Practising the Piano (by Frank Marrick) (1958)

This book

is

the fruit of a lifetime of ex-

perience as a teacher and it has grown out of the advice which Mr. Merrick has been in the habit of giving to his pupils. Although no text-book can ever be a sub-

presence of an inspiring

stitute for the

book is distincThose who have learned

teacher, this particular tively personal.

from Frank Merrick

will almost hear his

voice beside them.

And

handed down

from teacher to pupil

orally

as far as advice

is of excellent pedigree. For Leschetizky, Merrick's master, learnt from Czerny, who in turn learnt from

goes, the advice

Beethoven.

Some

Press opinions of this book

"A really personal and valuable contribution to the art of piano playing. No person studying to be a concert pianist or well-equipped teacher can afford not to read and ponder over it, nor ignore its advice., which stems from an alert and well-furnished mind." Royal College of

'

A.

work which e:; i r i ues profound underof a traitless art.'* Monthly

fianciirg

Mu$ id :

Record

"Uith such

a

book

as (this) to inspire us.

mechanical dradger/ :an almost be minated, and practice

made as

eli-

interesting

ind entertaining as a game." HAROLD

RUTLAND, Musical Times "Written Ti'ims

wi:h

clarity

and h-;n:aiv"

Lhsrary Supplement

1 "Highly iiarged with precious. tounse ." FELIX AH..AHAMIAN, Sunday Times

Published in t * J.&.a.

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, New

INC.

180 Varick Street Yen, New York 10014

1148005984182

786.3

M56p Kerrick Practising the piano

67-11865

PRACTISING THE PIANO

PRACTISING THE PIANO FRANK MERRICK F.R.C.M.

LONDON BARRIE AND ROCKLIFF

FRANK 3MERRICK

1958

by RocklifF Publishing Corporation Revised edition published 1960 by Barrie and RocklifF (Barrie Books Ltd.) 2 Clement's Inn, Strand, London WGa

First published

3rd Impression 1965

Printed in Great Britain by <2f Son Ltd, Norwich 1O577/65

Fletcher

1

958

TO ALL MY PUPILS PAST AND PRESENT

FROM WHOM

I

MAY WELL HAVE LEARNT

MORE THAN THEY CAN HAVE LEARNT FROM ME

KANSAS CiTY

P.)

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Contents Author's Preface

..... ....

1

Delayed Continuity

2

Singing and Conducting

3

Chords

Some Useful Progressions

I

:

II

4

Ways

Pedalling:

II General .

.

27

.

.

3

7

Double Thirds

8

the Keys Practising on the Surface of

9

The Postman's Knock

Whole

.... .... .

11

Octaves

12

Difficult Passages Simplified Versions of

13

Practising with

14

Fugal Study

15

Looseness at the Shoulder

1

8

.

43

45 47 51

.

.

Time

Hand

Beauty of Tone

.

...

One Finger .

Gradations of

Preparing of

1

35

Practising in Solid Chords

17

17

.21

.

On

6

14 .

.

10

1

10

.

6

as a

7

.

Finger Passages

Works

.

i

.

5

Playing

.

of Practising the Chords

Preparatory Exercises

I

.

ix

Positions

.

.

.

.

55

60

'63 .68

...

72

76 80

Practising the Piano

and Rotary Movements of the Forearm

19

Trills

20

Sight- Reading

21

Miscellaneous

22

Bodily Stillness

23

Athletic

24

Dramatic Significance

25

Memory

26

Conclusion

Index

Form

.

.

.

.

83

.88 .92

......98 ...... .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

96

.102 105

.

.

.

.

.

vin

.

.

.

.

.

.

.109 .113

Author's Preface WHEN

I started teaching in an official capacity, which was Royal Manchester College of Music in 1911, I was somewhat haunted by an idea that a teacher should try to tell each pupil different things, since no two people are alike and there seemed a danger of handing out to one and all an undesirably rigid succession of statements too like the set

at the

speeches of some cathedral vergers. As the years rolled on, however, an increasing number of precepts seemed necessary for nearly all the pupils depending on my help, and what

had to be offered to

this majority

has largely been incorpor-

ated here.

may have been in the 'twenties that an acute observer me "You know, there is such a lot of ritual in your practising 1" The remark startled me, but led to a great deal It

said to

:

of meditation on the point and an ever-growing sense that the assertion was true. Whether, then, the ritual could be

which difficult pieces or passages or whether varied devices were lumped these may undergo, in ironical together disparagement by alluding to them as a called a series of processes

advocacy of them became increasingly convinced. So as much ritual or as many processes as could be intelligibly recommended were embodied in the appropriate chapters of this book. The order of the chapters may appear obscure in purpose. One method of pianoforte study may be for you to build up technical efficiency for a number of years and then consider yourself ready to superimpose the graces of interpretation ; at the other extreme you can develop your knowledge of

bag of

tricks,

interpretation

my

and musicianship during those IX

first

years and


then, realising what is wanted, start acquiring the -necessary technique to get it. In order to avoid either of these extremes,

the chapters are arranged so as to alternate as far as is convenient between the needs of musical enlightenment and

purely technical considerations.

Delayed Continuity LESCHETIZKY

said in one of the last lessons I had with "I advise you very often to stop and listen when you are practising and then you will find out a great deal for yourself." I have never ceased to follow this advice received over fifty years ago. The term "stopping practice" arose when it came to imparting the idea to others, but "delayed

him

:

continuity" seems to add an explanatory note. Some music is very easy to play phrase 1 by phrase with

pauses in between (Ex. Ex J. Schubert: Moment

******* ,

E r

I

i)

:

musical, op.94,no.6

rHr

^

m

*

r

P^Tl

r |

ir

^ ^ n ig ?

jj

J

if

_

r Ir

fa

T

fa^Tr

IT' E

T

P*E

If the pauses are so long that each phrase is mentally or actually sung a tempo (not flashed through in a second)

played, the player will benefit by this forethought and often excel previous efforts on the spot. If each phrase is also followed by a further pause for reflection and self-

before

it is

criticism the successful playings can be noted as worthy of and the unsuccessful as models of what to avoid.

retention

The

threefold ritual can be abbreviated into three verbs, "plan, play, judge", and is one-fifth of the way to a favourite

saying of Leschetizky : "Think ten times and play once." If the general underlying idea is persistently followed day by use of day, month by month and year by year, the effectual 1 Perhaps "phrase" should often be "melodic unit" in this chapter, but missible in the interests of simplicity to adhere to the one word.

it

seems per-


grow and result in increasingly exacting ideals coupled with more confidence and security in carrying them out. Remember that the pause must always be at least as long one's Interpretative will-power will constantly

as the phrase to come. lenth of pauses for Ex. Ex.2.

The i

following shows the

(Ex, 2)

&

:

Think

PUy

ThlBk

minimum

Play

Thmk

Play

m This leaves no extra time for the thinking

is

criticising

your efforts and

a really expressive mental rehearsal of

if

what

over of the mere (rather than an apathetic conning a add to breathing space to the notes) it will be preferable minimum pause. When time is also taken for self-criticism,

is

to

come

sorts of practical questions like "Did the fingering, pedala recognisable copy of that ling, etc., all conduce to give all

me

mental rehearsal ?" can be seriously faced. Sometimes the desire to try the phrase over again is irresistible, but think it through again first. Do not play twice on one mental rehearsal if you can withstand the violent temptation to do so which comes from an over-eager a hockey player but a golfer. When spirit* In this emulate not the latter misses the ball he repeats a very solemn and impressive ceremony known as "addressing the ball" before carrying out a second attempt.

What

about pauses that have no rests between them? Well, to use the ritual in such places is an art that must be acquired (Ex. 30 and b} :

Ex.

3a.Chopm Study, op. 10, no. 3 :

Lento

m*

non tropfo

Delayed Continuity This art involves thinking back (judging) and forward (planing) while sounds are being held on. That, however, will prove less difficult than might have been supposed, and when there is no reason for such a long pause that the sounds die away completely it is an advantage that the new phrase to be played is legato from the former phrase with its pause, delayed continuity thus becoming an acoustical fact. Indeed, when the sound has completely died away, it is often worth while to repeat the pause notes and let the new phrase flow out from them instead of beginning from silence.

Reviewing what has been proposed,

it is

seen that this

method of work

gives each phrase the force of a separate quotation. Now whereas a phrase that does not end staccato sounds as if it had stopped by accident when the time values of the notes are literally observed (Ex. 4) :

Ex.4. Mendelssohn: Song without words, op.!9,no.l ^ Andante conmot(L_

r when the

last

r

notes are held (Ex. 5)

:

Ex.5,

the pause sounds intentional, as though one wishes the listener to ponder on the special beauty of that separate phrase.

In stopping-practice, therefore, end with a staccato anyhow (Ex. 6) :

when

the phrase does so

Ex. 6. Beethoven : Sonata, op. 27, no. 2 Allegretto

and with

a rest where there is one (Ex. i), but otherwise with the sounds prolonged as in Ex. 3 and Ex, $. Sometimes a


phrase ends staccato in one voice and tenuto in another

(Ex.7): Ex.7. Beethoven: Sonata, op. 27, no. 2

and

in such cases the tenuto can

be held right through the

pause (if does not die away too soon) so that the new phrase joins on in due course to the old in one or more voices. enjoy in all this the combined advantages of continuity it

We

and interruption at the same time, and although objectors may claim that you cannot eat your cake and have it, there are occasions on which this miracle does seem to take place. In some pieces stopping-places are not too easy to find. Ask yourself whether the following pauses are rightly placed (Ex. 8)

:

Ex. 8. Bach: French Suite ,

in

G

Allemande

moment in one voice in be bad another. But may provisional experimental stops lead to a lot of clarity of mind about the phrasing some are so unacceptable that one would never repeat them, others so inevitably satisfying that it is difficult even to try an alternative afterwards. When there seem to be several plausible alternatives, try to hold them in your memory for possible future use. It can be delightful to change the phrasing when passages have to be repeated and to play differently on In such a piece as this a good stopping

Delayed Continuity

though it is unconvincing not to mean the one phrasing way or the other at the actual moment of any

different days,

given performance,

The more

clearly the method of stopping-practice is the will it be to use it for purely technical as easier grasped, well as interpretative purposes. When we do so, the pauses enable us to rehearse the execution of what is coming in our

A

imagination, striking expression for this, even if it does not find universal favour on our side of the Atlantic, is

When we dream

"mentalising our technique".

it all

seems

to be reality, and this vividness should be sought when we practise in our minds. It is strictly true that we can physi-

perform any piece of technical execution which we can really imagine at the correct pace, for anything we cannot perform will have lacked either vividness or the necessary pace or some other feature in the mental rehearsal, and if we can find where the discrepancy lies our task may be cally

greatly simplified.

Technical stopping-practice should often be split up into shorter fragments than phrases. Here we have pauses at regular intervals (Ex. 9)

:

Ex, 9. Brahms : Variations on a theme of Handel, op. 24

and here

at irregular (Ex. 10)

:

Ex.10. Brahms : Variations on a theme of Handel, op.24

In order to achieve delayed continuity in the physical execution of these examples we can pause with our fingers


touching the keys they have just released or the keys they will next be required to depress. To move to the latter will be a first step in the welding together of those links in the chain that are now being separately forged or tested. When the

pauses are long and profitably given up to effective planning and the tempo very quick in the actual playing, we combine the muscular development and high spirits of speed with the safety and confidence of slow practice in a way that tends to eliminate a great deal of profitless drudgery. Some slow pracbut it should be often supplemented and

tice is unavoidable,

sometimes superseded by of quick practice.

this

"look before you leap" kind

Singing and Conducting I N the previous chapter the ritual of "plan, play, judge" was advocated. "Plan" primarily meant "think" or "sing in your head before-hand". An essential object of this is to form and strengthen the habit of always singing in your head while you are playing. Leschetizky, who loved pithy over-statements, said "If you can tell when someone is playing that he is singing the music in his mind as he plays it, it is a good performance, and if you cannot, it is a bad performance." This would hardly be an over-statement if interpretative insight were presupposed. To sing out loud fervently and often is therefore to be preached from the house-tops, even if one's vocal efforts are raucous and out of tune. The singing should sometimes be :

when you

are playing but oftener when you are not playing. while Singing you play will help you to infuse more fervour into the expression as when an eager young pupil once asked me what she could do with her piece to "warmen it

up". But this pro has two cons.

drowns some of the actual tonal

One

is

that your voice

effects so that the result is

The other is that you may incur the habit when you are playing to others. I have known several cases where this habit seemed incurable. With partly conjectural.

of audibly singing

most pros and cons, however, to recognise what they are is an important forward step in helping us to achieve the pros and evade the cons.


As regards singing before you play, it is of enormous influence in teaching you how your melodies should be declaimed (a word of which Beethoven was fond in this conand of further influence in focusing your will-power to carry out what your voice has just taught you. Your voice not only helps you to decide which notes should be loud and soft but how loud and soft, and because this enlightenment is from within it will be natural and sincere. Whenever you text),

are puzzled about melodic tone gradation, let singing be your final court of appeal. Even if you are puzzled about the length of sounds, apply the same test. In Bach we are often faced with the problem of which notes to join and which to detach. Take this subject (Ex. i la and F) :

Ex .Ha. Bach: Concerto

in

D minor

The slurs and dots in Ex. na and b of many possible alternatives. You

only give us two out could argue at great length and still feel uncertain, but every time you sing the tune you will get nearer to a solution of the problem that

your mind, including the tricky of short how any detached notes should be. question to allied Closely singing is the conducting of imagined is slower to wax to maturity, but the more It performance.

will bring conviction to

we sing and the more reality there is in our musical thinking, more relevance and potency will our conducting gain. It can be applied to single phrases, or lengthened at will to entire movements (or even works) and it can alternate with playing like "singing before you play". If you conduct a phrase it is easier than ever to know where and how the the

climax

lies

and

to apportion the intensity of the various

stresses.

A

few hints about conducting (self-evident to the experienced) are generally needed by the inexperienced for 8

Singing and Conducting

guidance and encouragement. Firstly we should feel that the orthodox beats themselves are of real significance and potency. If an up-beat is seen to be like the diver's hands rising high above his head and a down-beat like a dive itself, the value of the two gestures will be very clear. If, in four time, instead of in, out,

"down,

up"

out, in, up",

we

rightly say

"down,

when beating with both arms)

(especially that "in" be realised quickly

was

less

it

will

ample and emphatic

than the more rapturous "out" for the stronger third beat. can learn the aptness of beating pp in inches and ff in feet, and crescendos with increase of distance and diminufurther step forward is taken when endos with decrease. our fingers participate in the gestures, we can smite the air with clenched fists to express grim determination, or stroke

We

A

with an extended palm to denote tenderness or persuasion, it with a pointed forefinger to suggest crisp, delicate staccato, to name a few characteristic possibilities. As our

it

or prick

conducting becomes more spontaneous and significant we it of ever-increasing value as a supplement to the

shall find

singing. notable benefit from conducting just before we play short stretches is that the actions of doing so strengthen and

A

focus our will-power in a stimulating way while also keeping our upper arms loose at the shoulder (see chapter 15) and getting our hands and fingers into a more or less ideal state

of poised readiness.

Chords I

CHORD

SOME USEFUL PROGRESSIONS

an extremely important aspect of pianism and benefits one in a number of directions, some unsuspected and others obvious. One of the latter is a knowplaying

is

ledge of the geography of the keyboard. The much-vaunted major and minor scales in single notes are not more than a

modest introduction to the required intimacy and complexity of that knowledge. A few harmonic progressions follow with which early familiarity should be gained. First the major scale in inverted triads, otherwise known as I

chords (Ex, 12);

fnrn

i

The

progression is more flowing than root-position triads or second inversions (| chords). The rhythm (| chords) chosen has more melodic shape than if all the notes were of

equal length. Learn to play these chords in all the twelve major keys. If some of them cause difficulty write out the

chords (the ascent only will do) on music manuscript paper, in every key, preferably in the order chosen by Bach for "The

D

5 E|>, E, F, Fft [Gfr], G, A|>, QJ, [ty], the A, B[;, B, [Qj], using proper key signature for each, whereby there will be no accidentals. The three keys with

Forty-eight"

:

C,

an enharmonic alternative in brackets should be written out

10

Chords: Some Useful Progressions in

both spellings.

was found

When

difficult

properly written out, any scale that should be practised with the music. Later,

when playing by the same

heart again, ascertain whether you can at time imagine the notation on paper, including both

spellings of the scales that have an alternative. Students can often play these three scales when imagining the one spellbut not when ing imagining the other, which is to be in an undesirable state of insecurity.

A similar progression in the minor, to be played in all the

keys

is

this (Ex. 13)

;

Ex.13.

rhPYYiff

I i

It will be found more grateful to the ear than consistent adherence to the harmonic or melodic form. Next let us have some rather more massive chords, again to be played in all the keys (Ex. 14) :

Ei.14.

f*

N* * The penultimate chord in the minor key will be equally grammatical and satisfying with a raised or flattened leading note. Then a chord pattern with constant key change produced

by semitone back to

shifts

which should be continued

C major (Ex.

15)

:

II

until

we

get


Then

the same with inversions following each other zigzag-wise, continued to the bottom of the piano (Ex. 1 6) :

Ex.10.

This

dominant sevenths

series of

frequent use.

One

is

is too disturbing for hurled from key to key (Ex. 1 7) :

EX.IZ

These modulations, on the contrary (Ex.

