germany to study with me have been +for the most part exceedingly well trained. In America there are +innumerable excellent teachers. The American pupil is almost always very +industrious. His chief point of vantage is his ability to concentrate. +He does not dissipate his time or thought. In some instances he can only +remain in Europe for two years--sometimes less. He quite naturally feels +that a great deal must be done in those two years, and consequently he +works at white heat. This is not a disadvantage, for his mental powers +are intensified and he is faithful to his labor. + +The young women of America are for the most part very self-reliant. This +is also very much to their advantage. As a rule, they know how to take +care of themselves, and yet they have the courage to venture and ask +questions when questions should be asked. My residence in America has +brought me many good friends, and it is a pleasure to note the great +advance made in every way since my last visit here. I am particularly +anxious to have some of my later compositions become better known in +America, as I have great faith in the musical future of the country. I +wish that they might become familiar with such works as my _Fourth +Concerto_. I should deeply regret to think that Americans would judge my +work as a composer by my "Polish Dance" and some other lighter +compositions which are obviously inferior to my other works. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XVII + +XAVER SCHARWENKA + +1. Is any time spent in music study really wasted? + +2. How may the pupil's elementary work be made more secure? + +3. State the importance of ear-training. + +4. What additional musical studies should be included in the work of the +pupil? + +5. What should be the teacher's first consideration? + +6. Why must monotony be avoided in technical study? + +7. State the value of practice in contrary motion. + +8. May time be wasted with unprofitable studies? + +9. What is the difference between brain technic and finger technic? + +10. State how a revolution in methods of touch has come about. + + + + +ERNEST SCHELLING + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Ernest Schelling was born at Belvidere, New Jersey, 1875. His first +musical training was received from his father. At the age of four and +one-half years he made his debut at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. +At the age of seven he entered the Paris Conservatoire, with the famous +Chopin pupil, Georges Mathias, as his teacher. He remained with Mathias +for two years. However, he commenced giving concerts which took him to +France, England, and Austria when he was only eight years old. At ten he +was taken to Stuttgart and placed under the educational guidance of +Pruckner and the American teacher, Percy Goetschius, who attained wide +fame abroad. Shortly thereafter he was placed for a short time under the +instruction of Leschetizky, but this was interrupted by tours through +Russia and other countries. At twelve he was taken to Basle, +Switzerland, and Hans Huber undertook to continue his already much +varied training. Here his general education received the attention which +had been much neglected. At fifteen he went to study with Barth in +Berlin, but the strain of his previous work was so great that at +seventeen he was attacked with neuritis and abandoned the career of a +virtuoso. An accidental meeting with Paderewski led to an arrangement +whereby Paderewski became his teacher for three years during which time +Paderewski had no other pupils. Since then Schelling has made numerous +tours at home and abroad. + +[Illustration: ERNEST SCHELLING] + + + + +XX + +LEARNING A NEW PIECE + +ERNEST SCHELLING + + +PRELIMINARY STUDY + +In studying a new musical composition experience has revealed to me that +the student can save much time and get a better general idea of the +composition by reading it over several times before going to the +instrument. While this is difficult for very young pupils to do before +they have become accustomed to mentally interpreting the notes into +sounds without the assistance of the instrument, it is, nevertheless, of +advantage from the very start. It saves the pupil from much unprofitable +blundering. To take a piece right to the keyboard without any +preliminary consideration may perhaps be good practice for those who +would cultivate ready sight reading, but it should be remembered that +even the most apt sight readers will usually take the precaution of +looking a new piece through at least once to place themselves on guard +for the more difficult or more complicated passages. By forming the +habit of reading away from the piano the pupil soon becomes able to hear +the music without making the sounds at the keyboard and this leads to a +mental conception of the piece as a whole, which invariably produces +surprisingly good results. + + +THE TECHNICAL DEMANDS OF THE PIECE + +"The next consideration should be the execution of the right notes. A +careless prima-vista reading often leads the pupil to play notes quite +different from those actually in the piece. It is astonishing how often +some pupils are deceived in this matter. Until you have insured absolute +accuracy in the matter of the notes you are not in condition to regard +the other details. The failure to repeat an accidental chromatic +alteration in the same bar, the neglect of a tie, or an enharmonic +interval with a tie are all common faults which mark careless +performances. After the piece has been read as a whole and you have +determined upon the notes so that there is no opportunity for inaccuracy +from that source you will find that the best way to proceed is to take a +very small passage and study that passage first. For the inexperienced +student I should suggest two measures or a phrase of similar length. Do +not leave these two measures until you are convinced that you have +mastered them. This will take a great amount of concentration. Many +pupils fail because they underestimate the amount of concentration +required. They expect results to come without effort and are invariably +disappointed. After the first two measures have been mastered take the +next two measures and learn these thoroughly. Then go back and learn +measures two and three so that there may be no possibility of a break or +interruption between them. Next proceed in the same way with the +following four measures and do not stop until you have completed the +piece. + +This kind of study may take more time than the methods to which you have +become accustomed, but it is by all means the most thorough and the most +satisfactory. I found it indispensable in the preparation of pieces for +public performances. It demands the closest kind of study, and this +leads to artistic results and a higher perception of the musical values +of the composition being studied. Take for instance the C Major Fantasie +of Schumann, one of the most beautiful and yet one of the most difficult +of all compositions to interpret properly. At first the whole work seems +disunited, and if studied carelessly the necessary unity which should +mark this work can never be secured. But, if studied with minute regard +for details after the manner in which I have suggested the whole +composition becomes wonderfully compact and every part is linked to the +other parts so that a beautiful unity must result. + + +FORMAL DIVISIONS + +"Many works have formal divisions, such as those of the sonata, the +suite, etc. Even the Liszt 'Rhapsodies' have movements of marked +differences in tempo and style. Here the secret is to study each +division in its relation to the whole. There must be an internal harmony +between all the parts. Otherwise the interpretation will mar the great +masterpiece. The difficulty is to find the bearing of one movement upon +another. Even the themes of subjects of the conventional sonata have a +definite interrelation. How to interpret these themes and yet at the +same time produce contrast and unity is difficult. It is this difference +of interpretation that adds charm to the piano recitals of different +virtuosos. There is no one right way and no one best way, but rather an +indefinite margin for personal opinion and the exhibition of artistic +taste. If there was one best way, there are now machines which could +record that way and there the whole matter would end. But we want to +hear all the ways and consequently we go to the recitals of different +pianists. How can I express more emphatically the necessity for the +pianist being a man of culture, artistic sensibilities and of creative +tendencies? The student must be taught to think about his +interpretations and if this point is missed and he is permitted to give +conventional, uninspired performances he need never hope to play +artistically. + + +THE TOUCH REQUIRED + +"In studying a new piece, as soon as the style of the piece has been +determined and the accuracy of the notes secured, the pupil should +consider the all-important matter to touch. He should have been +previously instructed in the principles of the different kinds of touch +used in pianoforte playing. I am a firm believer in associating the +appropriate kind of touch with the passage studied from the very +beginning. If the passage calls for a staccato touch do not waste your +time as many do by practicing it legato. Again, in a cantabile passage +do not make the mistake of using a touch that would produce the wrong +quality of tone. The wrists at all times should be in the most supple +possible condition. There should never be any constraint at that point. +When I resumed my musical studies with Paderewski after a lapse of +several years he laid greatest emphasis upon this point. I feel that the +most valuable years for the development of touch and tone are those +which bind the natural facility of the child hand with the acquired +agility of the adult. To my great misfortune I was not able to practice +between the ages of twelve