notoriety at the sacrifice of your self-respect and the respect of your
best friends. Remember that real worth is, after all, the thing that
brings enduring fame.
"4. Study the public. Seek to find out what pleases it, but never lower
the standards of your art. Read the best literature. Study pictures.
Travel. Broaden your mind. Acquire general culture.
"5. Be careful of your stage deportment. Endeavor to do nothing at the
keyboard that will emphasize any personal eccentricity. Always be
sincere and true to your own nature, but within these limits try to make
a pleasing impression.
"6. Always be your own severest critic. Be not easily satisfied with
yourself. Hitch your wagon to a star. Let your standard of perfection be
the very highest. Always strive to reach that standard. Never play in
public a piece that you have not thoroughly mastered. There is nothing
more valuable than public confidence. Once secured, it is the greatest
asset an artist can possess.
"I have repeatedly been asked to give ten rules for practice.
"It is not possible to formulate ten all-comprehensive rules that could
be applied in every case, but the following suggestions will be found
valuable to many students:
"1. Concentrate during every second of your practice. To concentrate
means to bring all your thinking powers to bear upon one central point
with the greatest possible intensity. Without such concentration nothing
can be accomplished during the practice period. One hour of concentrated
thinking is worth weeks of thoughtless practice. It is safe to say that
years are being wasted by students in this country who fail to get the
most out of their practice because they do not know how to concentrate.
A famous thinker has said: 'The evidence of superior genius is the power
of intellectual concentration.'
"2. Divide your practice time into periods of not more than two hours.
You will find it impossible to concentrate properly if you attempt to
practice more than two hours at a time. Do not have an arbitrary program
of practice work, for this course is liable to make your work
monotonous. For one who practices four hours (and that is enough for
almost any student), one hour for purely technical work, one hour for
Bach, and two hours for pieces is to be recommended.
"3. In commencing your practice, play over your piece once or twice
before beginning to memorize. Then, after working through the entire
composition, pick out the more difficult passages for special attention
and reiteration.
"4. Always practice slowly at first. This is simply another way of
telling the pupil to concentrate. Even after you have played your piece
at the required speed and with reasonable confidence that it is correct,
never fail to go back now and then and play it at the speed at which you
learned it. This is a practice which many virtuosos follow. Pieces that
they have played time and time again before enthusiastic audiences are
re-studied by playing them very slowly. This is the only real way to
undo mistakes that are bound to creep into one's performance when pieces
are constantly played in a rapid tempo.
"5. Do not attempt to practice your whole piece at first. Take a small
section or even a phrase. If you take a longer section than say sixteen
bars, you will find it difficult to avoid mistakes. Of course, when the
piece is mastered you should have all these sections so unified that you
can play the entire composition smoothly and without a break.
"6. First memorize _mentally_ the section you have selected for study,
and then practice it. If you do not know it well enough to practice it
from memory, you have not grasped its musical content, but are playing
mechanically.
"7. Occasionally memorize backwards, that is, take the last few measures
and learn them thoroughly, then take the preceding measures and
continue in this way until the whole is mastered. Even after you have
played the piece many times, this process often compels a concentration
that is beneficial.
"8. When studying, remember that practice is simply a means of
cultivating habits. If you play correctly from the start you will form
good habits; if you play carelessly and faultily your playing will grow
continually worse. Consequently, play so slowly and correctly from the
start that you may insure the right fingering, phrasing, tone, touch
(staccato, legato, portamento, etc.), pedaling and dynamic effects. If
you postpone the attainment of any of these qualities to a later date
they are much more difficult to acquire.
"9. Always listen while you are playing. Music is intended to be heard.
If you do not listen to your own playing it is very probable that other
people will not care to listen to it either.
"10. Never attempt to play anything in public that you have just
finished studying. When you are through working upon a piece, put it
away to be musically digested, then after some time repeat the same
process, and again the third time, when your piece will, have become a
part of yourself."
QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING
SERIES IV
FANNY BLOOMFIELD-ZEISLER
1. How should the public appearances of talented children be controlled?
2. What is the best material for the development of a mental technic?
3. Should one pin one's faith to any one method?
4. What combines to make a program attractive?
5. What should be artist's main object in giving a concert?
6. What part does personality play in the performer's success?
7. What is one of the greatest faults in musical educational work in
America?
8. How should practice time be divided?
9. May one memorize "backwards"?
10. Why should one listen while playing?
FERRUCCIO BENVENUTO BUSONI
Biographical
Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni was born at Empoli, near Florence, Italy,
April 1, 1866. His father was a clarinetist and his mother whose maiden
name was Weiss, indicating her German ancestry was an excellent pianist.
His first teachers were his parents. So pronounced was his talent that
he made his début at the age of eight in Vienna, Austria. He then
studied in the Austrian city of Graz with W. A. Remy, whose right name
was Dr. Wilhelm Mayer. This able teacher aside from being a learned
jurist was also devoted to music and had among his other pupils no less
a person than Felix Weingartner.
In 1881 Busoni toured Italy and was made a member of the Reale Accademia
Filharmonica at Bologna. In 1886 he went to reside at Leipsic. Two years
later he became teacher of pianoforte at the Helsingfors Conservatory in
the Finnish capital. In 1890 he captured the famous Rubinstein prizes
for both pianoforte and composition. In the same year he became
Professor of pianoforte playing at the Moscow Imperial Conservatory. The
next year he accepted a similar position in the New England Conservatory
at Boston,--returning to Europe for another tour in 1893. After many
successful tours he accepted the position of director of the
Meisterschule at the Imperial Conservatory in Vienna. His compositions
include over one hundred published opus numbers, the most pretentious
probably being his _Choral Concerto_. His editions of Bach are
masterpieces of technical and artistic erudition.
(The following Conference was conducted in English.)
[Illustration: FERRUCCIO B. BUSONI]
VII
IMPORTANT DETAILS IN PIANO STUDY
FERRUCCIO BENVENUTO BUSONI
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DETAIL
"Some years ago I met a very famous artist whose celebrity rested upon
the wonderful colored glass windows that he had produced. He was
considered by most of his contemporaries the greatest of all makers of
high-art windows. His fame had extended throughout the artistic circles
of all Europe. A little remark he made to me illustrates the importance
of detail better than anything of which I can think at present.
"He said, 'If a truly great work of art in the form of a stained glass
window should be accidentally shattered to little bits, one should be
able to estimate the greatness of the whole window by examining one of
the fragments even though all the other pieces were missing.'
"In fine piano playing all of the details are important. I do not mean
to say that if one were in another room that one could invariably tell
the ability of an artist by hearing him strike one note, but if the note
is heard in relation to the other notes in a composition, its
proportionate value should be so delicately and artistically estimated
by the highly trained performer, that it forms part of the artistic
whole.
"For instance, it is quite easy to conceive of compositions demanding a
very smooth running performance in which one jarring or harsh note
indicating faulty artistic calculation upon the part of the player would
ruin the entire interpretation. As examples of this one might cite the
Bach _Choral Vorspiel_, _Nun Freut euch_, of which I have made an
arrangement, and such a composition as the Chopin Prelude Opus 28, No.
3, with its running accompaniment in the left hand.
"It is often perfection in little things which distinguishes the
performance of the great pianist from that of the novice. The novice
usually manages to get the so-called main points, but he does not work
for the little niceties of interpretation which are almost invariably
the defining characteristic of the interpretations of the real
artist--that is, the performer who has formed the habit of stopping at
nothing short of his highest ideal of perfection.
LEARNING TO LISTEN
"There is a detail which few students observe which is of such vast
importance that one is tempted to say that the main part of successful
musical progress depends upon it. This is the detail of learning to
listen. Every sound that is produced during the practice period should
be heard. That is, it should be heard with ears open to give that sound
the intelligent analysis which it deserves.
