keyboard? Do you fear the grind, the grueling disappoints, the unceasing
sacrifices? Then abandon your great career and join the army of useful
music workers who are teaching the young people of the land to love
music as it should be loved,--not in hysterical outbursts in the concert
hall but in the home circle. If you have the unextinguishable fire
within your soul, if you have the talent from on high, if you have
health, energy, system, vitality, nothing can stop you from becoming
great. Advice, interferences, obstacles will be nothing to you. You will
work day and night to reach your goal. What better guide could you
possibly have than the words of the great pianists themselves? While
the ensuing pages were compiled with the view of helping the amateur
performer quite as much as the student who would become a professional
pianist, you will nevertheless find in the expressions of the really
great virtuosos a wealth of information and practical advice.
Most of the following chapters are the results of many different
conferences with the greatest living pianists. All have had the revision
of the artists in person before publication was undertaken. In order to
indicate how carefully and willingly this was done by the pianists it is
interesting to note the case of the great Russian composer-virtuoso
Rachmaninoff. The original conference was conducted in German and in
French. The material was arranged in manuscript form in English. M.
Rachmaninoff then requested a second conference. In the mean time he had
had the better part of the manuscript translated into his native
Russian. However, in order to insure accuracy in the use of words, the
writer translated the entire matter back into German in the pianist's
presence. M. Rachmaninoff did not speak English and the writer did not
speak Russian.
The chapter relating to Harold Bauer is the result of a conference
conducted in English. Mr. Bauer's use of his native tongue is as fluent
and eloquent as a poet or an orator. In order that his ideas might have
the best possible expression the entire chapter was written several
times in manuscript and carefully rearranged and rephrased by Mr. Bauer
in person.
Some of the conferences lasted well on through the night. The writer's
twenty years' experience in teaching was constantly needed to grasp
different shadings of meaning that some pianists found difficult to
phrase. Many indeed have felt their weakness in the art of verbal
expression and have rejoiced to have their ideas clothed with fitting
words. Complete frankness and sincerity were encouraged in every case.
The results of the conference with Wilhelm Bachaus, conceded by many
other pianists to be the foremost "technicalist" of the day, are, it
will be observed, altogether different in the statement of teaching
principles from those of Harold Bauer. Each is a sincere expression of
individual opinion and the thoughtful student by weighing the ideas of
both may reach conclusions immensely to his personal advantage.
No wider range of views upon the subject of pianoforte playing could
possibly come between the covers of a book. The student, the teacher,
and the music lover who acquaints himself with the opinions of the
different masters of the keyboard can not fail to have a very clear
insight into the best contemporary ideas upon technic, interpretation,
style and expression. The author--or shall he call himself a
collector?--believes that the use of the questions following each
chapter will be found practical and useful in the work of both clubs and
classes. Practice, however, is still more important than precept. The
student might easily learn this book "by heart" and yet be unable to
play a perfect scale. Let him remember the words of Locke:
"Men of much reading are greatly learned: but may be little knowing."
After all, the virtuoso is great because he really knows and W-O-R-K-S.
PEPITO ARRIOLA
BIOGRAPHICAL
Pepito Arriola was born on the 14th of December, 1897. A careful
investigation of his ancestry reveals that no less than twelve of his
forefathers and relations have been pronouncedly musical. His father was
a physician, but his mother was a musician. His early musical training
was given to him exclusively by his mother. The following was prepared
when he was twelve years old and at that time he was apparently a
perfectly healthy child, with the normal activity of a boy of his age
and with a little more general education in addition to his music than
the average child at fifteen or sixteen possesses. He spoke French,
German (fluently) and Spanish, but little English. Despite the fact that
he had received numerous honors from European monarchs and famous
musicians, he was exceptionally modest. In his playing he seemed never
to miss a note in even very complicated compositions and his musical
maturity and point of view were truly astonishing. The following is
particularly valuable from an educational standpoint, because of the
absolute unaffectedness of the child's narrative of his own training.