and eighteen. This was due to excessive study +and extensive concert tours as a prodigy. These wrecked my health and it +was only by the hardest kind of practice in after life that I was able +to regain the natural facility that had marked my playing in childhood. +In fact I owe everything to the kind persistence and wonderful +inspiration of M. Paderewski. + + +THE RIGHT TEMPO + +"The right tempo is a very important matter for the student. First of +all, he must be absolutely positive that his time is correct. There is +nothing so barbarous in all piano-playing as a bad conception of time. +Even the inexperienced and unmusical listener detects bad time. The +student should consider this matter one of greatest importance and +demand perfect time from himself. With some students this can only be +cultivated after much painful effort. The metronome is of assistance, as +is counting, but these are not enough. The pupil must create a sense of +time, he must have a sort of internal metronome which he must feel +throbbing within all the time. + +"Always begin your practice slowly and gradually advance the tempo. The +worst possible thing is to start practicing too fast. It invariably +leads to bad results and to lengthy delays. The right tempo will come +with time and you must have patience until you can develop it. In the +matter of 'tempo rubato' passages, which always invite disaster upon the +part of the student, the general idea is that the right hand must be out +of time with the left. This is not always the case, as they sometimes +play in unison. The word simply implies 'robbing the time,' but it is +robbed after the same manner in which one 'robs Peter to pay Paul,' that +is, a ritard in one part of the measure must be compensated for by an +acceleration in another part of the measure. If the right hand is to +play at variance with the left hand the latter remains as a kind of +anchor upon which the tempo of the entire measure must depend. Chopin +called the left hand the _chef d'orchestre_ and a very good appellation +this is. Take, for instance, his _B flat minor Prelude_. In the latter +part of this wonderful composition the regular rhythmic repetition in +octaves in the bass makes a rhythmic foundation which the most erratic +and nervous right hand cannot shake. + + +RHYTHMIC PECULIARITIES + +"Rhythm is the basis of everything. Even the silent mountain boulders +are but the monuments of some terrible rhythmic convulsion of the earth +in past ages. There is a rhythm in the humming bird and there is a +rhythm in the movements of a giant locomotive. We are all rhythmic in +our speech, our walk, and in our life more or less. How important then +is the study of the rhythmic peculiarities of the new piece. Every +contributing accent which gives motion and characteristic swing to the +piece must be carefully studied. It is rhythm which sways the audience. +Some performers are so gifted with the ability to invest their +interpretations with a rhythmic charm that they seem to fairly +invigorate their audiences with the spirit of motion. I cannot conceive +of a really great artist without this sense of rhythm. + + +THE COMPOSER'S INSPIRATION + +"Personally I believe in 'pure music,' that is music in the field of +pianoforte composition that is sufficient unto itself and which does not +require any of the other arts to enhance its beauty. However, in the +cases of some of our modern composers who have professedly drawn their +musical inspiration from tales, great pictures or from nature, I can see +the desirability of investigating these sources in order to come closer +to the composer's idea. Some of the works of Debussy demand this. Let me +play you his '_Night in Granada_,' for instance. The work is most subtle +and requires an appreciation of Oriental life, and is indeed a kind of +tonal dream picture of the old fortified palace of Moorish Spain. I feel +that in cases of this kind it helps the performer to have in mind the +composer's conception and in playing this piece in public I always +follow this plan. + + +STUDYING THE PHRASING + +"Each phrase in a piece requires separate study. I believe that the +student should leave nothing undone to learn how to phrase or rather to +analyze a piece so that all its constituent phrases become clear to him. +Each phrase must be studied with the same deference to detail that the +singer would give to an individual phrase. This is by no means an easy +matter. More important still is the interrelation of phrases. Every note +in a work of musical art bears a certain relation to every other note. +So it is with the phrases. Each phrase must be played with reference to +the work as a whole or more particularly to the movement of which it is +a part. + + +MARKING THE FINGERING + +"It seems hardly necessary to say anything about the fingering when so +much attention is being given to the matter by the best teachers of the +country, but certainly one of the most essential considerations in the +study