1

8)

:

Ex.18.

usher you politely from one key into the next one. It will be seen that at the first move the top two voices descend a semitone while at the next move it is the lower two voices that descend. It is like a small child coming downstairs. This notation (Ex. 19): Ex.19.

'in

moment

of key change and what the new key is, and you should realise that the modulatory chord is the first inversion of the added sixth in the new key. implies the

The

regular addition of a fifth note to each chord (Ex.

20): Ex.20.

^

n

contributes to the value of the progression for practising purposes, and anyone whose stretch is not equal to all the

demands would do some of them

leave

better to spread the notes rather than out. But unless the addition had been

printed as a small note we might have needed the explanatory

Chords: Some Useful Progressions

rigmarole: "For the second chord the top-note-and-thebottom-two stay where they are while the top-two-but-one move down a semitone, and for the third chord the top-note-

and-the-bottom-two move down a semitone while the toptwo-but-one stay where they are" When the modulations continue to descend from the first chord until we reach the same notes an octave lower, twenty-five chords will have been played. If inversions are added in contrary motion, thus (Ex. 21) 1

:

Ex

m all

one's ten fingers are obliged to think what they are doing one of nearly 180 moves before the lowest note on

at every

the piano

Chords (Ex. 22)

is

reached.

in

whole tones have much to recommend them

:

Ex.22.

I

if

tj*f

ty sempre simile

m

simile

One way to find each new chord in this series is first to decide what one of its notes should be (say, the bottom one) in each hand, and then feel for the whole-tone-scale notes that are adjacent to that. This engraves the finger-spacing of each chord on your memory and is clearly related to the harmonic

coming. Another equally good and desirable way is to make the fingers do their semitone shifts one at a time till all five are in place, say in the order i, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 5, 4, 3, 2, i. This makes you specially aware of the way in which individual voices move to the adjacent note, thus effect that is

appealing to your contrapuntal sense* To play the various chord progressions correctly, making each chord full and harmonious, is undoubtedly worth while 13

Practising the Piano in itself, whatever touch detailed advice follows.

mechanism

is

employed, but more

WAYS OF PRACTISING THE CHORDS

II

WITH

muscular development in view let us start with Ex* 2 1 and play each chord staccatissimo, ensuring the speed thereof by immediately clenching our fists as tightly as possible. Do not play from a distance but touch all the notes of the chord consciously before they are pressed down. If this

rhythm

is

adopted (Ex. 23) Ex.23.

:

i

eighth of a bar to unclench and find the next chord, whereby the clench could occupy more than threequarters of each ban That will be strengthening in itself and it

may take an

productive of the right sort of relaxation at the

unclenching. Another rhythm to adopt E..M.

is

moment

this (Ex.

24)

of

:

.

which one difficulty is to achieve a really tight grip between each chord. The better you succeed, the more

in

the performance, and you may begin to wonder if your fingers are going to drop off. But although we are often warned to discontinue playing when physical discomfort is tiring

is

experienced, this particular discomfort is evidence of efficient

muscular exertion rather than a danger signal and can be continued till the chords become too weak for you to take any pride in them. A few bouts of this special practising tend to produce more progress in sheer muscular fitness than long spells of drudgery with scales, etc., and the principal perhaps unsuspected the joy of playing for the mere muscular sensation instead of being primconcerned with the significance of the music or, in arily

danger

is

pleasure of

Chords:

Ways of

Practising the Chords

passages like these, the harmonic fullness and rhythmical decisiveness of the chords.

This danger can be considerably lessened if we vary the progressions with a series of tone schemes as follows i. ff ; :

*#>; 3-#x/; >-^-
4-

The main

ff>~pp\

5-

value of the

#>?; first

two

is

6./

to set the

extremes of loud and soft as far apart as possible. Then the crescendos and diminuendos which follow will be on a larger scale. When we are practising, a big crescendo rather unis more evenly gradated stimulating than an exquisitely controlled one on a smaller scale. The latter will encourage self-satisfaction without pointing the way further. The former encourages boldness and generous warmth, and you are not at all likely to be satisfied with the uneven gradations but will say : "Yes, like that but better controlled." This is one of the few instances where quantity may be preferred to quality.

Perhaps a digression will be pardoned at this point. If the above six tone schemes are used in practising the repeated halves of pieces in binary form (like most of the movements in eighteenth-century suites) they can be followed by a seventh the gradations that are demanded by the music. If a wide selection of alternatives suit it equally well, all the better, for in actual performance the repeats gain charm and

by varied expression the second time. Pondering on this added use of the tone schemes may well act as an encouragelife

them oftener. If you compare the sevenfold with unvaried repetitions of the same music you will find that the latter soon get you into a sort of coma not free from the danger of making mistakes, whereas the varied treatment compels mental attention and develops the habit of control by constructive and purposeful thought instead of the cessation of thought and reliance on automatic ment

to practise

ritual

habit.

In due course, substitute for the clench a gathering together of the fingertips as though you were trying to squash a ripe grape with them. This movement includes that

15


of ideal finger action with some extra drawing-in of fingerstill more of the latter) so it tips (the first clench has physically benefits one's finger

work

as well as one's chord-

and the clench should resemble the snap of a strong steel spring, the clench making for robust strength and the gathering of the fingertips for swift sprightliness and greater delicacy. playing. Both

it

A third movement, already alluded to in chapter i, in which we should emulate the speed of the first two, is to dart the fingers of both hands on to the notes that are next due. This

movement brings us a big

step nearer the needs will be discussed further in

of actual passage-playing and the chapter on the preparing of hand positions. Often use the pedal with staccato chords, especially as in

No. 5 of Ex. 28

in the next chapter.

They

will ring

out

inspiringly when the sound is thus prolonged, To follow up the processes recommended look out for passages with plenty of full chords in them, like the fourth

Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques. In that parvariation do your clench, or whatever it is, on the

variation in ticular

chords only, with the semiquaver octaves immediately before as quickly as you can, however slow the pace of the

them

practising

may

be.

16

Pedalling PREPARATORY EXERCISES

I

THE first part of this chapter might well be skipped by those readers whose pedalling has a reasonably solid foundahere for those who have never faced the of problems pedalling at all or have got into difficulties with them. Simple chord progressions are better for the exercises than series of single notes, and provide a pleasant degree of harmonious fullness, so let us take that of Ex. 12, adding the left hand an octave lower and using the same tion. It is offered

fingers for every chord and changing from one key to another at frequent intervals. Beginning with legato pedalling, the normal thing is to change the pedal when the harmony changes, so we shall be changing with every chord. To change the pedal means to let it up and press it down again, and in order to produce pedalled legato the up movement should be at the exact instant at which the new chord speaks, for which sound-point is a self-explanatory term. Remember that a hair's breadth of silence between the BarS ^

Adagio (J = 50)

^^^8

^PT rvrwrr ^

P

NO1 Legato 4 W^BIVV j Mdallin*!

p

.

jE.

*

^^

P*

P

p

&

P*

3fcP& r w ^

P

3fc

"^

P

4i ^^

P

*

P

<&> ^^

P*

chords can be undesirably conspicuous. In our first three up moments are always exactly at sound-point

exercises the


while the

down moments

are varied.

The

objects of this are

conscious control and musical expression (Ex. 25). As regards conscious control, the student sees in black

and white what is required of him and can therefore judge whether it is being accomplished. When a mistake is made, the best course

is

to proceed calmly without rhythmical in-

and to do terruption as though there had been no mistake the next bar correctly. If several bars go wrong it proves that our intentions cannot have been clear enough.

J^50 sion

;

g*ves us

Adagio b eats kke the steps of a dignified proces-

a quicker pace

is

not nearly so useful, patient control and plenty of time to

in delaying to press down the foot listen to results being all-important,

As regards musical expression, when the pedal is pressed down all the dampers are lifted off all their strings and the consequent sympathetic vibration (audible with a single note but much more so with our six-note chords) imparts a glow to the tone, a sort of crescendo of undeniable expressive value. For this crescendo to take place at one beat of the bar very different from the same crescendo at another beat (Ex, 260, b and c)

is

:

Ei.26a.

x.26c.

Ex.26b.

more so because in (a\ and still more in (<:), the chord have become weaker at the pedalled beat than it would have been on the second beat as in (F). Consequently, whereas the character of (^) is the most ardent and eager of the three all

the

will

most tranquil. Even greater would be produced by this pedalling (Ex, 27)

alternatives, that of (c) is the

tranquillity

:

Ex.27.

though the mention of half-beats at this point may be rather premature. In any case these differences of character should 18

Pedalling; Preparatory Exercises

be

by the

felt

sole of

our foot in the same way that our

fingers, in pressing lightly or the reverse in order to get pianos and fortes, link up our physical sensations with the

emotional requirements of the music. People are often described as musical to their fingertips, but the sole of the pianist's right foot rarely receives the verbal recognition to which it is entitled.

Let

be emphasised now, in preference to later on, that must never leave the ground and the foot must never lose physical contact with the pedaL If, as the pedal is released, the foot is lifted, even an inch, the kick when one's shoe returns to the pedal will often be heard. It is even worth while to find out whether the dampers on the instruit

the heel

ment you are playing the pedal

is

thud which

effectually silence the strings before for letting it up often produces a dull right up, in the concert room, and to audible is quite

eliminate this noise in pp passages is worth some trouble. To hold the pedal a quarter of an inch from the full up position at the cost of complete efficiency by the dampers, however,

would naturally be carrying our zeal

mechanism

for silent

(if

movement of our

foot) a quarter of an inch too far. In the next three exercises we are leaving the field of legato for that of intermittent pedalling. The same element of con-

not the

by planned variety of treatment is again to be time it is the ascent of the pedal that varies. this but found, scious control

(Ex.28): Ex.28.

i

*

*

*

li

*

*

*

I

*

The musical difference between these is in the duration of the sound. It will be seen that the pedal lengthens the short staccato chord (which might last about a semiquaver without the pedal) into a minim in No. 4, a dotted minim in No. 5, and a complete instead of a shortened crotchet in No.

6.

In No. 6 the effect

is

19

sound

for one-quarter

and

Practising the Piano silence for three-quarters of the time. Steady pulsation during total silence or when nothing new is happening is far

from inborn with most of in

good training special purpose. If

that

us, so these exercises will be direction, quite apart from their ensure a swift staccato by clenching

you your fists in playing each chord and then beat out the rests with your hands (plain down beats), it will probably have more rhythmical life than if you counted the beats out loud or mentally, partly because of the prosaic associations of the And at some point it will act as a sort of bridge syllables.

between the mere

drill

element of these exercises and real

schemes in chapter 3, part II, pedalling to use the six tone with the pedal exercises. Although the main purpose of the exercises is achieved by the very slow practice recommended, No. i (and No. I only) should eventually be practised more quickly. Perhaps "eventually" might be interpreted as "when all six exercises can be played with ease and security in one's sleep". Even

new

to pedal exercises may hope to reach that point after spending some ten or fifteen minutes a day upon them

those

it may not ever be necessary an occasional return to them again, though or confidence to add prevent your pedalling your might standards from deteriorating.

for a matter of weeks. After that

to practise

them

A good way to speed up No.

i is by altering the notation. stands, we can call it playing in semibreves and pedalling in minims, then playing in minims and pedalling

If>

as

it

in crotchets (Ex. 290)

would be twice

as quick, playing in

crotchets and pedalling in quavers (Ex. 29^) four times as quick, and playing in quavers and pedalling in semiquavers

(Ex.

29*:)

eight times as quick

:

However nimble the footwork, adequately

if

the dampers will not respond

you attempt much

20

quicker changing than this.

Pedalling: General

Those

lovely modulations in Chopin's op. 62, no. i (Ex. 30)

B

major Nocturne,

:

Ex.30.

come out

rather quicker for each chord.

II

EVEN

and suggest the same changes, one

GENERAL

before the above exercises,

if

worked

at,

are fully

mastered, few players would refrain from using the pedal with moderate frequency, often to good effect. Hymns and steady successions of chords will need pedalling similar to Ex. 25, No. 2, and regular changes (effected rather more of pieces like the speedily, however) suit long stretches Chopin Nocturnes of which Nos. i, 9, 13, 14 and 15 certainly thrive for a good many bars with two changes a bar, and Nos. 2 and 10 with four changes. When you come to a place where the advice just given produces an undesirable smudge, two changes instead of one is likely to be at least an improvement. When fewer changes are preferable Chopin difficult usually signifies that that is his wish. But it is often to choose pedallings and also to decide which effects that do not please are due to a bad choice, and which to a bad carrying out of a good choice. The cause is far more often one or other of these two than both at once, and sometimes a

change in the tone gradations

will

prove a better remedy

than different pedalling* to develop both wisdom and skill in pedalling is to play at the correct pace and stop for than playing really long pauses at suitable moments, -rather to each and pedal change at that unrelistening very slowly

Meanwhile the

best

way

presentative pace (Ex. 31)

:

21


enough, we have a splendid whether the harmony we stop firstly, on is free from smudge, and secondly, by thinking back, whether the previous pedal changes sounded clean enough as to their general effect. Many students require to be urged to listen much more carefully than has been their If all these pauses are long

opportunity of judging

wont before they can judge the first point reliably. Until they can do this they will not be ready for the second,

A

though when they can they are getting reasonably near, further point about these pauses is that even the most experienced players can learn volumes from them about the effectiveness of their pedalling, both its choice and execution. Leschetizky used to put it whimsically thus : "In

two seconds you can the audience in the

way down

tell

what the

effect is for a

member of

row, in four seconds the effect halfthe auditorium, in ten seconds the effect at the fifth

back of the gallery." In these precise figures there may have been what W. W. Jacobs called "the exactitude of untruth' ', but Leschetizky always expected us to season his utterances with the salt of common sense. One anecdote that sank deep into some of our young

how Leschetizky was

minds

told

stairs.

Sounds

like this (Ex. 32)

22

:

talking to a guest

on the

Pedalling: General Ex.32. Beethoven.- Sonata op. 26. *' A-*M~t~ And

were audible, and the guest ventured to enquire: "Oh, Professor, do your children learn the piano ?" Leschetizky replied

;

"That

is

The minimum

the great Essipoff practising." pause should never be shorter than the

which it follows, but you will do better have a you prolonged and analytical listening to the of the harmony pause and a real think about the earlier part of what has been played. It would be better for the pause sounds to die away completely than for the judgments to be hasty. If the sounds do die away completely, moreover, it is often wise to sound them again before the onward movement stretch of playing still if

is

resumed

(see chapter i, p. 3). If earlier beats are smudgy and the

pause beats beautifully be better than of some beautifully clean beats followed by a smudgy pause beat. Thus Ex. 33^ is better than Ex. 33^: clean, the effect will

An

instructive example of the same kind sound of this (Ex. 34) :

is

the tolerable


on the way from one clean chord to another (Ex. and the intolerable effect of the self-same blur at a stopping point (Ex.

i *P

Momentary

dissonances are remarkably harmless in the

right place. In both the cases which follow, it is misguided to change on the swiftly resolved semiquavers (Ex. 36 a and &) : Ex. 36a. Chopin:Prelude in A

Ex.36b. Schubert: Moment musical

C minor

ft

L

i

2

I

* The much-vaunted half-change often comes out very badly when tested by the method of pauses, it is usually preferable to preserve the

whole of the bass note firmly with

some smudginess in the higher register, rather than to remove only some of the smudge above in order to retain some of the bass, or to lose still more if not all of the bass remove the smudge completely. Of course problem arises the right course is to weigh alternative with the utmost care and patience. every One device often proves far more successful than might have been expected. The underlying idea is that when all in order to

whenever

this

the voices cannot be legato the extreme voices can least afford a break in continuity. Take as an example the beginning of the second movement of Franck's Prelude, Aria and Finale. If you change the pedal on the low bass E and while doing so hold the soprano D$ down with your finger, thus (Ex. 37), the legato of the extreme voices is ensured, and nevertheless

what

D$ will be very faint (perhaps inaudible), have taken care to play it pretty softly. An you especially irreproachably clean chord with a gap in the soprano voice would have given a far less satisfactory effect. Some may is left

of the

if

24

Pedalling; General prefer the pedal lifted with the D$ crotchet, whereby the low bass notes would no longer be legato ; the suggestion with regard to the soprano would still hold, however. Ex.37. Frank: Prelude, Aria and Finale

Three points

in conclusion, of which the first has been already. Many pianists would be horrified if they implied were advised as a general principle to "change the pedal less often and then change it splendidly*'. Nevertheless a very

clean change

now and

then

quite often preferable to

is

frequent less immaculate ones, not only tonally but because of the onward rhythmical sweep that tends to result.

This brings us to a second point the influence of pedalling on the rhythmical life of our pieces. A great deal of light will dawn upon us if we make a series of experiments in studying such a piece as one of the more lively waltzes of Chopin, in order to compare a large number of alternatives in intermittent pedalling. In these four bars the seven pedal-

lings can

any one of them add to the swinging

vitality of

the

rhythm (Ex. 38): Ex.38. Chopin Waltz, op. 34, No.l .

'^ 1.

2.

3.

f f

P

P P

I

I

P P

#

4. 5.

None

P

P

P

6.

None

,7.

When

J

f

f

â i

I

P P

P P

P

*

# *

P

P

P

you are deeply versed in all this, the right choice should often come on the spur of the moment and it is quite bars likely that it will not be the right one when the same recur. Truly, pedalling is a life study.


The

not meet with universal approval. players think: "Where shall I add the pedal ?" much can be learned by saying "Where shall it be subtracted ?" In other words, if you keep it down practically the whole time the question would be where to leave it off. third point

may

Whereas many

:

Over-pedalling subsequently pruned down often leads in actual fact to better results than a policy of undue caution* Of course, neither approach exclusively will take you as far as a judicious use of both.