(The following conference was conducted in German and French.)
[Illustration: PEPITO ARRIOLA]
III
THE STORY OF A WONDER CHILD
PEPITO ARRIOLA
MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS
So much that was of interest to me was continually occurring while I was
a child that it all seems like a kind of haze to me. I cannot remember
when I first commenced to play, for my mother tells me that I wanted to
reach out for the keyboard before I was out of her arms. I have also
learned that when I was about two and one-half years of age, I could
quite readily play after my mother anything that the size of my hand
would permit me to play.
I loved music so dearly, and it was such fun to run over the keyboard
and make the pretty sounds, that the piano was really my first and best
toy. I loved to hear my mother play, and continually begged her to play
for me so that I could play the same pieces after her. I knew nothing of
musical notation and played entirely by ear, which seemed to me the most
natural way to play. At that time, word was sent to the King of Spain
that I showed talent, and he became interested in me, and I played
before him.
MY FRIENDSHIP WITH ARTHUR NIKISCH
A short time afterward, Herr Arthur Nikisch, conductor of the
_Gewandhaus_ Orchestra at Leipsic, and at one time conductor of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra in America, came to Madrid to conduct the
Philharmonic Orchestra for a special concert. Some one told him about my
playing and I was permitted to play for him. He became so interested
that he insisted upon my being taken to Leipsic for further study. I was
then four years of age, and although musical advantages in Spain are
continually increasing, my mother thought it best at the time that she
should follow the great musician's advice and that I should be taken to
the German city.
I want to say that in my earliest work, my mother made no effort to push
me or urge me to go ahead. I loved to play for the sake of playing, and
needed no coaxing to spend time at the keyboard. In my very early years
I was permitted to play in public very little, although there were
constant demands made to engage me. I was looked upon as a kind of
curiosity and my mother wanted me to study in the regular way with good
masters, and also to acquire more strength before I played in public
very much.
I did, however, play at the great Albert Hall, in London. The big
building holds 8000 people, but that was so long ago that I have almost
forgotten all about it, except that they all seemed pleased to see a
little boy of four playing in so very big a place. I also played for
royal personages, including the Kaiser of Germany, who was very good to
me and gave me a beautiful pin. I like the Kaiser very much. He seems
like a fine man.
MY FIRST REGULAR INSTRUCTION
My first teacher, aside from my mother, was a Herr Dreckendorf, of
Leipsic. He was very kind to me and took the greatest pains, but the
idea of learning the notes was very distasteful to me. I was terribly
bored with the technical exercises he gave me, but have since learned
that one can save much time by practicing scales and exercises. Although
I do not like them, I practice them every day now, for a little while,
so as to get my fingers in good working order.
In about six weeks I knew all that was expected of me in the way of
scales in octaves, sixths, thirds, double thirds, etc., and my teacher
commenced to turn his attention to studies and pieces. For the first
time I found musical notation interesting, for then I realized that it
was not necessary for me to wait until some one else played a piece
before I could begin to explore its beauties. Ah! it was wonderful,
those first days with the pieces. I was in a new country and could
hardly wait to master one at a time, so eager was I to reach the next
one and see just what it was like.
Herr Dreckendorf gave me some studies by Dussek, Cramer, the
_Inventions_ of Bach, etc., but before long the fascination of playing
beautiful pieces was so great that he found it hard to keep me away from
them.
EARLY REPERTORY
So hungry was I to find new musical works that when I was eight and a
half years old I could play from memory such pieces as the B flat minor
Scherzo, the A flat major Polonaise, and most of the Valses and Études
of Chopin. I also played the Sixth Rhapsody of Liszt and the C minor
Concerto of Beethoven.