of a new piece is the study of the fingering. A detailed study of +this should be made and it should be clearly understood that the +fingering should be adapted to fit the hand of the player. It is by no +means necessary to accept the fingering given in the book as 'gospel.' +The wise student will try many fingerings before deciding upon the one +that suits him best. Students who go to these pains are the ones who +invariably succeed. Those who take anything that is presented to them +without considering its advisability rarely attain lofty musical +heights. + +"When a fingering has once been determined upon it should never be +changed. To change a fingering frequently means to waste many hours of +practice. This may be considered a mechanical method but it is the +method invariably employed by successful artists. Why? Simply because +one fingering closely adhered to establishes finger habits which give +freedom and certainty and permits the player to give more consideration +to the other details of artistic interpretation. + +"I ofttimes find it expedient to adapt a more difficult fingering of +some given passage for the reason that the difficult fingering +frequently leads to a better interpretation of the composer's meaning. I +know of innumerable passages in the piano classics which illustrate this +point. Moreover a fingering that seems difficult at first is often more +simple than the conventional or arbitrary fingering employed by the +student, after the student has given sufficient time to the new +fingering. The required accent often obliges the performer to employ a +different fingering. The stronger fingers are naturally better adapted +to the stronger accents. Otherwise it is best to use a similar fingering +for similar passages. + + +MEMORIZING + +"I should like to add a few words with regard to committing pieces to +memory. There are three ways. 1, By sight; that is, seeing the notes in +your mind's eye; 2, memorizing by 'ear,' the way which comes to one most +naturally; 3, memorizing by the fingers, that is training the fingers to +do their duty no matter what happens. Before performing in public the +student should have memorized the composition in all of these ways. Only +thus can he be absolutely sure of himself. If one way fails him the +other method comes to his rescue. + +"After careful attention has been given to the various points of which I +have spoken and the details of the composition satisfactorily worked out +the student should practice with a view to learning the piece as a +whole. Nothing is so distressing to the musician as a piece which does +not seem to have coherence and unity. It should be regarded aurally as +the artist regards his work visually. The painter stands off at some +distance to look at his work in order to see whether all parts of his +painting harmonize. The pianist must do much the same thing. He must +listen to his work time and time again and if it does not seem to 'hang +together' he must unify all the parts until he can give a real +interpretation instead of a collection of disjointed sections. This +demands grasp, insight and talent, three qualifications without which +the pianist cannot hope for large success." + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XVIII + +ERNEST SCHELLING + +1. What should be the preliminary study of a new composition? + +2. How should the mechanical difficulties of the piece be studied? + +3. How may one find the bearing of one movement upon another? + +4. State the importance of deciding upon the appropriate touch. + +5. How may the right tempo be established? + +6. What did Chopin call the left hand? + +7. What is it in playing that sways the audience? + +8. How should the fingering of a new piece be studied? + +9. Why is a more difficult fingering sometimes preferable? + +10. Give a practical plan for memorizing. + + + + +SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Sigismund Stojowski was born at Strelce, Poland, May 2, 1870. He studied +piano with L. Zelenski at Cracow and with Diemer at the Paris +Conservatoire. At the same institution he studied composition with Leo +Delibes. His talent both as a composer and as a pianist was considered +extraordinary at that time and he was successful in carrying off two +first prizes, one for piano and one for composition (1889). At that time +Stojowski's great fellow countryman, Paderewski, assumed the educational +supervision of his career and became his teacher in person. + +Stojowski's orchestral compositions attracted wide attention in Paris +and he met with pronounced success as a virtuoso. Mr. Stojowski came to +America in 1906 and he entered immediately into the musical life of the +country, taking foremost rank as a composer, pianist and teacher. Aside +from his musical talent he is a remarkable linguist and speaks many +languages fluently. His articles written in English, for instance, are +unusually graphic and expressive. Once when complimented upon his +linguistic ability he remarked "We Poles are given the credit of being +natural linguists because we take the trouble to learn many languages +thoroughly in our youth." In 1913 Mr. Stojowski made a highly successful +tour abroad, his compositions meeting with wide favor. + +[Illustration: S. STOJOWSKI] + + + + +XXI + +WHAT INTERPRETATION REALLY IS + +SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI + + +THE COMPOSER'S LIMITATIONS IN HIS MEANS OF EXPRESSION + +It is difficult for some people who are not versed in the intricate +mysteries of the art of music to realize how limited are the means +afforded the composer for communicating to the interpreter some slight +indication of the ideal he had in mind when writing the composition. It +may be said that, while every great composer feels almost God-like at +the moment of creation, the merest fraction of the myriad beauties he +has in mind ever reach human ears. The very signs with which the +composer is provided to help him put his thoughts down on paper are in +themselves inadequate to serve as a means of recording more than a +shadow of his masterpiece as it was originally conceived. Of course, we +are speaking now in a large sense--we are imagining that the composer is +a Beethoven with an immortal message to convey to posterity. Of all +composers, Beethoven was perhaps the one to employ the most perfect +means of expression. His works represent a completeness, a poise and a +masterly finish which will serve as a model for all time to come. It +must also be noted that few composers have employed more accurate marks +of expression--such as time marks, dynamic marks, etc. + +In all these things Beethoven was obliged to adhere to the conventions +adopted by others for this purpose of attempting to make the composer's +meaning clearer to other minds. These conventions, like all conventions, +are partly insufficient to convey the full idea of the composer, and +partly arbitrary, in that they do not give the interpreter adequate +latitude to introduce his own ideas in expression. The student should +seek to break the veil of conventions provided by notation and seek a +clearer insight into the composer's individuality as expressed in his +compositions. From this point of view the so-called subjective +interpretation seems the only legitimate one. In fact, the ones who +pretend to be objective in the sense of being literal and playing +strictly according to the marks of expression and admitting little +elasticity in the interpretation of these are also, as Rubinstein +pointed out, subjective at heart. This may be more concisely expressed +thus: Since all things of permanent value in music have proceeded from a +fervid artistic imagination, they should be interpreted with the +continual employment of the performer's imagination. + +On the other hand, the subjective method, right as it is in principle, +can become, of course, according to the Italian saying, _Traduttore, +traditore_--that is, an absolute treachery to the composer's ideal, if +the performer's understanding and execution of the composition is not +based upon long and careful investigation of all the fundamental laws +and associated branches of musical study, which are designed to give him +a basis for forming his own opinions upon the best method of +interpreting the composition. Inadequate training in this respect is the +Chinese Wall which surrounds the composer's hidden meaning. This wall +must be torn down, brick by brick, stone by stone, in a manner which we +would call "analytical practice." It is the only way in which the +student may gain entrance to the sacred city of the elect, to whom the +ideal of the composer has been revealed. + + +THE INTERPRETER MUST COOPERATE WITH THE COMPOSER + +In a certain sense the interpreter is a cooperator with the composer, +or, more definitely expressed, he is the "continuer" along the line of +the musical thought and its adequate expression. Music, of all arts, is +the unfinished art. When a great painting is completed, time, and time +only, will make the changes in its surface. When the great masterpieces +left the brushes of Raphael, Rubens, Holbein, Correggio or Van Dyck they +were finished works of art. When Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms put +their thoughts down upon paper they left a record in ink and paper which +must be born again every time it is brought to the minds of men. This +rebirth is the very essence of all that is best in interpretative skill. +New life goes into the composition at the very moment it passes through +the soul of the master performer. It is here that he should realize the +great truth that in music, more than in any other art, "the letter kills +and the spirit vivifies." The interpreter must master the "letter" and +seek to give "rebirth" to the spirit. If he can do this he will attain +the greatest in interpretative ability. + +From the literal or objective standpoint, then, an insight is gained +into the nature of the composer's masterpiece,--by