26

Finger Passages THESE

quick passages in single notes are a very important and universally recognised department of piano playing. Certain processes are always useful in mastering them and the problem is often which to adopt first and when to change over to another instead of blindly hammering away with the one. Try ringing the changes on some of these. I

.

Practising

hand staccato

to be the left-hand part of Chopin's Study, op. Suppose it with 12, no. 12, that we wish to master. If we practise it

the touch specified at about the pace of Jr^, considerable melodic significance should be precision and sequential ensure. Leschetizky said "The object of slow fairly easy to the melodic elements in the passage practice is to study but these are too often forgotten during spells of :

work",

meaningless drudgery. It may be asked: "Why practise staccato when that is going to be the passages with hand wrong mechanism in the end?" The answer is that although themselves will have to make the movements the fingers

when the semiquavers

are played

up

to time, this early

treatment will both give them greater strength and agility with which to do so at a later date, and engrave more firmly on your memory the order in which the notes (and the fingers which produce those notes) follow each other. Now whereas the loudest hand staccato we can achieve

27


add most

to our reserves of muscular strength, it is also to lead to insensitiveness of tone gradation in our likely general style of playing, and therefore to do most of this will

slow practice either delicately or with expressive tone gradais preferable. Even famous public favourites, renowned for their technique, who do a lot of ff slow practice, often play their quick finger passages with a pianola-like sameness

tions

of every syllable that can be regrettably inhuman in charWhat should we think of an actress who accentuated her syllables with equal force like this acter.

:

J

I?

The

J I

qua-li

-

ty

J iJ of

mer

-

7

J J

cy

is

Let us build up our reserves of strength 2.

not

u strained

in other ways.

Group practice

That

is,

short groups, one at a time (Ex. 39^, b

^

and

c)

:

Ex.39*.

Ex.39b.

In

(a)

and

we recommence with each new group by note upon which we ended the last one, and

(c)

repeating the

() we swing on from

that note, which has been held on. the should be staccatissimo as far as the (*) quavers hand is concerned, although it is quite good to make them temito by means of the pedal. It is strengthening to produce

in

With

this staccatissimo

by a rapid and

tight fist-clench or an of the equally rapid gathering fingertips into the minimum for both movements). With (a) space (see chapter 3, part II, and () there would be three alternatives the same gathering :

28

Finger Passages

of the fingertips although the note is held on by the finger that played it ; putting as many fingers on the notes which are to follow as can be reached from the one which is being held

down

or the apparently negative plan of leaving all the fingers exactly where they are (horizontally speaking) when the dotted minim sounds. With the last two, it is better to let all unoccupied fingers fall on the keys that are lying below ;

to hold them even a minute fraction of an inch above the keys. Holding them in the air is almost certain to result in a slight stiffness of the upper-arm at the shoulder joint, the avoidance of which is fully discussed in chapter 15. This last matter leads to the next process.

them than

3.

See-sawing

See-sawing on every note, every other note and every note, as 4.

recommended

in that

fifth

same chapter.

Practising with one finger

This is surprisingly beneficial and helps you to know the notes irrespective of the fingering by which you play them, whereby the said fingering will come to be an extra security instead of the foundation

Chapter

13 deals

more

upon which your

safety

is built.

fully with the subject.

Marking the beats with your other hand This bears a superficial resemblance to practising with a metronome, of which I am not personally in favour. There are, be it noted, three important differences. First, that the regularity of the beats is hand-made instead of machine5.

made, allowing dogged persistence

if this is required,

or

alternatively a flexible and unobtrusive steadiness ; second, that there is no tick-tack to drown some of the musical effects and so prevent one from being critical regarding the tone gradations ; third, that there is not only human will controlling what is being done, but it is the player's own

on which dependence movements for our purpose

will

is

being placed. The simplest be a series of plain down

will

29

Practising the Piano beats, say a couple of inches in size. To do these sometimes on one's knee and sometimes in the air is to be recommended ; a clenched fist may help concentration or a gentle forefinger may encourage delicacy in the execution. The

beats should sometimes be robust

and heavy, sometimes as

light as a feather, and so should the accents. It is very good training to do heavy beats with light accents and light beats

with heavy accents. 6.

Practising in this rhythm:

Although it still

this

sounds more flippant than the right rhythm, and emotional stresses where Chopin

has the metrical

wanted them. Some the music

more than

different is

rhythms

alter the

really desirable.

meaning of

On Playing Works

as a

Whole THIS important expressively

aspect of performance was quaintly but implied by the oft-repeated phrase of an

American journalist whom I met at the Rubinstein Competition in Petersburg (as it was then called) in 1910. If any of us competitors achieved the kind of unified presentation he particularly valued, the performance was described as an "unbroken mood-line", and the same words were used if he wanted to refer to a magnificent rendering of some great masterpiece by his hero Artur Nikisch. Whatever words are used, the thought may easily be neither more nor less than an intellectual abstraction, but when it is a living reality there are few, if any, factors that do so much to ensure that the audience will be carried away by the music. Audi-

may be

carried away by other things the personal fame of the player, exciting or eccentric movements, the phenomenal rapidity of the passages and other factors which may be interpretatively irrelevant but the assertion refers to occasions when the music itself potently reaches the minds and hearts of the listeners. How then are we to maintain these unbroken mood-lines ? A few suggestions may prove helpful. For one thing, much can be

ences

loveliness or

learned by simply playing pieces right through. Perhaps I


do

this

more

often than

I

recommend

it

to others (practise

other than preach, you may say), though how much it influences the unity of the whole depends upon what thoughts are borne in mind as we play. Obsession with note correctin the inner ness, for instance, clarity of pedalling, legato voices,

and so on, might

easily

reduce the special advantages

from the point of view of unity, though the mere fact of not stopping will at least accustom one's ear to continuity. Thinking pieces right through without any playing at all

good idea. So of the keys (see surface the on is right through an imagined performance. chapter 8), or conducting It is also useful to play nothing but the main melodic line, of the musical discourse. Yet equivalent to the thread another alternative is to play through to the end softly the music) is another (either with or without

playing them

slow side), without dramatic character(perhaps even on the isation in the sounds. This is like softly murmuring words over and meditating on their meanings without any outward tokens thereof. If you were to utter the fiery sentences of the great curse from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound \

Fiend, I defy thee, with a sufferer's curse All that thou canst inflict I bid thee do

dreamy monotone, it would be rather similar ; but it can be a revealing study in teaching us how far the unaided music can tell us its own tale, how, for instance, the in a slow

very "scoring"

may

build

up a mighty

edifice

without any

dynamic observances. It can certainly help us to think of no way prevents us from continuity for its own sake and in planning our eventual interpretation. It may seem out of place here to concentrate for a while on making each individual phrase complete in itself, but it is

which symbolic of our present quest and a foundation upon be reared. If can units you gradually larger and ever larger breath just sing each phrase right through without taking before you play it, and then while playing it keep this vocal

3*

On effort in

mind, the result

will

Playing Works as a Whole

be marked by a certain unmis-

takable unity. Building up on this foundation, day by day, a possible week's programme for a complete sonata would

be as follows

:

Monday Play your work phrase by phrase, first singing aloud each phrase on one breath. Tuesday Play lengths of about sixteen bars at a time with suitable stopping places (each of them to be decided upon beforehand) and substituting mental rehearsals for singing, if preferred. If you sing, taking breath will now be unavoidable, of course, but after playing your sixteen bars you should ask yourself: "Did it go forward in one onward sweep ?" Wednesday Play about a page at a time, with the unified imaginary performance first, and considered verdict afterwards.

Play lengths like exposition, development, recapitulation, coda, each complete as above. Friday Whole movements complete as above. Saturday Whole movements straight through without anticipatory mental preparation, critically noticing whether Thursday

one's

own

Sunday

feelings achieve the specially desired continuity. The whole sonata as on Saturday.

work is too closely concentrated you could three two or days to each of the treatments and by this give multiplication spread the whole undertaking over a longer If the week's

period.

The

is twofold, to grasp the principle and in actual performance. Similes can be a help. try to carry our piece through as on one tidal wave.

task before us

to realise

We

it

might We might think of a short story or novel (if there is one) which we have read straight through without being able to put the book down. The memory of journeys in which it has not been necessary to change trains or get on and off boats could intensify our appreciation of non-interruption. Many years ago Adrian Boult wrote some invaluable words in his handbook on conducting for students of that craft: 33


you must always think back, so must always think forward" performance you

"Remember and

in

that at rehearsal

simply put that we

not realise their full value at a first "think forward" with the idea of a tidal

may

Compare wave or a favourite ejaculation of Tobias Matthay who would punctuate a pupil's performance with the magic word reading.

"towards" in a stage whisper, thrown in at intervals like the If enough has been spurrings of horsemen in bygone days. lot to be done about a for be it said, necessary may yet as a whole. works our playing

34

Double Thirds SOME piano teachers who are precise in their choice of words (a truly estimable thing) object to the expression "double thirds" as applied to thirds played by one hand. But we speak of double notes for passages of regular or assorted thirds, fourths, sixths, and so on, in a way similar the string players with their double

to, if less logical than,

The

expression "double thirds" seems to follow and case become a kind of technical term. It is used any here with apologies to those who dislike it. stops. has in

The

aspiring student should hasten on to double thirds his single notes reach a high standard, for they before long are muscularly strengthening, they give the mind more

occupation per semiquaver than the single notes, and their execution automatically keeps all five fingers closer to the keys (a desirable thing in playing every kind of passage). With double-third scales the occasions when orthodox fingerings should be used in an actual piece are rarer than

might be supposed, and apart from the possible requirements of examinations it is better to be equipped with readiness for all sojrts of fingering than wedded to one. Eleven different fingerings, applied regardless of discomfort to all the diatonic scales in double thirds, provide a wide founda-

tion of general resourcefulness, mental are here recommended.

The

and

physical,

and

eleven fingerings fall into three classes: recurrent groups (three of these), mixed groups (five) and "organ

35

Practising the Piano first. With fingerings" (three). Let us take recurrent groups recurrent pairs you reach the beginning notes of the scale with the same fingers after two octaves (Ex. 40) : Ex.40. a

4 sempre simile

4

i a

J

The slurs

4 sempre simile

are not essential, nor

is

the rhythm, but both help

to fix the idea of the fingering. Both voices, or either voice, can be totally legato all the time. It will be noticed that we start

the return journey,

for

again

different fingers

on the individual

thereby producing

thirds.

recurrent groups of three, three octaves will be required to round off the plan and with recurrent groups of four, four octaves (Exx. 41 and 42) :

With

Ex.4i. BJff *

,

*

*

B

^

sr

\^ sempre simile

^

sempre simile

\

Double Thirds

What was said before again applies to the slurs and rhythm.

On

the outward journeys the soprano in the right hand and the bass in the left hand can be legato, on the return journeys the alto and tenor, Round

by Byrd

respectively. Sellinger's

gives a delightful opportunity for recurrent pairs (Ex. 43)

:

Ex.43.

RJH.

whether we

elect to play the quavers in slurred pairs or "Waldstein" Sonata, this passage

staccato. In the

sempre seems made

for recurrent threes (Ex. 44)

:

Ex.44.

Haydn's last sonata recurrent fours have much recommend them (Ex. 45)

and

in

to

:

Ex.45.

j t

Mixed groups and

j

f

s

1

1

nTj

are five in number, three of which combine and the other two threes and fours. All

threes, pairs five result in the

same notes getting the same fingers in as in octave every single-note scales. Threes and fours (Exx. and 46, 47, 48, 49 50) give us the principle upon which

LJ

LJ

is.

37

f


x.48.*-

*

i

H ;

a

4 | !.

i

} i

J4

.

i

modern orthodox fingering is based, if this is less obvious when the scale begins in the middle of a group. The rhythms in all the above examples are unessential as before, but as in in our minds.

Ex. 40, they

fix

All the fingerings submitted

when

the

fingers, particularly staccato either with forearm or

the idea of the fingering so

far

will

practised with

strengthen a bumpy

hand touch. At some time or be advantageous to practise one voice only

other it will also with whichever fingering

is

being used, for

38

this,

although

Double Thirds confusing

when

first

attempted, makes for increased security

in the end.

"Organ fingering" is a coined phrase suggested by the frequency with which the characteristic changes of fingers on held notes is seen in organ playing. A very few legato chords on the organ or harmonium make the need for such changes evident. Regarding the first two, it is not claimed that a whole scale would often, or indeed ever, be thus fingered (Exx. 51 and 52) :

@

Ex.5I.a

*a a Ex.52. 54 T> BT

32

ua.

*

a a

a a 82 32

aaaa 21

21

a

82

21

a a a a 12 12 12 12

& a a a 12 12 12 12

3^P r

a

64

21

82

r

IF^ â

p

aaaa aaaa m 1 a 84

84

64

64

82

82

64 82

^ a 23 23

23

23

P

=

84

84

83

23

23

23

23

45

m a a a

M

=1

but our practice of whole scales renders moments like this (Ex. 53) : legato s

t

legato

easier

when they

occur. In slow passages this fingering

(Ex.54):

"j

j

r

p

r

1

'

'

<

p

i i

'

Lii _

M is

L i^

4

often the best

5J

'

a 4

L

W

way to

*

2 4

5i I U 4

ii

|S

f *

57*g ||

J

*

*-

"}

I

get a really tranquil legato.

39

a g "^


In these rapid changes, the quicker they are made, the of a note speaking twice ; when that is greater the danger and swiftness of action avoided, the sensitiveness of control

by the

fingers involved

may well be unap parent to a listener,

could easily suppose the practiser to be almost going to is highly recommended for the weak fingers ; sleep. Ex. 52

who

more vigorous, often hefty passages, sounding considerably fail to produce so much technical progress. of It should be a habit from the first to make the change of the next notes (see chapter fingers include the preparation the keys in Ex. For 1 7). instance, 51 get | on the surface of indicated

by the diamond-shaped silent

*

Ex.55.fi

notes, thus (Ex. 55)

:

*

In Ex. 54, not only get f prepared at the but 5 as well (Ex. 56) :

moment

of change

55 can be in one flashes of time two flash, those in Ex. 56 must occupy made to make them seem (although every effort should be like one) because the fifth finger must wait till the third is down on G, and the third cannot leave E till the thumb has actions that cannot be got secure hold thereof; these are simultaneous. Even if the organ fingerings were never going

Note

that while the finger-changes in Ex.

to be used in scale passages later on, the practice of

would nevertheless be of immense value

them

in training one's

of the requirements of legato part-playing. One of my most talented pupils at the Royal College of Music once said to a fellow-student "If I did all the things

fingers for

many

:

me

do I should go out of my mind." was passed on by the lively girl this witticism Fortunately This chapter tends to bring it was addressed. to whom it to mind, and where so many alternatives lie before us it is a good thing to work at one set for a fortnight or so and then

Mr. Merrick

tells

to

40

Double Thirds

go on

and thus gradually gain some experithe route organised variety should be Along and sought major minor, loud and soft, legato and staccato, selected keys, and so on. Rarely do too much of the same to another set,

ence of

all.

thing on end, but remember what has been done so that or nothing is left out eventually.

little

You may ask how to make a final choice from among such a bewildering array of alternatives. When their character is familiar, however, this will often be fairly easy. Should there be any doubt, factors that help a decision are easiness to read and remember, easiness in combining the two hands, the avoidance of gaps or bumps or both, the

chances of minimising or covering up gaps by the use of the pedal (which may spoil a passage when used to conceal one gap while beautifully suiting the same passage when concealing another), whether an unavoidable gap should be in the upper or lower voice, and of course the position of the black keys. Notice critically the effect, both musical and physical, when the thumb is placed on black keys ; only if the movements are really too clumsy or the musical effect

unavoidably bad is it unwise to adopt unorthodox fingerings of this forbidden sort. This advice does not proceed is

from perversity or inconoclasm, and

when

thumb

is

prompted

partly

by

placed on a black key it the arm a forward gives slight swing, with a corresponding of the wrist a position from which benefit is often raising the fact that

the

is

reaped. If

all

the double-third scale practice results in less techwe had hoped for, the exercises which

nical progress than

follow,

however lamentably dry,

ment (Ex. 57)

will

prove a useful supple-

:

Ex.57

This

is

to

be continued up the major scale

till

the


sixteenth bar, which will be the second bar an octave higher. grace notes should be as light and quick as possible. If the crotchets are firm and decisive it is of secondary import-

The

ance whether the grace notes are well or badly executed They will stand to improve in any case. The accentuation of the crotchets will be musically and rhythmically helped if the moment they sound we clench our fists as swiftly as we can, not relaxing this iron grip until, say, the fourth beat of !

the bar.

The

next step

is this

(Ex. 58)

:

p and what was

said before about the grace notes will

now

apply to the semiquavers. The exercises should be transposed into all the other major keys, in some of which they may be found more tricky to play. The many differences of position in relation to the black keys will be of muscular benefit, there will be

much ground to cover, and both the neighpractiser's own ears will experience decided

twelves times as

and the from the changes of sound. Later on, the whole-tone clusters of Ex. 22 can provide a welcome variety of musical bours'

relief

effect

while spreading the fingers slightly wider apart.