In the mean time we moved to Berlin and this has been our home ever
since, so you see I have seen far more of Germany than of my native
country, Spain. In fact, it seems more natural for me to speak German
than Spanish. At the age of seven it was my good fortune to come under
the instruction of Alberto Jonas, the Spanish virtuoso, who for many
years was at the head of a large music school in America. I can never be
grateful enough to him, for he has taught me without remuneration and
not even a father could be kinder to me. When I left Berlin for my
present tour, tears came to our eyes, because I knew I was leaving my
best friend. Most of my present repertory has been acquired under Jonas
and he has been so, so exacting.
He also saw to it that my training was broad, and not confined to those
composers whose works appealed most to me. The result is that I now
appreciate the works of all the composers for the piano. Beethoven I
found very absorbing. I learned the _Appassionata Sonata_ in one week's
time, and longed for more. My teacher, however, insisted upon my going
slowly, and mastering all the little details.
I have also developed a great fondness for Bach, because I like to find
how he winds his melodies in and out, and makes such beautiful things of
them. I play a great deal of Bach, including the G minor organ Fugue,
which Liszt played the devil with in arranging it for the piano.
Goodness knows, it was difficult enough for the organ in its original
form! I don't see why Liszt wanted to make it more difficult.
Liszt is, of course, considered a great master for the piano, and I play
his works with great delight, especially the _Campanella_ with its
beautiful bell effect, but I cannot look upon Liszt as a pianistic
composer in the same way that one thinks of Chopin as a pianistic
composer. The piano was Chopin's natural tongue. Liszt's tongue, like
that of Beethoven, was the orchestra. He knew no difficulties, according
to the manner in which he wrote his own works. Consequently one must
think of the orchestra in playing Liszt's works, while the works of
Chopin suggest only the piano.
MY DAILY PRACTICE
During most of my life my practice has never exceeded two hours a day.
In this country, while on tour, I never practice more than one and
one-half hours. This is not necessary, because of the concerts
themselves, which keep up my technical work. I never worry about my
fingers. If I can think the pieces right, my fingers will always play
the notes. My mother insists upon my being out in the open air all the
time I am not studying and practicing, and I am out the better part of
the day.
At my practice periods, I devote at least fifteen or twenty minutes to
technical exercises, and strive to play all the scales, in the different
forms, in all the keys, once each day. I then play some of my concert
numbers, continually trying to note if there is any place that requires
attention. If there is, I at once spend a little time trying to improve
the passage.
It is very largely a matter of thinking the musical thought right, and
then saying it in the right way. If you think it right, and your aim at
the keyboard is good, you are not likely to hit the wrong notes, even in
skips such as one finds in the Rubinstein Valse in E flat. I do not ever
remember of hitting the upper note wrong. It all seems so easy to me
that I am sure that if other children in America would look upon other
examples in the same way, they could not find their work so very
difficult. I love to practice Chopin. One cannot be so intimate with
Bach; he is a little cold and unfriendly until one knows him very well.
GENERAL EDUCATION
I have said that we play as we think. The mind must be continually
improved or the fingers will grow dull. In order to see the beauties in
music we must see the beauties in other studies. I have a private
teacher who comes to me in Berlin and teaches me different studies. I
have studied some Latin, French, and the regular school studies.
Electricity interests me more than I can tell you and I like to learn
about it, but my greatest interest is in the study of astronomy. Surely
nothing could be finer than to look at the stars. I have friends among
the astronomers of Berlin who let me look through their telescopes and
tell me all about the different constellations and the worlds that look
like moons when you see them enlarged. It is all so wonderful that it
makes one never cease thinking.
I also like to go to factories and learn how different things are made.
I think that there are so many things that one can learn outside of a
school-room. For instance, I went to a wire factory recently, and I am
sure that I found out a great many things I might never have found out
in books. One also learns by traveling, and when I am on my tours I feel
that I learn more of the different people and the way they live than I
ever could from geographies. Don't you think I am a lucky boy? One must
study geography, however, to learn about maps and the way in which
countries are formed. I have toured in Germany, Russia, and England, and
now in America. America interests me wonderfully. Everything seems so
much alive and I like the climate very much.