close and careful +study of the work itself, by gaining a knowledge of the musical laws +underlying the structure and composition of a work of its kind as well +as the necessary keyboard technic to give expression to the work,--but +the veil is torn from the composer's hidden meaning, only becoming +intimate with his creative personality as a master, by studying his life +environments, by investigating the historical background of the period +in which he worked, by learning of his joys and his sufferings, by +cultivating a deep and heartfelt sympathy for his ideals and by the +scrupulous and constant revision of one's own ideals and conceptions of +the standards by which his masterpieces should be judged. + + +STUDYING THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND + +To exemplify what I mean, I could, for instance, refer to Paderewski's +interpretations of Liszt and Chopin. During the time I was associated +with the master pianist as a pupil I had abundant opportunities to make +notes upon the very individual, as well as the highly artistically +differentiated expressions of his musical judgment. It was interesting +to observe that he played the Rhapsodies with various extensions and +modifications, the result of which is the glorification of Liszt's own +spirit. On the contrary, in order to preserve Chopin's spirit, the +master would always repudiate any changes, like those of Tausig, for +instance, by which some virtuosos pretend to "emphasize" or "modernize" +Chopin's personal and perfect pianism. Differences in treatment are the +outcome of deep insight as well as the study of the time and conditions +under which the work was produced. + +The study of musical history reveals many very significant things which +have a direct bearing not only upon the interpretation of the performer, +but upon the degree of appreciation with which the listener is able to +enjoy a musical work. It was for this reason that I prefaced the first +two recitals of my course of historical recitals given at Mendelssohn +Hall, New York, during the past season, with a lecture upon the +historical conditions which surrounded the masters at the time the +compositions were composed. + + +THE INADEQUACY OF MUSICAL SIGNS + +I have already referred to the inadequacy of musical signs. Even the +mechanical guide, the metronome, is not always to be depended upon to +give the exact tempo the composer had in mind. Let me cite a little +instance from the biography of Ries, the friend of Beethoven. Ries was +preparing to conduct a performance of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony. He +requested Beethoven to make notes upon paper regarding the metronomic +marks of speed at which the composition should be played. The metronome +at that time was a comparatively new instrument. Maelzel, its inventor +(or, rather, its improver, since the principle of the metronome was of +Dutch origin), was a friend of Beethoven. At times they were on the best +of terms, and at other times they were literally "at swords' points." +Nevertheless, Maelzel, who had a strong personality, succeeded in +inducing Beethoven to put metronomic markings upon several of his +compositions. Naturally, the metronome was immediately accorded an +important place in the musical world even at that day. Ries was +consequently very anxious to give the Choral Symphony according to +Beethoven's own ideas. Beethoven had complied with the publisher's +desire and sent a slip of paper with the tempi marked metronomically. +This slip was lost. Ries wrote to Beethoven for a duplicate. Beethoven +sent another. Later the lost slip was found, and, upon comparing it with +the second slip, it was found that Beethoven had made an entirely +different estimate of the tempi at which he desired the Symphony to be +played. + +Even with the most elaborate and complete marks of expression, such as +those, for instance, employed by Beethoven and by Wagner, the composer +is confronted with his great poverty of resources to present his views +to the mind of the interpreter. Extensive as some of the modern +dictionaries of musical terminology seem to be, they are wholly +inadequate from the standpoint of a complete vocabulary to give full +expression to the artist's imagination. It also gives full scope to an +infinite variety of error in the matter of the shades or degrees of +dynamic force at which the conventional marks may be rendered. + +One might venture to remark that composers are the most keen, most +conscious judges of their own works, or, rather, of the garments which +fit them best. There is in all composition a divine part and also a +conscious part. The divine part is the inspiration. The conscious part +has to do with dressing the inspiration in its most appropriate +harmonic, polyphonic, and rhythmic garments. These garments are the +raiment in which the inspiration will be viewed by future generations. +It is often by these garments that they will be judged. If the garments +are awkward, inappropriate