42

8

Practising on the Surface

of the Keys HAVE

advocated this very persistently for many years, interested in reading Victor Booth's We Piano Teachers to find that he, too, was extremely convinced of its importance. It is valuable at every stage ; I I

and was most pleased and

recommend

to

new

pupils in their first lesson, and I myself often play complete works or even recital programmes through in this way.

generally

it

The more accustomed you are to playing on the surface of the keys the more do you mentally live the music you would be hearing if you had pressed the keys down and the more sensitively aware do your fingers become whether they are on the right keys or not. It is better to do this work without looking at the keys, but even if you do look at them (either because you must or because you wish to) much benefit

will

used

still

be derived.

You

will

become

ever-increasingly

touching keys consciously before them down, reducing thereby smudginess of exeyou press cution, faulty gauging of the pressure to be exerted (which produces tonal effects of all kinds which you do not intend), playing this and that not quite at the ideal moment, and so on. Benefit from the point of view of memory is considerable and will be further emphasised in chapter 24. in actual playing to

43


An advantage that you might never dream of theoretically that the poise of your arms during the silent practice is likely to be an ideal one. The ideal poise between special efforts, and one which should be recovered at as frequent is

intervals as possible, is that in which the upper arm is quite loose at the shoulder, ready to be sent swinging forward in the

see-sawing

movement of chapter 1 5

at a

moment's

notice. If

you call this condition a state of easeful vigilance, its motive and value stand out with especial clarity. Another advantage is the frequency with which a wrong note which one had not heard when playing aloud (in some rapid passage, perhaps) can be detected. When this happens you may feel humiliation first, but certainly gratitude after. "Mentalising one's technique" is a phrase that has been quoted before ; our surface practice is a great help in doing that, and you could call each bout of it a semi-mental rehearsal. Silent practice of all kinds spares your ears and those of your neighbours ; it can providentially save the situation if a sudden engagement makes it imperative to work far into the night when neither household inmates nor neighbours could tolerate audible work. Practice on the surface of the keys is also a grand remedy when pieces have become stale and you dare not give them a rest because they will be needed on a given date in the near future. Playing a work through in that way once a day for a week or a fortnight, and otherwise not working at it at all, will often remove all traces of staleness without the risk of giving it the total rest it appears to need ; for staleness is really a sense that the sounds are unwelcome

you press the keys down, and touching the keys without pressing them gradually creates a tantalised longing to hear again the very sounds from which you had begun to shrink. Did not one of Shaw's doctors say "Cure guaranteed"? as

;

44

9

The Postman's Knock IF

we can produce a sharp staccato without withdrawing our

hand from the keyboard, a lot of time and energy will be saved, but this knack is not often acquired without careful cultivation. Theoretically it is self-evident that two efforts of will and action to press-the-key-down-first and lift-thehand-away-second should take longer than press-the-keydown-but-don't~continue-doing-so. The slip 'twixt cup and lip, however, is that in the second case one's cessation of effort (or relaxation of the pressure) will probably be sluggish. Is

The

too

it

much to call the following a sovereign remedy?

postman's knock rhythm gives accentuation like the

word "defy"

FH

I

.

>-{

It is

one of these

we shall

:

.

Compare

this

with the word "hurry"

:

humiliating when a desperate effort to produce

But with due perseverance get our postman's knock, and whenever we

results in the other.

learn to

do, the physical speed that rendered the minim louder than the acciaccatura must have followed the acciaccatura so that

the musical desire to produce a postman's knock has cajoled out of us an unusually rapid key descent.

Now for > ponds

I

.

The rebound

of an indiarubber ball corres-

in rapidity to the speed with

reached wall or

floor.

which the

ball

has

Relaxation of an effort will be like this.

45


But how can we know whether what we do is relaxation or a lift? The answer can be delivered with the scornful on the triumph of a child "Easy !" If the finger remains surface of the key instead of in the air even a millionth of an inch away, the staccato cannot have contained any element of a lift. So when you hear (i) that the accentuation has been :

>J

and

and feel (3) been sharp J the key, you have achieved an

(2) that the staccato has

that your finger has not left of dispute. ideally executed staccato beyond possibility Often practise staccato passages with the double rap of

postman's knocks (Ex. 59)

:

Ex.59. Mendelssohn: Scherzo

f as in tie composition

as well as passages

with some tenutos in them (Ex. 60)

:

Ex.60. BralimB: Ballade in G minor

Vri 3E

ii

pausing at each double rap to cessful in

make

sure you have been suc-

three respects perhaps at the pace of ^40* later test the value of such work by trying the

all

When you

passage up to time with the acciaccaturas can be safely predicted.

cial result

left out,

a benefi-

10 Practising in Solid Chords THIS

comusually gives us what was at the back of the be so that can the he when mind passages composed poser's treated. You cannot write the figures of a clock face on paper first trace a circle on which to put them, or unless you

imagine a circle sufficiently vividly to be able to dispense with the visible line. The solid chords give us not only the harmony but the chord positions on the keyboard, thus producing extra technical

safety

by systematised economy of thought and

movement. Here Ex.61.

for instance (Ex, 61)

:

caniabile

we have in

our own

murmuring accompaniment.

The

We

can harmonies all its with unprejudiced melody favour by the magical glamour of the softly

four anxieties per bar instead of sixteen.

also listen to the

next two examples (Exx. 6a and 63)

Sx. 62. Brahms: Rhapsody in O minor

47

:


are chosen out of hundreds of equally suitable ones. The treatment in Ex. 63 can be carried right through the piece until the final four chords.

My

usual advice

is

to play the

Ex.63. Chopin: Prelude in Ft

simplified chordal version three or four times as often as the

passage

itself.

Chopin's Study, op. 25, no. 12, can be very happily "solidified". It will be seen that the last chord position in bars like the first one contains the top two notes only instead of the three previously demanded by the passage (Ex. 64) : Ex.64. Chopin: Study,

op. 25, no. 12.

s* zyiH w*

r

u

*

In the fifteenth bar the semiquavers rise an octave higher than they have been doing and this (Ex. 65) ; Ex. 65.

gives us the best

rhythm

in

which to play our 66a and )

at that point. In bar sixteen (Ex. x.66a.

as nearly solid as possible will Ex. 67.

solid chords

:

Ex.66b.

be better than

this (Ex. 67)

:

Practising in Solid Chords

whichever of the two exemplifies the fingering you intend to adopt. When solid chords suggest a new fingering it will generally prove to be an improvement, but when that cannot be, to take note and mark well any lack of correspondence will reduce the danger of later incertitude. Even muttering such words as "unrepresentative of the passage work" is better than unawareness of that danger. In bar forty-two, the right hand should treat the third beat like this (Ex. 68) :

Ex.68.

At the end of bar (Ex. 69)

fifty-seven, the

two hands should play thus

:

Ex.69.

and the best plan this (Ex. 70)

for the left

hand at the very end is probably

:

Ex. 70.

Nearly the whole of Chopin's op. 10, no. practised thus (Ex. 71)

Ex. 71. Chopin: Study, op.

\

can be

the beat instead of within

we

10, no.

7

4

the same device of playing the simultaneously still acting in the

In op. 25, no. i, treatment (Ex. 72) :

7,

:

thumb and second final ascent,

finger

though across

it.

see

how

49

after six bars of simple

Practising the Piano Ex, 72.

a

little

humouring enables the chords played to go on

exemplifying the fingering (Ex, 73)

:

Ex.73.

When a figure contains an unessential note it can often be very musically if

you play

Ex.74a* Ch

:

it

fitted into a

chordal version of the passage

as an acciaccatura (Ex. 74*2

Fantasy

Impromptu

and

&)

;

Ex. 74b,

The musical effect of passages solidified as in the examples of this chapter is often lovelier than the passages themselves as we have been playing them. When we begin to wish they had been written that way the magical charm is its doing

beneficent work.

The

harvest

may be

considered to be fully reaped when we can confidently manage two things : (i) to imagine the composer's figuration while we are playing the solid chords, and (2) to imagine the chords when we are the playing composer's figuration.

II

Octaves OCTAVE

scales

and arpeggios

in all the keys,

major and

minor, make good preliminary practising material and help one to know one's way about the keyboard from a standpoint

markedly different from that familiarised by ordinarily fincontinue each scale or gered scales in single notes. To is a good idea when arpeggio for a distance of two octaves both hands are playing together, this rhythm for ascent and descent (Ex. 75)

:

Ex.75.

being convenient for the Ex.76.

scales,

_ _.-

and j

^

this (Eec. 76)

:

^ ~iF

When

both hands are playing together it sixth is sometimes a welcome change to have them a third, it may distance. octave's an of instead tenth or Perhaps apart also be well to use the tone-schemes recommended in for the arpeggios.

chapter

3, part II, if

these activities are pursued for

more

Piano

Practising the

than a day or two. Leaving scales behind, we could proceed due course to the prettier Czerny Studies and their

in

like,

and add octaves to them (Exx. 77 and 78) Ex.77. Czerny: Left

:

Hand Study

Ex.78. Czerny: Studyf op.740,no.3

then after further progress to the Two-part Inventions of Bach (see chapter 13). Staccato octaves will be the main conthis chapter, and for these a practical mechanism is cernôf one in which the octave is maintained between gauge firmly

the

thumb and

fifth

the wrist, elbow or firmly enough at the will

be like trying to

finger, the movement shoulder. If the

coming from gauge is not held moment of playing any octave it move something with a stick that

bends. in which the firmness of the preparatory steps hand, comflexibility at the wrist or elsewhere, is ensured and becomes familiar in sensation are to clench the fists and

bined with

play only the

thumb

notes,

and

(i) (2) to gather the fingertips

and play only the fifth finger notes (with the of the fifth of tip finger, course). Being able to measure the intervals with each concerned finger separately makes it safer and easier measure them afterwards with both at ^to once. In preserving the aforesaid octave gauge later, it will reduce the muscular effort involved for the thumb closely together

and

fifth

finger if the second, third and fourth are held firmly pressed together (or either adjacent pair of these musically unoccu-

pied fingers).

Octaves

For wrist work it is good to play passages of staccato octaves slowly, drawing your hand lightly and swiftly right off the keyboard to produce each staccato as though you were brushing a grain of sand off the edge. This is a followthrough of the ideal wrist action required to play an octave, a chord, or even a single note, in which the movement should have ceased the moment the keys are down. Your followthrough should be carried as far as possible, giving a sensation at the wrist like the final turn of a watch-key when you cannot move it any further. At the moment it may feel a slight strain but there is muscles for wrist action

same moment.

no danger in it. It strengthens the and loosens the wrist joint at the

If you cease the effort the

moment

the finger-

from the edge of the keys, the hand will fly back an inch or more in the direction from which it has just come, a most helpful instance of the tips are as far as possible

springiness that produces staccato without a second effort of lifting away. Later on use the same action with its follow-

through on beats only instead of every octave, l:ke the "group practice" in chapter 5. For heavy whole-arm work a useful sort of follow-through (though this one contains no element of return spring or movement) is to pull the hands away from the keyboard until the elbows are as far behind your back as you can get

them

"rowing" in chapter 15). Later you will find that less than an inch of this same movement (with the keys still held down in fact) helps you to ensure a certain mellowness instead of thumpiness in ff (mostly on account of causes you might hardly suspect), and also to cultivate looseness at the (see

shoulder (chapter 15 again) allied to a springy condition of the upper arm. Legato octaves are a very different matter. Their execu-

mostly achieved by independent finger action, backed up (perhaps especially in/) by forward and backward swingchapter 15 yet again) ing of the arm ("see-sawing", in fact

tion

is

for alternate octaves.

Here again the thumb

notes only and

then the other notes of the octaves only, will be excellent

53


preparatory practice. Now although I once had a girl pupil could play legato octaves with this fingering (Ex. 79)

who

:

Ex.79. i

man

woman and we

can

such a stretch

is

say that

normally impossible to play octaves finger-

it

is

phenomenal

in

or

legato in both voices. In view of this better for one voice to be very legato

it is

generally

much

and the other quite

detached, than for both to be nearly legato. And as a rule the artful assistance of the pedal is indispensable in addition

any finger legato we can achieve. Even when the effect is acoustically legato, that on the listener's mind will often fail to

to satisfy because subtle matters of accentuation are so farreaching. slight bump on a half-beat, for instance, will

A

very often sound as if there must have been a break in the continuity of tone, even when there certainly was none.

12 Simplified Versions

of

Difficult Passages o %/ SOME

publications, like the Hall6 Classics with which I familiar as a small child, preface the pieces with preliminary exercises or special advice as to how to overcome

was

the difficulties. The exercises are all too often mere variants of the figures presenting technical difficulty and rarely develop the student's preception of the musical meanings of the piece. It would be better if the latter consideration were always kept to the fore as it can and should be with the examples that follow. The ideal thing is that the various processes should be made as beautiful as possible with the gist of the music so clearly presented that an audience

could enjoy listening to each process in turn. Let us take Chopin's flat Study, op. 25, no. I, first. It was recommended in chapter 10 that you should practise it thus (Ex. 80)

A

:

Ex.80.

t

I This might be followed by playing the right hand as it is left hand as above and then vice versa.

written and the

55


Another pair of complementary processes is for one hand to other hand the first note of play what is written and the hand is beat, making a slight change when the right every

playing the single notes by giving

it

this (Ex. 8 1)

:

Ex.81.

rrni,g A

third pair of complementary and sixteen. of every beat and omit middle the in to stop processes the notes that complete it (Ex. 82) :

in bars fifteen is

and

to leave the

(Ex. 83)

first

half of every beat similarly incomplete

:

Ex. 83.

In the first forty-three whole bars, the first process consists in playing the converging notes of the figure, and the second, the diverging notes. The second will be found rather less easy and rather less lovely than the first because the note on which you have to stop may be more difficult to reach, and often does not belong to the old harmony so that it sounds a bit gaunt until the rest of the beat fills up the

empty space. From bar forty-four onwards

it

will in the first

case be the descending notes that are omitted, and in the second, the ascending. So the first process is all convergings and then ascents while the second is all divergings and then

With

every process it will be preferable to play right to the end of this piece, always omitting the trill and descents.

Simplified Versions of Difficult Passages

turn in the

left hand, thus preserving throughout the essenelement of simplification. For the G flat Study from op. 25 certain processes imme-

tial

diately present themselves. First this (Ex. 84)

:

alternative physical actions recommended in chapter 3, part II, will all be of service. In bars ten, twelve and fourteen, the second break will be a quaver later :

in

which the

Next, left hand as written, right hand playing nothing but the melody right through (Ex. 85) :

etc.

Then right hand as written, left hand two quavers a bar only, giving us the essential bass voice. Three notes instead of two will be necessary in the eighth bar (Ex. 86) : Ex.86.

In the coda reasonable simplifications on similar lines would be these (Ex. 87 a and F) : Ex.87b.

Ex.87a.

J

ending in either case with

I

J

h

*

J

this (Ex. Bye)

i

J

I

:

_

Ex.87o.

These two complementary processes can be played first with and later with the fingering that suits the simplified version 57


to be used fingers that will have restored. are

The

when

the omitted notes

though not the official difficulty of this study, is difficult enough. It will be worthwhile to with fist clenches, and so on (four to the practise it by itself bar at first), and also with another quaint device taking all left-hand part,

the single notes with the wrong finger. Try the thumb then second, third, fourth and only then the correct 1

finger.

first,

fifth

These apparently perverse

improve your

alternatives will greatly skill in tackling leaps, and when you begin to

enjoy the fruits of all this labour you can further improve your skill by playing all those single notes, with the different than they are written fingers, an octave lower For the C minor Study, op. 10, no. 12, let us consider at least two processes. First, playing all the melody in single !

notes (the top note of each chord or octave) while the lefthand part is unaltered. Second, playing the right-hand part unaltered while the left-hand part is simplified to the utter-

most. This latter will work out as follows : In the introduction only play this (Ex. 88)

:

Ex.88.

When

the big tune comes in (bar ten), play nothing but the low 'cello Cs for five bars, holding them on as semibreves and minims. Then this (Ex. 89) :

Ex.89.

u

.

u.i

L.J

i

ir

*

-

m

the essential bass voice in fact. Continue with the essential bass voice, and at points which you can easily recognise a chord instead of one note will twice be preferable (Ex. 90) : Ex90.

1

When

preferred*

a

octaves occur instead of single notes, take the high road or the

low road

as

Simplified Versions of Difficult Passages

and on the

last

page

this (Ex. 9 1)

:

Ex.91.

Although the difficult left-hand part is the principal element from the study point of view, the right-hand part gives us the essential melodic thread of the musical discourse.

The

danger of the left-hand passage work becoming the player's main preoccupation and the right hand merely synchronising with the accompaniment in a servile manner is therefore considerable and the right hand must learn to be the

and dominate the performance while the left hand, intensely dramatic though its contribution should be, must act as a loyal and wary accompanist.

soloist

should be apparent that although the suggestions in this chapter all refer to the practising of entire pieces there will be innumerable cases where similar treatment will be of equal use for much shorter passages. Once the idea of simbeen accepted, there is practically no plified versions has end to the occasions on which it will come to our rescue. It

'3 Practising with One Finger THIS may seem when of futility, but

its

suggested foolish to the point beneficial effects can be far-reaching. Parfirst

the habit in studying such independent a Two-part Invention by Bach, in counterpoint as that of which the eventual effect should be that of an equally

ticularly valuable

is

matched duet. Try playing any one of those Inventions with your thumbs only for the whole piece (omitting ornaments and the third, if any), then with the second finger only, fourth and ing.