"Anyone who has observed closely and taught extensively must have
noticed that hours and hours are wasted by students strumming away on
keyboards and giving no more attention to the sounds they produce than
would the inmates of a deaf and dumb asylum. These students all expect
to become fine performers even though they may not aim to become
virtuosos. To them the piano keyboard is a kind of gymnasium attached to
a musical instrument. They may of course acquire strong fingers, but
they will have to learn to listen before they can hope to become even
passable performers.
"At my own recitals no one in the audience listens more attentively than
I do. I strive to hear every note and while I am playing my attention is
so concentrated upon the one purpose of delivering the work in the most
artistic manner dictated by the composer's demands and my conception of
the piece, that I am little conscious of anything else. I have also
learned that I must continually have my mind alert to opportunities for
improvement. I am always in quest of new beauties and even while playing
in public it is possible to conceive of new details that come like
revelations.
"The artist who has reached the period when he fails to be on the
outlook for details of this kind and is convinced that in no possible
way could his performances be improved, has reached a very dangerous
stage of artistic stagnation which will result in the ruin of his
career. There is always room for improvement, that is the development of
new details, and it is this which gives zest and intellectual interest
to the work of the artist. Without it his public efforts would become
very tame and unattractive.
SELF DEVELOPMENT
"In my own development as an artist it has been made evident to me, time
and time again, that success comes from the careful observance of
details. All students should strive to estimate their own artistic
ability very accurately. A wrong estimate always leads to a dangerous
condition. If I had failed to attend to certain details many years ago,
I would have stopped very far short of anything like success.
"I remember that when I concluded my term as professor of piano at the
New England Conservatory of Music I was very conscious of certain
deficiencies in my style. Notwithstanding the fact that I had been
accepted as a virtuoso in Europe and in America and had toured with
great orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, I knew better
than anyone else that there were certain details in my playing that I
could not afford to neglect.
"For instance, I knew that my method of playing the trill could be
greatly improved and I also knew that I lacked force and endurance in
certain passages. Fortunately, although a comparatively young man, I was
not deceived by the flattery of well-meaning, but incapable critics, who
were quite willing to convince me that my playing was as perfect as it
was possible to make it. Every seeker of artistic truth is more widely
awake to his own deficiencies than any of his critics could possibly be.
"In order to rectify the details I have mentioned as well as some I have
not mentioned, I have come to the conclusion that I must devise an
entirely new technical system. Technical systems are best when they are
individual. Speaking theoretically, every individual needs a different
technical system. Every hand, every arm, every set of ten fingers, every
body and, what is of greatest importance, every intellect is different
from every other. I consequently endeavored to get down to the basic
laws underlying the subject of technic and make a system of my own.
"After much study, I discovered what I believed to be the technical
cause of my defects and then I returned to Europe and for two years I
devoted myself almost exclusively to technical study along the
individual lines I had devised. To my great delight details that had
always defied me, the rebellious trills, the faltering bravura passages,
the uneven runs, all came into beautiful submission and with them came a
new delight in playing.
FINDING INDIVIDUAL FAULTS
"I trust that my experience will set some ambitious piano students to
thinking and that they may be benefited by it. There is always a way of
correcting deficiencies if the way can only be found. The first thing,
however, is to recognize the detail itself and then to realize that
instead of being a detail it is a matter of vast importance until it has
been conquered and brought into submission. In playing, always note
where your difficulties seem to lie. Then, when advisable, isolate those
difficulties and practice them separately. This is the manner in which
all good technical exercises are devised.
"Your own difficulty is the difficulty which you should practice most.
Why waste time in practicing passages which you can play perfectly well?