THEORETICAL STUDIES
Musical theory bores me now, almost as much as my first technical
studies did. Richard Strauss, the great German composer, has very kindly
offered to teach me. I like him very much and he is so kind, but his
thundering musical effects sometimes seems very noisy to me. I know many
of the rules of harmony, but they are very uncomfortable and
disagreeable to me.
I would far rather write my music as it comes to me. Herr Nikisch says
that when I do it that way, I make very few blunders, but I know I can
never be a composer until I have mastered all the branches of musical
theory. I am now writing a symphony. I played some parts for Herr
Nikisch and he has agreed to produce it. Of course, the orchestral parts
will have to be written for me, but I know what instruments I want to
express certain ideas.
Putting down the notes upon paper is so tiresome. Why can't one think
the musical thoughts and have them preserved without the tedious work of
writing them out! Sometimes before I can get them on paper they are
gone--no one knows where, and the worst of all is that they never come
back. It is far greater fun to play the piano, or play football, or go
rowing.
READING AND STUDY
I love to read, and my favorite of all books is _The Three Musketeers_.
I have also read something of Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, and many
other writers. I like parts of the great Spanish novel _Don Quixote_,
but I find it hard to read as a whole. I think that music students ought
to read a great deal. It makes them think, and it gives them poetical
thoughts.
Music is, after all, only another kind of poetry, and if we get poetical
ideas from books we become more poetical, and our music becomes more
beautiful. The student who thinks only of hammering down keys at the
piano cannot play in a manner in which people will take pleasure. Piano
playing is so much more than merely pressing down keys. One has to tell
people things that cannot be told in words--that is what music is.
AT THE CONCERT
I do not know what it is to be nervous at concerts. I have played so
much and I am always so sure of what I am going to play that nervousness
is out of the question. Of course, I am anxious about the way in which
audiences will receive my playing. I want to please them so much and
don't want them to applaud me because I am a boy, but would rather have
them come as real music-lovers to enjoy the music itself. If I cannot
bring pleasure to them in that way I do not deserve to be before the
public.
My concerts are usually about one hour in length, although I sometimes
play encores for some time after the concert. I make it a practice not
to eat for a few hours before the concert, as doctors have told my
mother that my mind will be in better shape. I want to thank the many
friends I have made among the students who have come to my concerts, and
I hope that I may have told them some things which will help them in
their work.
QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING
SERIES I
PEPITO ARRIOLA
1. Should the talented child be urged or pushed ahead?
2. In what period of time should a very talented child master the
elementary outlines of technic?
3. Can Liszt be regarded as a pianistic composer in the same sense as
that in which Chopin is considered pianistic?
4. How should a very talented child's practice time be divided?
5. What part does right thinking play in execution?
6. How should the child's general education be conducted?
7. Should the education be confined to the classroom?
8. Should the musical child be encouraged to read fiction?
9. Does music resemble poetry?
10. Should one be careful about the body before concerts?
[Illustration: WILHELM BACHAUS]
WILHELM BACHAUS
BIOGRAPHICAL
Wilhelm Bachaus was born at Leipsic, March 24, 1884, two years before
the death of Franz Liszt. Nine years younger than Josef Hofmann and a
trifle more than one-half the age of Paderewski he represents a
different decade from that of other pianists included in this work.
Bachaus studied for nine years with Alois Reckendorf, a Moravian teacher
who was connected with the Leipsic Conservatory for more than thirty
years. Reckendorf had been a student of science and philosophy at the
Vienna and the Heidelberg Universities and was an earnest musician and
teacher with theories of his own. He took an especial interest in
Bachaus and was his only teacher with the exception of one year spent
with d'Albert and "three lessons with Siloti." Although Bachaus
commenced playing when he was eight years old he feels that his
professional _début_ was made in London in June, 1901, when he played
the tremendously difficult Brahms-Paganini Variations. In 1905, when
Bachaus was only twenty-one, he won the famous Rubinstein Prize at
Paris. This consists of 5000 francs offered every five years to young
men between the ages of twenty and twenty-six.