Your

only in turn, and finally with sensible fingerits familiarity with the music and contrapuntal fifth

intricacies in the actual

playing,

when

it

comes to

this

much

greater than if you had played the music six times with the proper fingering, for the one finger insistently draws your attention to the sixth effort, will probably

ceaseless changes

be

from similar to oblique and contrary

motion. It is

no longer one finger

octaves, but

it fulfils

many

if

we

play the whole piece in

of the same purposes including to be found on the keyboard.

knowing where the notes are It

may

comfort us to

reflect that this will

bear some resem-

blance to the effect of using an octave coupler on the harpsichord, although the right hand will have to play the octave above and the left hand the octave below to prevent the

hands from getting in each other's way. In itself it will be better for our general mastery of octave playing than using

60

Practising with

One Finger

studies of the dry type. Meanwhile the five fingers, the octaves and the sensible fingering give us a sevenfold ritual

apart from the occult blessings of that particular number, arithmetically one better than six. Many years ago a famous singer was asked by an eager

and

this,

is

young student why the class was told to practise a given exercise and the reply was "Oh you leave that to me, and do the exercise !" Surely one should always welcome enquiries even if they seem hostile or over-sceptical it gives one a chance to rake up a further list of benefits. Here is one more important benefit if you sing intervals, the wide ones :

!

;

:

occasion a special vocal

effort.

This (Ex. 92)

:

Ex.92.

i

is

a slight

effort,

and

this (Ex. 93)

;

greater one. To play these notes with one finger (as printed below the notes) instead of with natural legato fingering (as printed above the notes) helps us to mean the chosen

a

much

intervals vocally as well as correlating the vocal meaning with the keyboard distances. The benefits described in the

sentence are considerable and although they may seem remote or purely theoretical as you read the words, they are a great deal more as you play the notes. When the idea of last

vocalised intention

is

well rooted in your playing, the perils

of such skips as these (Ex. 94) Ex.94. Chopim Ballade in L.H

G

minor

:


be very perceptibly lessened by singing the bass voice of the passage, thus (Ex. 95)

will

:

Bx.95.

in

M

J

*

Mf

*

*

J

*

Hf

M M j

IJ

your mind as you play, however useful and necessary any

further expedients

may

be.

62

Fugal Study WITH many

of the problems of playing

I

am

tempted

some of the ritual advocated in

these chapters, and when I do so, hoping to save the time and patience of some of the brighter pupils, I generally regret it afterwards. With a four-part fugue it nearly always pays to insist on over to cut out

twenty separate processes, and if these are carried out the comfort and relaxation of many more mere playings through can be allowed without the risks that often attend heedless enjoyment. As a preliminary to the

fugue fugue

first ten processes, divide your into sections like fare stages on a 'bus route. The first in "The Forty-eight" is easily divisible by means of

A

D

cadences in different keys (G, and then two in minor, a C) into five sections. Then, section at a time, play through, as expressively as possible, each of the four voices separately, beginning with the bass and working upwards to the soprano. In some fugues, where voices cross or leave off, it is quite puzzling to know which notes belong to which voice and it is better to write out all such doubtful passages in score on as many staves as there are voices, than to be uncertain at any point. The separate voices should be fol-

lowed immediately by playing the sections through with two voices at a time, the lower with the left hand and the upper with the right hand. In doing this, if a unison occurs, play it scrupulously with both hands, although that is usually

63


unwise in ordinary playing.

The

best order for these six

(i) tenor with the right hand, bass processes with the left ; (2) alto right hand, bass left ; (3) soprano right hand, bass left ; (4) alto right hand, tenor left ; is

as follows

:

soprano right hand, tenor left ; (6) soprano right hand, alto left. You will soon realise that if you had done your ten processes for more than a section you would have forgotten the melodic outline of the single voices

combine them in pairs. These first ten processes are

when you came

to

two voices

at

fascinating, the

many beauties that could very easily have escaped notice. At the same time, since they constitute a somewhat microscopic examination of the texture of the a time revealing a good

fugue, they need to be supplemented by a bird's-eye view of the whole when we have completed our task with the sections. For this, let us play the extreme voices only of the

whole fugue straight through. At every actual point we have done this already, but playing the extreme voices might have coincided at a given point with process five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten, and in this fugue does coincide with five out of those six alternatives. We must pass from one to the other, therefore, as the music dictates. Remorselessly doing this will sometimes produce an unpleasing fault (as the geologists would call it) and such overlapping as this in bar twenty (Ex. 96)

:

should be welcomed whenever it saves one from some effect of musical illiteracy like the consecutive octaves which were avoided here.

To the fugally experienced our eleven processes may seem easy, but for the average student it is quite usual after a week's work at them still to get entangled here and there. ^X As soon as all eleven are mastered they will have done much VB/

Fugal Study to

show us what

needs, however

the playing of the fugue contrapuntally are they have done to achieve it.

We

little

therefore just ready for processes twelve and thirteen. In both we play the complete fugue straight through with

every note staccato, except the

You may

well ask monstrous as the why. conductor of a village band who told his players to read a difficult new thing just arrived from London "without the see that a great deal of the diffiaccidentals". But no of is in culty fugue playing holding one note on in one voice while another note in another voice is let go, often to move on somewhere else. If this difficulty is temporarily elimin-

And you

last one.

might argue that

1

it is

as

We

ated by staccato playing in every voice, and if the notes and rhythm themselves are both correct, it is something of a revelation to experience how much of the gist of the music

can still be divined. In the meantime, granting that one has not yet mastered the fugue (for in such a case further processes might be superfluous) this staccato treatment will give you a reasonable chance of doing the task that has been set with a hundred per cent, accuracy and knowing whether you have done so. It may surprise the reader to be advised to play all the tied notes again in these staccato versions. One reason for this is that it involves the registering of every printed note in the mind by the fingers, but a more important one is the way that it emphasises the dissonance of many suspensions and the beauty as each of them gets resolved. But it is time to explain why there should be a pair of staccato processes. Twelve is to be without pedal and thirteen with pedaL Twelve will be very disconnected, there-

and

comfort you to pretend that you are a string quartet, that all four bows were stolen by fore,

it

may humorously

a rival quartet leader, and that as rehearsal is imperative it has to be sempre pizzicato. Thirteen will naturally sound more connected than twelve but will need care if it is not to be too smudgy. If the pedal is changed about four times a bar in our C major fugue, the occasional smudges will probably give a less confused effect than legato organ playing

65


an echoey church. Neat changes will involve a less sharp moments of change than elsewhere, but this is all to the good in training our fingers to cling on a little longer when occasion demands. If they fail to do so in these in

staccato at the

cases

it is

like

handing someone a scalding cup of tea and

letting go of the saucer before you can feel that the recipient has got hold of it. At points where our crotchet pedalling is unpleasantly smudgy, it should be modified to suit the pro-

gressions ; we gradually gain increased skill in divining what desirable and carrying it out nicely when it has been decided upon. It may be emphasised here that all this

is

pedalling with the staccato playing

is

a very

good appren-

ticeship for later pedalling during legato performance. Wellpedalled Bach is very often preferable to unpedalled, just as

sunlight adds radiance to a landscape. Fourteen and fifteen are severely practical and are examples of delayed continuity as advocated in chapter I, though

the units are necessarily very short. In fourteen the pauses for reflection are at regular intervals, say twice a bar (Ex. 97): Bx.07.

your main duty being not to play the next bit until you have successfully done so in your head. In fifteen the pauses are at irregular intervals as in this (Ex. 98)

:

Ex.93.

and

your duty, two points are of special importdeciding where the next pause shall be before "pushing off", and if a difficult moment has been reached a quarter of a bar fully mastered will be better than half a bar or more with a defect. The other is to be sure to stop where you decided you would, instead of drifting on heedlessly in your joy because Scylla or Charibdis has been in fulfilling

ance.

One

is

safely passed.

Sixteen to twenty-seven are the cream of

66

all

the processes.

Fugal Study

With

talented pupils it is sometimes possible to scrap the often it worthwhile though enough may prove

first fifteen,

to have recourse to

makes

them afterwards

if this

or that weakness

appearance. In sixteen to nineteen you play the whole fugue straight through, in sixteen singing the bass voice as well, in seventeen, eighteen and nineteen the tenor, its

and soprano respectively. With a woman's voice some this of singing will have to be an octave or more too high,

alto

with a man's voice an octave or more too low unless he has a falsetto to fall back upon or prefers to whistle (an octave or more too high). Unexpected difficult moments will sometimes give us considerable trouble and by the time we can really sing the right notes in one voice a mistake may occur

must rely on getting this to sing the voice in which

we have been

focusing special attention

straightened out when this mistake occurred.

Now

whereas

We

we come

in the playing of another.

upon one voice while playing all four, and actually making the one louder by adding vocal tone to it in sixteen to nineteen, in twenty to twenty-three we again focus special attention on the one voice (bass, tenor, alto, soprano, in that

order), but by playing it louder* Sixteen to nineteen helps you to achieve twenty to twenty-three and vice versa.

Twenty-four to twenty-seven consist in listening attentively and in a lesser degree will produce an effect similar to twenty to twenty-three because the voice to which you are listening will come out rather louder than to the four voices in turn

the others, although less so than when you are trying to bring it out. If you play a few bars and ask a friend to tell

which voice you have been listening and he cannot say, you will probably find that you were not really succeeding in your attempt to listen to it A moderate amount of each of the above processes may be expected to produce better results than a great deal of a few of them, and it may be as well to follow them up by some conducting as recommended in chapter 2, and some

you

to

!

further thought

upon the message of chapter 6?

6.

%

15

Looseness at the Shoulder ALTHOUGH

I

believe that looseness at the shoulder

is

one

of the foundation-stones of efficient technique, physically so until pupils have speaking, I often refrain from saying

A

moment is then progressed a long way on their road. reached when it is of special value to trot the theory out* First let us be quite sure what is desired. In the 1890$ young girls like my sister (of about my own age) were instructed that

it

walked. Such was

was vulgar

to

swing their arms as they

the tradition of late Victorian deportment. movements, carried back and for-

These self-same vulgar ward parallel with the line of your

footsteps, exactly

produce

the looseness advocated in this chapter. If you sit at the and then carry them piano, place your hands on the keys,

backwards and forwards together instead of alternately, far back as continuing the movement from the keyboard as your elbows can be drawn, it will look rather like rowing,

though the elbows should not move outwards. Then if you keep your fingertips on the keyboard without letting between the edge and the wood of the lid while the upper arms swing backwards and forwards as far as the tethered fingertips allow, there will be a kind of see-saw

them

slide

With both these movements "rowing" and "see-sawing" the arm will be loose at the shoulder. If you get someone else to move your arm as in rowing or see-sawing, when you offer resistance you element in the movement.

68

Looseness at the Shoulder will

at the shoulder, and when there is no are preserving the easy poise which the move-

have stiffened

resistance

you ments are designed to produce. And when you perform either of these movements yourself it will loosen you if you are tight, and prove to you that you are loose already if you cannot be sure without the test. Now a ff chord, a difficult trill or mordent, the attempt to achieve a pp any difficulty in fact, even anxiety in itself, can very easily stiffen you at the shoulder, and the thing to do is to cultivate recovering that looseness when it has been lost. When you or others are

hampered by stiffness, try to ascertain where the stiffness and it will often prove to be at the shoulder. If this eliminated the relief

may

is is

well resemble that of Christian

when

the load of sin fell from his back. In stopping-practice you can row or see-saw in time to the mental rehearsal that precedes the next phrase, but as audiences cannot wait for you to perform such antics, the next thing to learn is to see-saw while you are playing

(Ex. 99): Ex.99.

you make these accents by means of the arm movements, you could say, watching your wrist to understand the choice If

of syllables (Ex. 100)

:

BUOO.

a

Down

J up,

down up, down

'^

J

J up,

down

up,

down

" up, down up,

f down

r=t up, down up,

being careful, however, that the wrist does not continue to when the elbow stops moving, for this would defeat your main object and prevent your upper arm from swinging forward again until the wrist had returned to the position from which it had sunk. There is a natural pace for these sink

somewhere about J S7J2 (though it varies with the individual), and if you play perceptibly slower or quicker crotchets,

69


than your own natural pace it will probably get you confused as to whether you ought to be doing an "up" or a

"down"

Now

at a given

moment.

"down" on every other note

see-saw with the

(Ex. 101): Ex.101.

_j

Down

The "up" movement

etc,

down up

tip,

here puts something of a brake on the

in fact, speed, so this will at best be quasi Vistesso tempo as as even slow J-.se- But if perceptibly slower, perhaps

you have a "down" on every Ex.102.

fifth

note (Ex. 102)

^^ ~

:

etc.

this

tempo

will

probably be pretty close to that of the

quavers.

We

should see-saw therefore with crotchets, quavers

and semiquavers, and the movement should sometimes be as exaggerated as possible and sometimes so slight that an onlooker (unaware of what you were supposed to be doing) might not see it. Sometimes the accents should be very conspicuous to the listener and sometimes hardly detectable. So

we have these four combinations

:

(i) lots of

; (2) lots of movement with little or no accent movement with a big accent and (4) little move-

a big accent (3) little

movement with

ment with

As soon

;

;

little

or no accent.

this is mastered a very little movement can an one give impressive accent when the finger has not the necessary strength for it, and this same little movement can unstiffen one's upper arm at the shoulder even when accentuation of any kind is undesirable. In the syllabic differentiation so essential to expressive cantabile playing, the use of these see-sawings and the sense of treading produced by the "down" movements bring the greatest comfort to the

as

all

70

Looseness at the Shoulder users, largely on the ground that when what you do feels physically like the effect you want to hear, natural ease in the effort

The

and

result are married in a truly blissful union. fundamental value of looseness at the shoulder will

therefore

its

become increasingly apparent.

i6

of Time

Gradations A GOOD

deal of textbook doctrine

on

this subject is at best

can easily become acrimonious. One or two assertions on the practical plane, howthan denunciations of those ever, may be more acceptable

unsound, and discussion about

it

who go further or along a different path. distinct kinds of flexibility are that of the beat that within the beat. Let us first consider the former. If

Two

and

you

count three or four in a succession of bars with march-like or

even metronomic precision, the rhythmical sequence of the beats will certainly be unbroken. If you then try dawdling

on individual beats it is

fairly easy

to

thre (one, two,

,

.

.

e,

f , our, for instance)

know whether the sequence has been main-

and you experiment with accellerandos rallentandos of increasing magnitude, your ability to say has been lost will grow from whether the

And

tained.

as

pulse

positively day to day.

so if Conducting is even better than counting, dawdles and hastenyou find you can conduct such and such a legitimate rubato in ings the result can be pronounced

of sequential continuity in the beats would have been a case of senza tempo. Whether the

itself,

whereas the

loss

example of rhythmical freedom

amples

a given appropriate in

a question of interpretation. within the beat each of these flexibility

passage

Of

is

is

an exaggeration for the sake of

is

and 104)

:

72

clarity

two ex-

(Exx, 103

Gradations of Time Ex.103. Beethoven: Kreutzer Sonata -ttc.

Ex.104. Polonaise accompaniments

J5

J-

dangerously easy to overdo* Such liberties are and the problem is often how much to and how often. National music makes many demands

Ex. 103

Is

called falsifications falsify of this kind.

A

within the beat

very helpful analogy for is

much

flexibility

the phrase "declamatory freedom".

would sing these two

syllables (Ex. 105)

You

:

Ex.105.

i shatter

more

swiftly than these (Ex. 106)

:

Ex.106.

fiercely

even if the composer had not attempted to specify any difference in the notation. Indeed it would probably be better for

him not

to

make any such

attempt.

Chopin's F minor Ballade often suffers from this kind of treatment (Ex. 107) :

eight times in the sixteen bars of this melody, which converts what might be a good effect Into a regrettable and stilted mannerism. We may sometimes be tempted to remind some

"miserable sinner" that the object of rubato is usually to render the music more beautiful rather than less, though it might not sound quite so embittered if we suggested constructive improvements.

A so-called definition of rubato

hand

free", a

phenomenon which

notation itself (Exx. 108, 109 and

73

hand

in time, right is often called for by the

is

1

"left

10)

:

Practising the Piano Ex.108. Chopin: Nocturne In F$

Ex. 109. Hummel: Sonata, in D,Op.l06

Larghetto a caprtcci*

(Thc last of fourteen similar bars)

Ex.110. Chopin: Nocturne in Dfe " Ztnfo sosttnxto

The

beauty with which Chopin treated such passages may be part of the reason why "left hand strict, right hand free" has been so often advocated as a solution of the rubato problem. The result of accepting this doctrine is usually similar to that produced by an insensitive accompanist who cannot keep together with the soloist. is

Changing the tempo is quite another affair. Nowadays it more severely frowned on than in my childhood. Lesche-

tizky was sometimes at pains to advocate subtle vacillations, perhaps in a graded series, that enabled one to achieve desired changes unperceived.