and ill-fitting, a beautiful interpretation +of the composer's ideal will be impossible. Nevertheless, it is the +performer's duty in each case to try to see through even unbecoming +garments and divine the composer's thought, according to the +interpreter's best understanding. + + +LEARNING THE MUSICAL LANGUAGE + +Where interpretation is concerned, one is too often inclined to forget +that while there is a higher part, the secrets of which are accessible +only to the elect, there is also an elementary part which involves the +knowledge of musical grammar, and beyond that the correct feeling of +musical declamation--since music, after all, is a language which is at +all times perfectly teachable, and which should be most carefully and +systematically taught. I consider the book of Mathis Lussy, _Rhythm and +Musical Expression_, of great value to the student in search of truths +pertaining to intelligent interpretation. Lussy was a Swiss who was born +in the early part of the last century. He went to Paris to study +medicine, but, having had a musical training in the country of his +birth, he became a good pianoforte teacher and an excellent writer upon +musical subjects. While teaching in a young ladies' school, he was +confronted with the great paucity of real knowledge of the rudiments of +expression, and he accordingly prepared a book upon the subject which +has since been translated into several languages. This book is most +helpful, and I advocate its use frequently. It should be in the hands of +every conscientious piano student. + + +MISTAKES PECULIAR TO THE PIANOFORTE PLAYER + +The nature of the keyboard of the piano, and the ease with which certain +things are accomplished, make it possible for the performer to make +certain errors which the construction of other instruments would +prevent. The pianist is, for instance, entirely unlike the violinist, +who has to locate his keyboard every time he takes up his instrument, +and, moreover, locate it by a highly trained sense of position. In a +certain way I sometimes feel somewhat ashamed for the pianist profession +when I hear players, even those with manifest technical proficiency, +commit flagrant mistakes against elementary rules of accentuation and +phrasing, such as, for instance, an average violinist acquainted with +good bowing is accordingly prevented from making upon his instrument. + +The means of discovering the composer's hidden meaning are, in fact, so +numerous that the conscientious interpreter must keep upon continuous +voyages of exploration. There are many easily recognizable paths leading +to the promised land--one is the path of harmony, without an +understanding of which the would-be performer can never reach his goal; +another is musical history; others are the studies of phrasing, rhythm, +accentuation, pedaling, etc., etc., _ad infinitum_. To fail to traverse +any one of these roads will result in endless exasperation. Find your +guide, press on without thinking of failure, and the way to success may +be found before you know it. + + +QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION +AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING + +SERIES XIX + +SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI + +1. What composer preserved the most perfect balance between artistic +conception and expression? + +2. How may the student break the veil of conventions? + +3. What fundamental laws should underlie interpretation? + +4. How may master works be born again? + +5. Is one ever warranted in altering a masterpiece? + +6. Tell of Beethoven's attitude toward the metronome. + +7. How may errors arise in the use of the terms of expression? + +8. How may one be helped in learning the musical language? + +9. State some mistakes peculiar to the pianoforte. + +10. What voyages of exploration must the student make? + + + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's note: | + | | + | Page 8: Torquamada _sic_ | + | Page 153: subtilities _sic_ | + | Page 159: regretable amended to regrettable | + | Page 187: dumfounded _sic_ | + | Page 251: "polish Prussia" amended to "Polish Prussia" | + | Page 257: Klaverspiels amended to Klavierspiels | + | Page 262: pedagogs _sic_ | + | | + | Hyphenation has generally been standardized. However, when | + | a word appears hyphenated and unhyphenated an equal number | + | of times, both versions have been retained | + | (offhand/off-hand). | + | | + | "Etude/Etude" and "etude/etude" are used interchangeably. | + | This has been retained. | + | | + | Discrepancies between the Table of Contents and individual | + | chapter headings have been retained. Page references have | + | been corrected. | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT PIANISTS ON PIANO PLAYING*** + + +******* This file should be named 28026.txt or 28026.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/0/2/28026 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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