(The following conference was conducted in English and German.)
IV
THE PIANIST OF TO-MORROW
WILHELM BACHAUS
TO-DAY, YESTERDAY AND TO-MORROW
"It is somewhat surprising how very little difference exists between the
material used in piano teaching to-day and that employed forty or fifty
years ago. Of course, there has been a remarkable amount of new
technical material, exercises, studies, etc., devised, written and
published, and some of this presents the advantage of being an
improvement upon the old--an improvement which may be termed an
advance--but, taken all in all, the advance has been very slight when
compared with the astonishing advances made in other sciences and other
phases of human progress in this time.
"It would seem that the science of music (for the processes of studying
the art are undoubtedly scientific) left little territory for new
explorers and inventors. Despite the great number of études that have
been written, imagine for one moment what a desert the technic of music
would be without Czerny, Clementi, Tausig, Pischna--to say nothing of
the great works of Scarlatti and Bach, which have an effect upon the
technic, but are really great works of musical art.
THE WONDERFUL EFFICACY OF SCALES
"Personally, I practice scales in preference to all other forms of
technical exercises when I am preparing for a concert. Add to this
arpeggios and Bach, and you have the basis upon which my technical work
stands. Pianists who have been curious about my technical
accomplishments have apparently been amazed when I have told them that
scales are my great technical mainstay--that is, scales plus hard work.
They evidently have thought that I had some kind of alchemic secret,
like the philosopher's stone which was designed to turn the baser metals
into gold. I possess no secrets which any earnest student may not
acquire if he will work in the laboratory of music long enough. There
are certain artistic points which only come with long-continued
experiment.
"As the chemist finds the desired result by interminable heart-breaking
eliminations, so the artist must weigh and test his means until he finds
the one most likely to produce the most beautiful or the most
appropriate result. But this seeking for the right effect has little to
do with the kind of technic which necessitates one to keep every muscle
employed in piano-playing properly exercised, and I may reiterate with
all possible emphasis that the source of my technical equipment is
scales, scales, scales. I find their continued daily practice not only
beneficial, but necessary. I still find it desirable to practice scales
for half an hour a day.
BACH MUSICALLY OMNIPOTENT
"It seems almost foolish to repeat what has been said so many times
about the wonderful old cantor of Leipsic, Johann Sebastian Bach.
However, there may still be some who have not yet become acquainted with
the indisputable fact that the practice of Bach is the shortest,
quickest road to technical finish. Busoni has enlarged upon Bach,
impossible as that may seem; but as a modern bridge is sometimes built
upon wonderful old foundations, Busoni has taken the idea of Bach and,
with his penetrative and interpretative ability, has been able to make
the meaning more clear and more effective. Any young pianist who aspires
to have his hands in condition to respond to the subtle suggestions of
his brain may acquire a marvelous foundation by the use of scales, Bach
and arpeggios.
THE OLD THAT IS EVER NEW
"I have seen many ways and means tried out. Some seem like an attempt to
save time at the expense of thoroughness. Furthermore, the means which
have produced the great pianists of the past are likely to differ but
little from those which will produce the pianists of the future.
"The ultra-modern teacher who is inclined to think scales old-fashioned
should go to hear de Pachmann, who practices scales every day. De
Pachmann, who has been a virtuoso for a great many years, still finds
daily practice necessary, and, in addition to scales, he plays a great
deal of Bach. To-day his technic is more powerful and more comprehensive
than ever, and he attributes it in a large measure to the simplest of
means.
DIFFICULTIES IN NEW PIANOFORTE COMPOSITIONS
"I have often been asked if the future of pianoforte composition seemed
destined to alter the technic of the instrument, as did the compositions
of Liszt, for instance. This is a difficult question, but it would seem
that the borderland of pianistic difficulty had been reached in the
compositions and transcriptions of Busoni and Godowsky. The new French
school of Debussy, Ravel and others is different in type, but does not
make any more severe technical demands.