I

74

can for once masquerade as

Gradations of Time

man if I submit that about the period of 1 900 many tempo changes and in the 19508 there too few. Certainly if there is anyone who perhaps

a moderate

there were too are

an inflexible metronomic constancy of pace of other considerations, he may be regarded as regardless an extremist.

advocates

Hand Preparing of Positions a pithy analysis of all we have as far as the keyboard is concerned ;

"FIND

p ress_let go"

is

to do in piano playing to me in almost casual conversation over it was

presented

The

thirty years ago.

first

of the three actions was always

called "preparing" in the Leschetizky fold

to exaggerate

its

An

it is

difficult

Take

the skips of a typical should early ritual of practising staccato, and whenever there is a

importance.

waltz accompaniment.

and

be to play very slowly, very dash like lightning to the next position. If in our skip to first example you seem to reach the silent diamond-headed

moment when

notes at the very

played

is

heard,

it

trick required (Ex.

will 1 1

1)

appear

the crotchet you have just to be the sort of conjuring

:

-* It

may be

to reach tantalising at first

note and not play

it,

but to play

it

your diamond-headed

tends to lessen the value

remove from your mind, in fact, the it. The very thing you had most wished to impress upon slower you play, the quicker can the skips be made and the of the skip

itself

to

76

Preparing of

Hand

Positions

deeper will the impression of this rapidity sink into the memory of your hands and fingers for future use. Moreover, the quicker the skips the more accurate are they likely to be you have no time to forget en route where you came

from or how

far you have to go. Afterwards do your special preparings once a bar only, playing up to time but with really long pauses. If the pauses

are three bars long the regular four-bar lengths into which the delayed continuity would fit will, by its ordered design, have a comforting and invigorating effect upon our spirit

(Ex.

1 1

la and

:

)

ExJ12a.^z^ro

^\>

I

,*

f^ ^

1

I

3=^=3 etc.

Ex.ll2b. tic.

In this (Ex. 113): Ex. 113. Beetltevtitt Sonata,Op.27,No.l

(with which some of my readers are sure to have had their struggles), the wide skips occur at irregular intervals. When the rests come, fling your hands on to the next chord as if

they had been hurled out of a catapult and ask yourself two questions : whether your aim achieved a bull's-eye, and whether the speed of the journey was as quick as it would need to have been if you had been playing straight on. The

77


answer

is

naturally more likely to be "yes" in both cases if is as the crow flies.

the journey

be inopportune, even though somewhat premature, to mention here that extreme zeal regarding these skips may sometimes make you so over-eager that you will play the chord preceding the skip too sketchily (smudged or not fully audible, for instance). It is a tantalis-

Perhaps

it

will not

ing but very useful discipline to stop just short of the skip, with your fingers on the surface of the keys that have that moment been released. For one thing, the release, if achieved by total relaxation of downward pressure and not attended by a lifting away from the keys, even as much as a tenth of

an inch, allows the subsequent journey to be made more swiftly and easily than if it had been the journey that produced the staccato. Meanwhile, as you learn to make the step mentally, though not physically, the tantalising element is gradually eliminated. Perhaps it will soothe our outraged feelings to exclaim with the King in Hamlet : thoughts remain below' ', up to Heaven,

"My words fly

my

which

is,

perversely enough, the opposite of what we are doing. Preparing must not be confined to chords and skips, but carefully cultivated in finger passages as well. If you play the scale of major for four octaves in semiquavers and a crotchet group has reached the following whenever pause

C

note (which might be called the destination of the group), the diamond-headed notes show you how many notes you should

prepare at the respective stopping-places (Ex. 114):

Preparing of

Hand

Positions

Sometimes practise the above with a "full-dress" mental rehearsal before each little rush. The sixth of the right-hand groups has what would be a grotesque fingering were those five notes to occur by themselves, but it is useful to realise that it is the right orthodox fingering if you are playing

your complete four octaves. The left hand gets the same fingering in the sixth group descending.

79

i8

Beauty THIS

of Tone

a subject which has aroused considerable controcannot make one versy. Scientists have declared that you isolated note beautiful or ugly on the piano, you can only

make

is

it

louder or softer. Musicians often declare that their

experience totally disproves the scientists' assertion. Even if the musicians were right, there are so many factors produc-

ing beauty or ugliness in tonal effect that the importance of single-note beauty would at best be comparatively slight. Factors which produce unquestionable differentiation of

tone quality are the pedal and the harmonies. Notes that are pedalled glisten with a lovely radiance that is like the beauty of a wet pebble on the sea-shore

:

dry the pebble and the

and the magic is restored. magic dip Compare the first part of Ex. 115 unharmonised with the same notes harmonised two bars later, and in Beethoven's Largo from op. 7 (Ex. n$a,b and c) is lost,

it

in water again

:

Ex.U5a.

J

Ex.1151).

Ei.ll5c.

J-3J

Think what the accompaniment^)/^ pedal adds to the unaccompanied E|j melody note with which another Chopin Study begins (Ex.

1

16)

:

80

Beauty of Tone Ex.116.

Apart from the magic of the liquid flowing semiquavers in the accompaniment, the way the harmony thereof supports the melody (with perpetual scope for subtle variations in the degree of that support) gives almost unlimited possibilities for beautifying the actual singing tone quality of that series of repeated E[>s. Then there are the various factors which seem to influence beauty of tone quality and therefore do affect beauty of tonal

We

might consider them from the negative point of view. When a note is too loud or comes too soon it may well seem harsh by reason of the shock it produces. For it to be too soft or too late will be feeble, lacking vitality, warmth or some other essential attribute. For the bass voice effect.

or other notes in the accompaniment to give insufficient support to the melody will make an accented melody note

sound hard when

it would otherwise have been completely a question therefore of harmonic proportion. acceptable, The dissonance of wrong notes also creates a harshness of its own. Start Beethoven's Sonata, op. 10, no. i, with a Btj

to the first chord by the right hand, and compare it with an equally fierce clean /chord. Mercifully, whatever our beliefs about tone and touch,

added

the same practical expedients make for good results. Three ways which might have been advocated for increasing beauty of tone quality in itself are in any case of great usefulness in

and comincreasing our power of avoiding the numerous forth in the preceding paragraph, and plicated dangers set therefore productive of much positive benefit. The first is mental, the other two physical. The mental one is always to be striving for the maximum tonal beauty. To long for and dream of loveliness makes us more likely to achieve a

81


beautiful effect, whatever the

means employed, more

alive to

the result, whether it be encouraging or disheartening, and more aware of what the effort to achieve it felt like, whether

with a view to preserving what was good, or avoiding whatever was not approved. The first physical observance is always to touch the keys before pressing them down, because hitting them from a distance (even a slight one) reduces precision with regard to the sound coming at the right moment, with the right volume (not only total volume, but also that of the melody note and balance with those that harmonise it), and without a smudge. The second physical observance is the habit of instantaneous relaxation of any superfluous pressure that may have been momentarily necessary for ff chords, and so forth. This last immensely increases the likelihood of good timing and general control in jf, as well as conserving greatly needed energy, It is wise to reflect on the varying fate of beautiful voices

(singing or speaking) and beautiful timbre in musical instrulike wind and strings where quality does vary so con-

ments

A

spicuously on single notes. lovely timbre soon loses its if the the lack phrases magic variety and appeal of human and expressiveness, conversely an unpleasing timbre is often

when musicians and actors possess Has even one of my readers failed to

same

forgotten

that

appeal. these truths ?

experience

1

9

and Rotary Movements of the Forearm

Trills

SOME

of our trills should sound like a bird or a flute, and musical. Slower ones are liable to sound lumberliquid and ing angular^ quicker ones like an electric bell or an infuriated wasp arriving on the window-pane. There is a place for

each of these types, according to the passage. Still slower than any of these is the kind some favour in Bach and other

composers, though many will find it unacceptable ; in these each note sounds like a separate syllable. If a trill causes you difficulty, try first to estimate the rhythmical groups of which it should be composed, writing them out if there is any lack of clear intention. must decide whether the groups should be twos, threes, fours, sixes, or what. If fours are too slow and eights too quick, we shall have to choose a triplet grouping and the further question may arise whether six notes shall be made up of two triplets or three pairs of notes. Incidentally the former, by virtue of the groups' starting alternately on the principal note and the upper note, makes very good practice even if not adopted subsequently. In the practising itself over-accentuation leads to greater ease and control later, especially when achieved by rotary exertions of the forearm. The latter will be considered in trills

We

some

detail later in this chapter.

83

"Group

practice", beating


with the other hand (for both see chapter 5) and very important singing the groups of the trill when they have been decided upon, are all three very valuable. If the final pace of the trill is going to be quicker than the maximum possible with your vocal technique, to sing a note and roll

an "r" on it is a suggestive and very helpful kind of semimental rehearsal.

A good way of working at a long regular intervals,

resuming the

trill

trill is

sponding to the beats that have elapsed

be practised thus:

and then:

to

come to

at a later :

I

a stop at

moment corre-

^^t^r^Ti>

fffj fffj J^JJJH /351

J^JJB JH3

of them with and without the

1

J

J773 /T73IJ

can

4J both

ties.

These examples assumed commencement on the principal note, but opinions vary as to whether a trill should do so. If you decide that a given trill shall, let the first note sing and play the next few much more lightly. If you begin with the upper note, prevent it from singing, and what follows from sounding as if the whole thing was an inverted trill on that upper note. Whichever line you take, the beauty with which

you carry out your preference preference

is

more important than the

itself.

It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that every trill should end on the principal note, and this may also involve careful

rhythmical planning. Where a trill needs a turn at the end, although the penultimate note will be below the principal note the rhythmical plan will most probably be unaffected.

The

beginning on the principal note and only three give us an upper mordent ; the shortest with a turn at the end will contain seven notes. These seven notes are the most shapely in one of these two groupings (Ex. 117* and V} shortest real

without a turn

trill

will contain five notes as

:

Ex.

84

117b.

Trills

and Rotary Movements of

the

Forearm

from which we should choose whichever suits the occasion better. In Ex. 117^ the two halves of the trill are found to be an upper mordent followed by a turn commencing on the note above, which seems to leave us with no actual trill Few listeners, however, will be bothered by this curious !

fact unless the fourth of the seven notes is grotesquely over-

accentuated.

A long

trill nearly always gains life (whether by its beauty, excitement, or whatever its particular quality) by tone gradations swellings, fadings, etc., like a long held note on a voice or violin. Nearly all trills are much better pedalled,

its

and when a gradual diminuendo is the required effect, a sudden drop of tone in the playing will produce the gradual drop in the sound, because unless the pedal

is

changed those

more softly played notes will have the sounds already ringing added to their volume. Trills benefit greatly by clearness of thought and physical precision in regard to rotary action and freedom of the forearm. In the early days of this century people often spoke as

Debussy had invented the whole-tone scale and Matthay What Debussy did was to unlock for us a rich treasure of beauty and imagination by his lovely use of the whole-tone scale, added to exquisite judgment in escaping from it when the moment came to do so, while if

"forearm rotation".

Matthay did great service in explaining principles about these forearm rotary mysteries concerning which there had previously been very widespread misunderstandings. Some worthies even used to advocate the placing of a coin where

your hand joins the forearm to prevent the tiniest rotary movement of the forbidden and dreaded kind. I once heard an examiner say to a candidate with scornful irony : "And when you have ceased to rotate . . ?" The rotary movements can be either a cause or a result. When they supply the energy with which notes are played the touch can be called rotary action, of which the fingers are and just agents. When finger action is the touch employed the rotary movements occur, they do so by virture of rotary .

85


freedom of the forearm. This is twice blest, for the fingers can move more easily when the forearm is thus free, and also need to move shorter distances to do their work, the saving corresponding to the amount of movement by the arm.

Now the two touches have a markedly different musical When you play the notes by rotary action they are

effect.

perceptibly martellato in character. Inît might be like the clattering of hooves on cobble stones or "the chaotic laughter

of a shunting train". In pp it might be like the tinkling of imagined harebells, but in either case there is a "ting-a-linga-ling" element in the notes. When you play them with finger action accompanied by rotary freedom of the forearm, you get more of a murmur as of zephyrs or bees. So it is

necessary to decide what you want in given instances. You probably vote for the murmuring effect in Chopin's F

will

minor Study, op. 25, no. 2, and for the clattering effect in the "Black Key" Study. Mercifully, if you first determinedly practise a passage with energetic rotary action, and then cease the conscious efforts, rotary freedom is left behind, a priceless deposit as one might say. There is no better way of cultivating the first of these touches than the following : Take any passage of broken intervals, whether they be octaves, sixths, thirds, mixed or whatever you like, play them first

as solid intervals (Ex.

1 1

8)

:

Ex.llS.Beethoveat Sonata, op. 2 6

Then do

the rotary movements corresponding to those in the passage rhythmically in the air (Ex. 119): Ex.110. Qttt in out IB

oat in opt in oat la oat in

oat in oat in oat in oat in

oat

out in out in

oat in oat in oat in out in

oat ia oat in oat in oat in

oat oat

86

Trills

and Rotary Movements of

the

Forearm

and thirdly play the passage as it was written, endeavouring to combine the two previous processes simultaneously instead of doing one after the other, an endeavour in which you will most often succeed. Of course if a friend enters the room when your hands are "doing their magics" in the air he may be constrained to ejaculate "Alas are you often :

!

taken like this ?" In so far as the use of rotary action of the forearm necessitates a conscious effort of the will, to make this conscious effort

and then, discontinuing

it,

rejoice in its "priceless

a simpler affair than acquiring many of the deposit" knacks which go to build up a reliable pianoforte physical is

technique.

2O

Sight-Reading THE

surest foundation for the best kind of sight-reading

to cultivate the

is

power of hearing music in your mind by Whether you are already skilled or a

at the page.

looking timid and rather unsuccessful beginner in this direction, a good ritual for practical use is to take short stretches of vary-

ing length according to the demands of the music selected, and with each stretch to read it mentally first, then to play

on the surface of the keys and finally out loud, when what you hear should be eagerly compared with what you had it

expected to hear. If either of the first two processes could be swiftly improved, you could persevere with it for a little while before proceeding to the next.

The proposed

ritual is

particularly valuable in helping you to avert inaccuracies before they actually occur. are taught that the recording

We

angel expects us to be tempted to play shabby tricks ; it is only considered blameworthy if we carry them out. Once we

have made a mistake in playing out loud, it is more likely to occur again than if the danger had been feared at an earlier stage and avoided in the nick of time. Indeed the advantages of "correct

first

time" tend to

pile

up

at the rate of

com-

The

possibilities of greater musical insight are also of considerable importance. hearing It is a very good thing to read unfamiliar pieces two or

pound

interest.

at first

three times, perhaps with a few days in between, and if this, like the ritual of the preceding paragraph, amounts to partly prepared sight-reading, that well done will have more

Sight-Reading influence on your progress than actual sight-reading of

an example of what you should aspire to, as well as making you more thoroughly acquainted with a great deal of music as time goes on. The habit of keeping your eye on the page while playing

poorer quality

is

of

;

maximum

it is

usefulness in sight-reading* Although

may have

we

seen valiant deeds performed by from and down darted whose eyes up page to keyplayers a superb that well become would who can do board, anyone instead of a good reader if the darting could be eliminated. in this field

often preached that one's eyes should be several bars ahead of one's fingers in sight-reading, and the value of this idea might be said to lie in the grasping of chord progresIt is

and whole phrases rather than spelling out the music a note at a time, however quickly. But essential though it may be for one's eyes to glance forward on the page, it is exceedingly valuable for them to glance back again and sions

indeed as often as possible to look the written notes straight in the face while playing them. If this is accompanied by it can often intensify grateful affection for musical notation the music. To look of one's sense of the emotional poignancy at these superb chords from Chopin's B minor Scherzo

during the very act of playing them (Ex. 120)

:

Ex.120.

will surely help

many

forcefulness

more

we analyse

in correct reading typical kinds of difficulty shall not fail to notice the following widely differing

If

we

still

of us to appreciate their shattering than ever.

sources of confusion

:

of a very diatonic Passage work of contrapuntal freedom Elizabethan character, such as is found in abundance in composers and in Bach. i


2

Passages that are riddled with accidentals, even

if

simple

rhythmically and otherwise. 3 as

4

The melodic floridity of the "Vienna period", does so much rhythmical complexity.

involving

it

Technical

difficulties

(Exx. 121, 122 and 123)

:

Ex.12}. Beethoven* Sonata, op. 2, no. 3 Mlegrocon trio .

Ex.122. Griegi Piano Concerto

5

Chords other than the standard ones

in

ordinary

harmony books. 6

Modern

incomprehensibilities.

Many players are good at some of the above and

bothered

few passages have more than two by of these difficulties at once. In any case, to realise which of them gives us particular trouble will show us in what directions to seek for the most improvement. Divining the character of what we read is in a different sphere altogether, so important that it could occupy a whole chapter or even volume. Perhaps the reader could be others. Comparatively

referred at this point to the chapter but in any case no effort should be

90

on dramatic

significance,

spared in developing our

,

Sight-Reading

musical insight while sight-reading as well as in the work

which follows

it.

Even if our sight-reading is of mediocre quality, there some ways in which we should respect it* If you play a

are

phrase straight away after you have for instance as this (Ex. 124) :

first

seen

it

such a one,

Ex.124. B*chi Eng-lish Suite in E minor

F may result in love at first sight and there will very likely be a beauty and a freshness in the sound that once lost might never be regained. Do everything you can to preserve that lovely bloom "thinking ten times and playing once" will

it

:

certainly help.

21

Miscellaneous THE DIFFICULT PACE IF you play finger passages slowly, say in crotchets at about and if you have the J = ioo> ft * s eas7 to do so stea dily>

same passages in semiquavers, also at at any J:ioo, the notes will probably sound equally or rate agreeably steady. But try a middle pace, say quavers at agility

to play the

about J : |2o> anc* y u ma7 b e reminded of church that behave like this (Ex. 125)

bells

:

Ex.125.

This pace can be nicknamed "the difficult pace", and each difficult pace for given passages player tends to have his own has a natural pace for walking just as each person there is no special reason for haste or dalliance.

What

is

here recommended

is

when

that in long, swift succes-

sions of single notes, such as in many Bach movements or Czerny Studies, we should find out the pace at which the

notes are the most tottery and then assiduously play long stretches through at that exact pace. In a few days the and staggerings will gradually melt out of existence, difficulty so for the passages in question there will cease to be a difficult pace. It is not often that playing

something badly with

conscious realisation of the fact proves positively beneficial.

92

Miscellaneous

Why

does so in this case seems to be that each little stagger produces a sense of annoyance and that the next time you pass the spot where you felt this annoyance a special it

effort will instinctively be made to avoid a repetition of the defect. In some the cases defect previous may have been

due to

failure in controlling the rotary movements of the forearm, in others to vagueness about accentuation, and in

some you may be unable

to trace the cause even

when

improvement has been achieved. In any case the exploitation of "the

pace" can often prove to be the suppletreatment which moderately successful passages mentary still need. difficult

TRANSPOSITION Ex.120. Beethoven* Sonata, op. 81 A

The

above, like the twin passage later in the same movement, is one of the sort that we practise for weeks and appear to have conquered, and then on the night of the concert we

go and fumble it. Many of the audience were on the lookout, wondering whether we should get past this corner with credit. So we must try and surround the passage with an extra wide margin of safety. For this it will be good to slave away in a variety of ways and two rather unhackneyed suggestions are offered here.

One

is

to play those three bars

in all the twelve keys while

adhering to the fingerbeginning ing of the original passage. They begin in (7 though a series of modulations starts almost immediately. If you begin a semitone higher at each repetition, the thirteenth effort will be the original one an octave higher. If you dread the number thirteen you can retrace your steps a semitone at a time and you will reach the original passage again at the twenty-fifth effort ; you will certainly know it better then

93


times as it is, and the you had played it twenty-five movements new little of number enormous suddenly demanded of your hands and fingers will have greatly increased your physical and mental agility. Of course, few

than

of

if

my readers

will

at first to

be able

manage

all

these trans-

it would certainly pay to write out all those positions, but that give too much trouble (using the new key signature each

those transpositions from the time) after which you can play MS. Do not flinch, even if you have to write out the three bars quite a number of times, for copying is valuable in itself. If you are still obliged to grope about in some of the even then, doing so will be worthwhile and transpositions lead in time to greatly increased fluency.

DUPLICATION Another way of drudging at the above passage is to play twice each in unbroken sequence. tiny units of two quavers allows which device a This is you to do all the physical in the passage at full speed but with twice as a neat and most long to think out what is coming next, combination of the benefits of slow and quick prac-

movements helpful

when dupliparticular passage the in both cated can be advantageously phrased following

tice at the

same time. Our

as far as practising

ways

is

concerned (Ex. 127)

:

Ex 127

The

alternative printed over the notes, if carrying out the better to plan with less relentless logic, conforms

proposed

the grammatical sense of the music.

PRACTISING WITH THE This

may

strike

many

WRONG HAND

readers as a gratuitous

perverse waste of time, but

it

and even

can be unexpectedly helpful.

94

It

Miscellaneous is

a good

way of

getting to

"know

notes irrespective of the

fingering by which they are played". Moreover, as the right hand gets more opportunities of development than the

hand, our eccentric procedure will often involve the left in tasks that would not otherwise fall to its lot, thus at least reducing the inequalities of opportunity as between the hands. In one kind of passage, it may be noted, most left hands have learned to excel the right to a marked degree. Try sliding the stool about a foot to the left and playing the left-hand part of your favourite Chopin Waltz with your right hand, an experiment which brings surprise to many. left

hand

22 Bodily Stillness SOME

bodily movements as you

to play given passages, as

sit at "the

piano help you the top or

when you need to reach

bottom of the keyboard with both hands. Others may help your imagination

in the task of getting into the right mood Some may, and in fact do, or

to interpret the piece passage. various in the ways, public impress

though what might be

called the "higher showmanship" may lead us to abjure them. From the technical point of view the elimination of

can vastly reduce the physical superfluous bodily movements total of exertion in the difficult pascomplexities and sum If you think of drawing a circle with a compass and

sages.

the centre before the allowing the pin to slip away from circle is complete, the danger to your circle suggests the devastating effect of shuffling on the piano stool

unnecessary movements. To bother about the question

when you

are

and other

on the

form may be unwise, but do so sometimes during

plat-

practice.

Perhaps the best time to play passages with your body as still as a statue is when you are trying to listen with more than usually

critical attention. If

you think

this (Ex.

Ex.128. Beethovem Sonata in C minor for Piano and Violin

Atltgr*

96

128)

:

Bodily Stillness

was as exciting as

it

ought to have been when no

visible

movement followed

the staccato C, you were probably justified in the belief. If you had flung your arms into the air

with a dramatic gesture you would have been far more likely to be self-deceived.

Of course, if you hold yourself still by stiffening, the energy saved in one direction may be lost in another. The poise of a racer ready to dart away, or of a cat before a spring, is what wanted. Some good devices for cultivating the knack are :

is

1

Take a passage

Symphonic left

hand

like Variation

No. 4

in

Schumann's

Studies. First play the right-hand part while the

lies

on the keyboard an inch or two lower than the

lowest right-hand note. Then play the left-hand part while the right hand lies an inch or two above the highest left-hand note.

The benefits of this treatment will soon be apparent.

Play difficult passages staring fixedly at the music on the page as you do so. The line of vision between your eye and the page will be like a magical silken thread, and will 2

eliminate a great many bodily movements while drawing your attention to those that still occur.

Pretend that you are literally glued to the piano stool, 4 Get someone to hold two fingers below your chin in gentle contact while you are playing some animated passages and every time there is a tremor in your frame you will be 3

most potently informed. Let it be reiterated that these devices are of extra use and comfort when adopted with the special purpose of listening more critically to the actual musical effect. It will also be found that playing on the surface of the keys, and playing fp regardless of the eventual need for tonal variety, both allow one to bear bodily stillness in mind with less apprehension or sense of constraint than in a normal performance.

And when you have reached the stage of knowing that given difficult

keeping firmly in

are passages are under better control because you to bear such benefits still, it ceases to handicap you

mind even on the

concert platfoms.

97

23 Athletic THE

first

Form

day of the tennis season or of a walking tour and stiffness, due to

in hilly country often produces aching

energetic and persistent use of muscles that have not been in vigorous action lately, if indeed ever before. The discomfort is appropriately described as healthy tiredness and the in the days that follow. By remedy is further

persistence

our hands and arms, we inducing can build up varied muscular efficiency, which will greatly increase the speed, nimbleness and endurance that so many this healthy tiredness in

technical difficulties in piano playing

demand. The problem,

which has already been touched upon in chapter 3, part II, is to recognise the difference between healthy tiredness and strain.

A pianist who has had physical trouble like neuritis, local strains

to act

and so forth, may need expert advice before venturing upon the suggestions that follow ; they may only be

adopted with safety by those backs. in

For the

latter, these

who have had no

two

earlier set-

be found helpful are on sound lines.

tests will

determining whether their efforts

Leschetizky used to assert that with any continued action producing tiredness in the forearm, even to the extent of a burning sensation, it was all right if the discomfort was i

the part of the forearm you can see when you are playing). In that case you could go on till you were

above

(that

is,

Athletic

Form

"black in the face". But

if the discomfort was felt below, were to leave off at once. To find pieces or passages in you which the same sort of difficulty is unremitting is better than plodding away with dull, unmusical exercises, or, if you can, to extemporise tunes with modulatory designs and harmonic variety is an admirable way of combining duty and pleasure. If you want to exercise both hands at once, Chopin's Studies op. 25, nos. 3 and 12, are suitable, while if you play the same composer's op. 10, nos. 8 and 12 in alternation, one hand can get respite while the other is purposely tiring itself. We were advised to repeat such alternations so that each hand after resting could tire itself

again. 2

Taking

similar examples (Chopin Studies, etc.),

when

you cannot play them right through without the wrong pain coming on or the loss of power to sound the notes adequately, notice at what point the pain or inadequacy occurs. If it is nearer to the end of the piece on Tuesday than it was on you get

still

tiredness

may be

diagnosed, especially if nearer to the end on Wednesday. If the pain or

Monday, healthy

inadequacy occurs sooner on a later day danger signal.

it

may be regarded

as a

Many ideal

other Chopin Studies tax one's endurance in the for our present purpose, and sets of variations

way

often provide very suitable material. So may passages out of the pieces you are learning. If any reader is studying Brahms' B[j Piano Concerto, he could not do much better than use the coda of the second movement. It will be found that the beneficial healthy tiredness in given pieces or passages may fail to be produced after a while, for one's powers of endurance grow and cease to be over-taxed. When that

happens, you must either search out different material or decide that the bout of exercising shall be considered at an end for the time being. It seems that occasional spasmodic bouts of this sort of work are more useful and, surprisingly enough, of more permanent value than the hour or half-hour

99


of technical exercising which

is

usually so piously advocated

for daily fare, year in, year out. And the time that for learning more music is of immeasurable value.

is

saved

In chapter 3, part II, practising long successions of staccato chords with a swift, tight fist-clench after every

chord was recommended. Variation No. 4 of the HandelBrahms set, with the fist-clench on every semiquaver, keeps the right hand clenching with hardly any respite, the left hand more intermittently. Let the left hand stay tightly clenched whenever it has nothing to play (Ex. 10, ignoring the pauses)

:

Ex. 10. Brahms : Variations on a theme of Handel, op.24

same set with four clenches a bar whenever rests are printed (Ex. 9, ignoring

Variation No. 25 of the in each hand,

the pauses)

i.e.

:

Ex. 9. Brahms Variations on a theme of Handel, op. 24

highly pleasurable. Here one hand stays clenched while the other hand is playing and one's movements recall those of a cat that is It was in this context of is

pleased.

specially

muscular development that Leschetizky used to add his solemn warning: "And don't forget that the more athletic

technique you get the worse you'll play !" I have probably quoted this remark to most of the pupils I have had in my long teaching life. The truth that lies within the palpable over-statement is that when muscular sensation engages too

much

of our

mind

as

we

play,

IOC

human

expression and

Athletic

significance (or call

it

interpretative

life)

is

Form

cold-shouldered.

From the purely muscular point of view it also seems that the greatest benefit is enjoyed when one's athletic form, having reached a kind of high-watermark, has been allowed a few days for a partial recession of the tide.

101

Dramatic

Significance

PERHAPS

the subject of this chapter is really the fundamental essence of musical interpretation itself, although

oddly enough two well-known books on interpretation seem to be principally occupied with questions like time flexibility in the

one case and the

different periods of

style of presentation

music

in the other.

of musical nationality might have

proper for Perhaps the claims

filled

a third book, but

although all three subjects are admittedly important aspects of interpretation they are surely not right at the heart of the matter.

Whatever our views on these cance in musical works

is

points, the dramatic signifi-

of profound importance both in

and as an element of performance. It might be hastily assumed that what is dramatic will be of a fevered and itself

though that would be appropriate would clearly be out of place in enough others. Lullabies should be slumbrous, laments griefexcited character, but in

some

cases

it

and so on. Berlioz made a point of some psychological subtlety in the observation that when she was singing "A King in Thule" nothing should be further from Margaret's thoughts than the King in Thule. stricken, sarabands stately,

Our

subject seems interwoven with the twin questions of music set to words and music. on

programme

these branches of the art

For

is

instance, Bach's arias

Meditating a great interpretative education. and choruses, Mozart's operatic

102

Dramatic Significance

numbers and Schubert's Lieder cast floods of light on the way we should play the works of those masters on the piano. Similarly, symphonic poems, overtures and innumerable passages from operas contribute to the wealth of imaginative suggestion that music so richly provides, even though the literature of descriptive pieces for piano is comparatively

small. Notable contributors in that direction

have been

Schumann, Grieg and Debussy. The first named was quite a pioneer in the use of titles (which can be said with no lack of recognition of earlier pioneers like John Munday, Kuhnau, and

others), though if some of Schumann's are apt indeed, others are of no perceptible relevance. The titles of Grieg and Debussy are usually so happily wedded to the music that

and music both add to the total beauty and significance. folk decry the whole idea of programme music, though that seems to be woefully unmindful of a lovely province in the musical territory. Tovey put the whole problem of programme music in a very reasonable light when he said that Beethoven's "Lebewohl" Sonata tells you a lot more about the title than the title tells you about the music, and if one's first impression is "a smart epigram", it soon becomes evident that the utterance is one of profound discernment. A warning note is struck in an amusing tale about Beethoven which Leschetizky told and which I have never seen in print. An enthusiastic amateur was asking him whether he really intended the first notes of the C minor title

Some

Symphony to represent a yellow-hammer, or the knocking of Fate or indeed what. The composer's uncompromising .

reply was I

:

"I meant

meant 1"

You

*

< *'

.S_

---* J "j

J

|

j.

^

that's

what

sometimes hear derisory comments on teachers who gild their counsel with flowery similes. But when these are appropriate enough there can be great potency in them. Aptness and sincerity are the qualities that will

or others

had recourse to justify their use. The great composers often them in their expression marks and in verbal statement. H

103


Beethoven's direction "beklemmt", Haydn's "innocente", Prokofiev with his "narrante", "alzando", etc., Bax with "feroce", Debussy with hosts of suggestions, Hindemith's

"mitbizarrerPlumpheit"andScriabin's "perfide" (though to mind, is unintelligible to me) spring rapidly

the last

totally

Debussy told Thomas Fielden that the opening of his piece Mouvemcnt should be "like the hum of a great city". Most was Beethoven's hint that the impressive of all, perhaps, recitatives in the first

like a voice

movement

from the tomb.

of op. 31, no. 2, should be

A teacher's similes will naturally

tend to be modificatory rather than creative

:

"more persua-

are essentially sive", "why so sentimental?", "sterner", related to efforts which already have some character of their

own. There

a school of thought in this century that favours the playing of music in a strictly businesslike frame of mind, with total accuracy according to the text both regarding the is

music and the expression marks, but with scrupulous detachment on the part of the players, who should not allow their feelings of love, reverence, joy or delight to add to the presentation. The doctrine, however unacceptable to some of us, was apparently a violent swing of the pendulum away from the tendency at the end of the last century to offer performances in which the individuality of players produced results too widely at variance with the spirit of the compositions presented. An uncle of mine who haunted St. James's Hall in the '8os

and '90$ used to expatiate on various famous pianists whom he had heard there. It always ended up with eulogies of Anton Rubinstein and how it was the dramatic significance of gave him pre-eminence. Leschetizky's desscription of Rubinstein's intense expressiveness has probminds ably left a deeper impression on some of his pupils' than many of the magnificent performances we heard even in our most impressionable years. "Heard melodies are his playing that

sweetj but those unheard

.

.

."

104

25

Memory IT may be reasonably urged that those who are able to memorise their pieces should usually do so and that those who having done so play better with the music should play with the music ; there is a vast difference between looking at the page to remind yourself of what you already know and looking at it to fill in the gaps by last-minute sightreading.

At one time the

public became very intolerant of soloists only a few favourites like Pachmann

who used the music, and Pugno could do recital

programmes

so with impunity.

The

repertory of

fifty years ago, however, lent itself to

easy and natural memorisation, rarely going back before Bach and as yet uncomplicated by the bewildering developments and experiments that were to follow Debussy. Beethoven, very often Bach, Chopin and most of the composers up to 1900 or so fall into the normal pianist's memory and stay there. Far fewer players can deal with some of the ever-changing fashions that have sprung up in the present century. Going back to the Elizabethans, many of their effective pieces are unusually difficult to memorise to give only one instance, the captivating variations on Bellinger's Round by William Byrd, which only take about six minutes to play, provide over forty occasions where the

wrong turning could be taken without If

loss of coherence.

you have not already learnt to play by heart, make an 105


can only play unconattempt to do so. If you find you make a serious effort at selfstrainedly without the music, that very common but in to overcome and learn conquest some ways regrettable limitation of your powers. The final consideration should be the quality of the performances you can offer, with or without the notes. the task of memorisation, the somewhat negaAs regards

tive policy of daily studying pieces and awaiting a moment when you find you know them by heart will often prove

But a more methodical approach will sometimes be necessary and may often be preferable. One of these would be called conning if you were learning a poem. You utter a succession of words, one line for instance, over and over again with your eyes on the page, and eventually try it

successful.

with your eyes shut or turned away. When you have uttered fourteen separate lines, each one without looking, the sonnet is already in your memory. If after (say the psychologists) success with the fourteenth line you try to start again, you may seem to have totally forgotten the beginning, though it

a cold one, to be told that the impression is there in your mind, merely covered up by subsequent in this cold comfort will impressions. The truth, however, next morning. emerge later, possibly the delayed continuity of chapter I as the basis is

a comfort,

if

Taking

of such conning, the ritual advocated could be modified in some such way as "plan play try it by heart", but the would often preliminary rehearsals, mental and physical, have to be repeated a number of times to be effectual, or

supplemented by a series of alternatives. Earlier chapters and your own habits of work should provide a goodly stock of these. It may be added that four, eight, or even more bars at a time will usually be preferable to the very short is no need phrases used in illustration of chapter i There to be rigid ; you can carry out as much of the programme as you find you are able to enjoy regarded as a musical else

.

be ensuring a general your playing quite apart from the degree of

experience. In doing that

improvement

in

you

106

will

Memory success in the memorisation. Indeed, if you find you cannot the chosen stretch heart in play by your mind, it will often be better to play it with the music and pass on to the task

of conning the next stretch, in preference to the bulldog tenacity of further struggling with the present one. The

work you have just done will in any case bear more week hence than can be expected today.

fruit

a

you play chosen stretches several times out loud with the music and then try them once without, that would be If

The more repetitions there were, the more however, danger would there be that the playings

less intensive conning.

would become this would be in the actual

and perfunctory. A precaution against avoid any repetition when your interest

dull to

music wanes.

probably allow of a greater profitable repetitions if some of them are carefully varied, very slow, very soft, with different tone schemes, It will

number of

and so on. Even some eye,

may

startle

trivial irrelevance, like

us into a

new

alertness.

But

shutting one as advised in

the previous paragraph, to pass on in the case of momentary lack of success can be better than too much grim persistence at

the time.

Whatever our methods of attacking the problems of memorising, subsequent tests need to be applied and should be varied. One very good one is playing on the surface of the keys. play this

My own pupils have often been told

through correctly heart, you deserve to manage

:

"If you can

on the surface of the keys by it

out loud, but not unless." The

same could be said regarding playing by heart in your head. Another test is whether you can begin anywhere within reason, such as immediately after good stopping-places. In sonata form movements, for instance, to be able to begin where the bridge starts or the second subject, or the second

melody of the second subject when there is one, or at the codetta, would all be good starting-places. To repeat suitable us lengths two or three times in succession by heart gives experience in starting at various points without the usual advantage of having just arrived there.

107


A

useful if quaint device for beginning

play from further back (the very opening

if

anywhere is to necessary) on the which you desire

surface of the keys, and, at the moment at to start, suddenly to play out loud. This is quite amusingly helpful and will often enable you to start at a given spot a

number of times

in succession for the

purpose of trying

alternative nuances, pedallings, fingerings

and so on, by

memory. Sometimes we can play or think passages by memory up to time, but not very slowly. In such cases to remedy the detected weakness will certainly bring additional safety. can remember the printed page, though unless it sug-

We

gests the sounds

it is

musically null and void

a sense of

sight. We can remember the physical sensations of playing,

on the surface of the keys (which tends to bring other aspects of memory with it) a sense of touch. We can remember the sound of the music upon which the meaning and beauty depend a sense

many of which are included

in playing

of hearing, though if this is not allied to the memory in your sense of touch it will not enable you to play the music, while if

your memory of the printed page be the greater.

is

added to both, the

total security will

When playing by heart the boldest spirit may be intimi dated by a sudden thought that a memory hitch is impendpolicy which is sometimes followed in such a crisis is ing. to stop thinking and play by mechanical memory, but

A

positive thought is preferable. The more your technique is based on the habit of your keyboard journeys resulting from the inward singing of the melodic and harmonic progressions, the more safety will there be in ceasing to look at the

keys so as to stimulate the groping propensities of your fingers and singing internally with concentrated determination. pupils and I have a somewhat crude motto for use in exorcising this particular demon of fear which for the "Shut your eyes and polite world could be translated as with all heart and soul." sing inwardly your

My

:

108

26 Conclusion A FEW

general observations

may

not

come

amiss.

When

starting to practise, try to form as clear an idea as possible of what you are hoping to achieve* Then when you stop you

can judge better whether the time has been well spent. Of course this is more difficult to estimate when some goal is is certain to take weeks to attain. Even so can ask you yourself many questions like "Do I grasp the musical meanings more fully? Do I know the notes better? I clearer what to attempt tomorrow? What about the pedalling? Is the execution improving? What

in

view that

:

Am

else?"

we must sometimes decide to concenon specially learning new works and sometimes on improving those we know. Adding to our repertoire often In planning ahead

trate

more

improves the quality of pieces already learnt, partly by giving the latter a rest and partly because of the increasing skill and experience that are being acquired. But it is not easy to foretell which works will thus benefit. Periodical overhauls are stimulating and sometimes lead to

weak

points

becoming strong ones. Accuracy,

trills,

pedalling, audibility in$, mellowness in jf, rhythm, the left hand, are all typical objects for such a special overhaul. As one of these progresses there will be no need to deteriorate in other directions.

At an

early stage the

problem may 109

arise as to

whether we


should spend more time on exercises, pieces. It is partly

scales,

studies or

a question of personal inclination and the

your teacher, but still more depends on how you what practise you do practise, let us even say how tastefully this were agreed we could add that if you use so. If do you the of studies Czerny and Cramer type, it is best to choose those which would charm an audience if beautifully played at a concert, and very rarely, if ever, to practise them in a totally detached or dry manner. And it is better to practise beliefs of

actual passages out of pieces instead of inherently meaningless and humdrum successions of notes in preparation for the

subsequent conquest of those or like passages. In any case the flowing passage work of Byrd, Bach and others is likely to benefit you more than even the most melodious typical study, as in the former, the notes which lie ahead are so very often aurally and technically less expected. First hearing these notes in your mind and then finding them on the key-

board with the fingers best suited to do so give you a better foundation for your technique than that upon which

many

players build.

Sometimes learn pieces that are unquestionably too difficult, not intending to master them in one spell of work. In such an enterprise let there be a month or two of work followed by a long interval during which you keep busy with other pieces, then a second month or two followed by a similar

At the third or fourth spell of work you may in completing a task that might never succeed quite likely have been achieved in one spell (however grimly determined the effort), and although there will probably be some pieces that you do not master even in the end, the work on them will prove of far-reaching value in regard to your general long

interval.

progress.

Fanny Davies once

told

me that

she often worked

at Beethoven's op. 106 and intended to play She was then in her sixties. She had great

some day. vitality and it must have

it

whether she ever performed the sonata or not, nourished her glowing imagination to work at it. On one occasion when Leschetizky was talking about various

no

Conclusion

who did not play Schumann's "Of course they've studied it."

pianists

Toccata, he added

:

book can be

said to be written from a given point of view, its dominating idea might be described as the cultivation of conscious purpose in all our playing and practising, and an endeavour to reduce the parrot element to a miniIf this

mum. An as

an

experience outside the sphere of music may serve At the outset of one of my few attempts

illustration.

to learn a

new language,

the little grammar book which was hands my urged readers always to think about the of the words meaning they were writing or uttering, whether referring to the hues of a sunset, the perfume of a rose or the everyday concerns of gardeners and their aunts. Following this advice may have delayed arrival on the last

placed in

page by many a long day, but

its

beneficial influence

by

making me think words

as I

went

in the language, instead of translating along, was of permanent value.

In piano playing the higher the proportion of will-power and conscious direction of the mind becomes, the slighter becomes each actual effort of will. These efforts are gradually transformed into a kind of second nature that has the advantages of mechanical execution without the drawbacks, furthering the sense of human intention, significance and beauty for the listener, the concentrated absorption of the player, and the technical control,

so rusty

when

thought

:

greater

whereby

reliability

and permanence of

one's playing does not get nearly

physical practice has not been regular. It is difficult to find the right words with which to conclude. It has been said of those who uphold a certain line of

"They speak

truth." If what

of the truth

it

is

truth, they

have one-twelfth of the

written in this volume has a small fraction

may

help some of

my fellow

music-lovers to

make further headway on their road. Above all, let us remember that every pianistic problem has both its origin and solution in the music itself.

in

INDEX Chords, 10-16, 17-18; six-note, 18;

AcCELLERANDO, JZ

solid, 47-50; staccato, 16, 100 Coda, 33, 57 Concerto in minor (J. S. Bach), 8

Acciaccatura, 45, 46, 50 Adagio, 1 8

D

"Alzando", 104

Conducting, 7-9, 67, 72 Continuity, 1-6; dekyed, 66 Contrapuntal sense, 13 Cramer, Crescendo, 15, 1 8

Analytical listening, 23

Aptness, 103

Arpeggio, 51

no

Audibility in pp, 109

Czerny, 52, 92,

BACH,

J. S., 4, 8, 10, 52,

60,

83,89,91,92, 102, 105, no Ballade in F minor (Chopin), 73; in

G

minor

(Brahms),

46;

(Chopin), 6 1 -2 Bax, Arnold, 104 Beat, flexibility of, 72f.; flexibility within, 72!*.; marking the,

29-30 Beating with the other hand, 84 Beethoven,

3, 4, 8, 23, 73, 77, 80, 8 1, 86, 90, 93, 94, 96, 103,

104, 105,

no

UAVIES, FANNY,

no

Debussy, 85, 103, 104, 105 Development, 33 Difficult passages, 55-9 Diminuendo, 15, 85 Dissonances, momentary,

Dominant

Dramatic significance, 102-4 Duplication,

94

no

"Beklemmt", 104 Berlioz, 102 Binary form, 1 5 "Black Key" Study, 86 Bodily stillness, 96-7 Booth, Victor, 43 Boult, Sir Adrian, 33-4 Brahms, 5, 46, 47, 99, 100 Byrd, William, 37, 105,

no

English Suite in E Minor (J. S. Bach), 91 Erlkonlg (Schubert), 90 Etudes Symp&ontfues (Schumann)

16,97 Execution, 5 Exposition, 33

FADINGS, 85 C/ADENCES, 63 Cantabile,

24

sevenths, 12, 35-42

70

Chopin, 2, 21, 24, 25, 27-30, 48-9, 50, 55-9, 61, 62, 73, 74, 77, 80-1, 86, 89, 95, 99, 105

Fantasy Impromptu, 50 Fatigue, 98JF.

"Feroce", 104 Fielden,

Thomas, 104

Finger passages, 27-30

Practising the Piano Fingering, 2, 29, 35-42, 49, 50, 54; 57, 60-2, 95; grotesque, 79;

"Lebewohl"

legato,

61; mixed, 35, 37-8; 35, 39-40; recurrent, 35-7; unorthodox, 41 Forearm, rotary movements of, 83-7

Left

organ,

Legato,

"Forty-eight,

The",

10, 6$ff.

3, 17, 19,

52

24-5, 32, 37, 39,

40,41,53-4,61 Leschetizky, i, 7, 22-3, 27, 74, 76, 98, 100, 103, 104,

no

Lieder, 103

French Suite

Lullabies, 102

G (J. S. Bach), 4

(Beethoven),

Hand Study (Czerny),

Franck, C&ar, 24, 25 in

Sonata

103

Fugue, 63-7

MARTEIXATO, 86 CJRACE NOTES, 41-2

Matthay, Tobias, 34, 85 Mellowness in^ 109 Melodic tone gradation, 8; unit, in. Memorisation, 4, 105-8 Mendelssohn, 3, 22, 23, 46, 47 Mental rehearsal, i, 2, 4, 79, 106

Gradation, uneven, 15 Grieg, 90, 103

Group

practice, 28-9, 53,

83-4

Mentalising technique,

HALF-CHANGE, 24

Metronome,

Hall

"Mit

Classics,

55

positions, preparing,

Harmonic

44

Modulations, 12, 21

Hamlet, 78

Hand

5,

practising with, 29 bizarrer Plumpheit", 104

Moment Musical (Schubert),

76-9

37, 104 Hindemith, 104

Mood-line, unbroken, 3 1-2 Mordent, upper, 84-5 Mouvement (Debussy), 104 Mozart, 102

Hummel, 74

Munday, John, 103

effect,

13; progressions,

i off!

Haydn,

i,

24

Muscular development, 98-101

"T INNOCENTS", 104

NARRANTE" 104

Inversion, 13

Neuritis,

JACOBS,

W. W.,

22

98

Nikisch, Artur, 3 1 Nocturne in B major (Chopin), 21; flat (Chopin), 74; in F in

D

sharp (Chopin),

KEY CHANGE, 12; signature, 10 "Kreutzer" Sonata, 73 Kuhnau, 103

LAMENTS, 102 Largo, op. 7 (Beethoven), 80

74

V-/CTAVE, 51-4, 58, 60-1; coupler, 65 gauge, 5*; kgato, 53-4? staccato, 52-4 One-finger practising, 60-2 Opera, 102-3 Over-accentuation, 83, 85 Overtures, 103

114

Index Scales, major,

THE DIFFICULT, 92-3 Pachmann, 105 Pause, iff., 23, 24, 66 JL

ACE,

Pedalling, 2, 17-26, 32, 65-6, 80,

109; changing, 25; con-

85,

scious control, 18; influence

rhythmical

life

of

on

25; intermittent, 19-20; legato, 17; musical expression, 18; over-, pieces,

26

Schumann, 16, 97, 103, Scriabin, 104 Self-criticism, i, 2-3

Round (Byrd),

Physical discomfort, 14

Concerto

90;

(Grieg), (Brahms), 99 Postman's knock, 45-6

B

in

flat

Practising

Shoulder looseness, 68-71

on the surface of the

wrong hand, 94-5 and Finale

Prelude^ Aria

C

keys,

(Franck),

minor (Chopin), 24, 25; in 24; in F sharp minor (Chopin),

f

Shakespeare, 78 Shaw, G. B., 44 Shelley, 32 Sight-reading, 88-91

32, 43-4; special, 14-16; with

.

37, 105

Semitone shifts, n, 13 Senza tempo, 72

Petersburg, 31 Phrase, iff.

Piano

no

"See-sawing", 29, 44, 53, 68-71 Bellinger's

"Perfide", 104

10; double-note, 35-

41; minor, 10; octave, 51-4; single-note, 37; whole-tone, 85 Scherzo (Mendelssohn), 46; in B minor (Chopin), 89 Schubert, i, 2, 24, 90, 103

8

Sincerity,

103

Singing, 7-9, 32-3, 76-8 Slow practice, 6, 20, 27, 28, Slurs, 36,

94

37

Smudge, 21, 22, 23, 24, 43, Solid intervals, 86

78

C

minor for piano and (Beethoven), 96; in (Hummel), 74; op. 2, no. 3 (Beethoven), 90; op. 10, no. I

Sonata in

Principal note, 84 Programme music, 102, 103

D

violin

Progressions, 10-14 Prokofiev, 104

(Beethoven), 81; op. 26 (Beethoven), 23, 86; op. 27, no. I (Beethoven), 77; op. 27, no. 2

Prometheus Unbound^ 32

Pugno, 105

(Beethoven),

3-4;

op.

8iA

(Beethoven), 93

Song without words (Mendelssohn),

JtvALLENTANDO, 72 Recapitulation, 33 minor (Brahms), Rhapsody in

G

Ritual, ix,

Rhythm,

3

47

1,15

30, 37, 65, 109; postman's

knock, 45-6 Rotary action, 85; freedom, 85-6 "Rowing", 53, 68-71 Rubato, 72, 73 Rubinstein, Anton, 104; Competition, 3 1

ST. PETERSBURG, Sarabands, 102

Sound-point, 17 Staccatissimo, 14, 28-9 Staccato, 3, 19-20, 41, 45-6, 52-4,

65* 76, loo; bumpy, 38; hand,

27-8;sempre, 37 Staleness, curing,

i, 5

Stops, experimental, 4-5 Strain,

3r

44

Stopping practice,

98

Study in A flat, op. 25, no. i (Chopin), 55-6; in C minor, op. 10, no. 12 (Chopin), 58-9; in F minor, op. 25, no. 2

Practising the Piano Study

no

cont.

(Chopin), 86; in

25 no.

G

(Chopin)^ 57-8;

flat,

op.

op. 10,

(Chopin), 2; op. 10, no. 7 (Chopin), 49; op. 12, no. 12 (Chopin), 27; op. 25, no. i (Chopin), 50; op. 25, no. 12 (Chopin), 48-9; op. 740, no. 3 3

(Czerny), 52

Toccato (Schumann), Tone, beauty of, 80-2; gradations, 21, 28, 29, 85; schemes, 15

Tovey, 103 Tranquillity, 18

Transposition, 93-4 Triads, inverted, 10; root-position,

10 Trills, 83-7,

109 Two-part Inventions 52,60

Swellings, 85

Symphonic poems, 103 Symphonic Variations

(J.

S.

Bach),

(Schumann),

97

Symphony

in

C

minor (Beethoven),

103

VARIATIONS

ON

A

HANDEL (BRAHMS),

THEME 5,

100

"Vienna period", 90

1 EMPO, CHANGING THE, 74 Tenuto, 4, 28 Thinking back, 3, 34; forward, Tied notes, 65 Timbre, 82 Time, gradations

of,

3,

34

WALDSTEIN" SONATA, 37 Waltz, op. 34, no. i (Chopin), 25 We Piano Teachers, 43 Whole-arm work, 53 Wrist work, 53

72-5

116

OF

Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard

EVA AND PAUL BADURA-SKODA Although

book

this

refers

Mozart's keyboard music, to interest anyone

who

mainly to

it is

designed

loves the

com-

poser's works, whether as performer or

The means of music-making have changed; the piano is virtually another instrument; the constitution of listener.

orchestras has greatly changed. This

is

Much

dealt with in the first chapter.

space,, with many musical examples, is given to the obscure but important ques-

tion of ornaments. Other chapters deal

with

and with passages

cadenzas

Mozart where the performer

is

to improvise embellishments.

in

expected

A

chapter

Rhythm and Tempo shows the rational, exact way in which the composer on

treated this fundamental question, and

points to

some

pitfalls for

the modern

interpreter. Here, as throughout the book,

the authors draw generously on Mozart's letters,

and on

treatises written

by

other

leading musicians of the time, including his father

and C.

on some

technical problems presented

keyboard writing.

For the

P. E. Bach.

pianist there is a chapter

The

specific

by Mozart's

long final chapter

provides a detailed commentary on three

of his best known piano concertos.

"This scholarly and stimulating book a book which no thoughtful player .

.

.

It is

or teacher can ignore." Listener

"Until the coming of the present book, I

cannot recall one which deals so fully with the interpretive aspect of his work."

Music Teacher

84$ net

128282

Practising the Piano (by Frank Marrick) (1958)

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