One player may have difficulty in playing trills, while to another
player of equal general musical ability trills may be perfectly easy. In
playing arpeggios, however, the difficulties which prove obstacles to
the players may be entirely reversed. The one who could play the trill
perfectly might not be able, under any circumstance, to play an arpeggio
with the requisite smoothness and true legato demanded, while the
student who found the trill impossible possesses the ability to run
arpeggios and cadenzas with the fluency of a forest rivulet.
"All technical exercises must be given to the pupil with great
discretion and judgment just as poisonous medicines must be administered
to the patient with great care. The indiscriminate giving of technical
exercises may impede progress rather than advance the pupil. Simply
because an exercise happens to come in a certain position in a book of
technical exercises is no reason why the particular pupil being taught
needs that exercise at that particular time. Some exercises which are
not feasible and others which are inexpedient at a certain time, may
prove invaluable later in the pupil's progress.
"Take the famous Tausig exercises, for instance. Tausig was a master of
technic who had few, if any, equals in his time. His exercises are for
the most part very ingenious and useful to advanced players, but when
some of them are transposed into other keys as their composer demands
they become practically impossible to play with the proper touch, etc.
Furthermore, one would be very unlikely to find a passage demanding such
a technical feat in the compositions of any of the great masters of the
piano. Consequently, such exercises are of no practical value and would
only be demanded by a teacher with more respect for tradition than
common sense.
DETAILS OF PHRASING AND ACCENTUATION
"Some students look upon phrasing as a detail that can be postponed
until other supposedly more important things are accomplished. The very
musical meaning of any composition depends upon the correct
understanding and delivery of the phrases which make that composition.
To neglect the phrases would be about as sensible as it would be for the
great actor to neglect the proper thought division in the interpretation
of his lines. The greatest masterpiece of dramatic literature whether it
be _Romeo and Juliet_, _Antigone_, _La Malade Imaginaire_ or _The Doll's
House_ becomes nonsense if the thought divisions indicated by the
verbal phrases are not carefully determined and expressed.
"Great actors spend hours and hours seeking for the best method of
expressing the author's meaning. No pianist of ability would think of
giving less careful attention to phrasing. How stupid it would be for
the actor to add a word that concluded one sentence to the beginning of
the next sentence. How erroneous then is it for the pupil to add the
last note of one phrase to the beginning of the next phrase. Phrasing is
anything but a detail.
"Fine phrasing depends first upon a knowledge of music which enables one
to define the limitations of the phrase and then upon a knowledge of
pianoforte playing which enables one to execute it properly. Phrasing is
closely allied to the subject of accentuation and both subjects are
intimately connected with that of fingering. Without the proper fingers
it is often impossible to execute certain phrases correctly. Generally,
the accents are considered of importance because they are supposed to
fall in certain set parts of given measures, thus indicating the meter.
"In instructing very young pupils it may be necessary to lead them to
believe that the time must be marked in a definite manner by such
accents, but as the pupil advances he must understand that the measure
divisions are inserted principally for the purpose of enabling him to
read easily. He should learn to look upon each piece of music as a
beautiful tapestry in which the main consideration is the principal
design of the work as a whole and not the invisible marking threads
which the manufacturer is obliged to put in the loom in order to have a
structure upon which the tapestry may be woven.
BACH, BACH, BACH
"In the study of the subject of accentuation and phrasing it would not
be possible for anyone to recommend anything more instructive than the
works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The immortal Thüringian composer was the
master-weaver of all. His tapestries have never been equalled in
refinement, color, breadth and general beauty. Why is Bach so valuable
for the student? This is an easy question to answer. It is because his
works are so constructed that they compel one to study these details.
Even if the student has only mastered the intricacies of the _Two Voice
Inventions_, it is safe to say that he has become a better player. More
than this, Bach forces the student to think.
"If the student has never thought before during his practice periods, he
will soon find that it is quite impossible for him to encompass the
difficulties of Bach without the closest mental application. In fact, he
may also discover that it is possible for him to work out some of his
musical problems while away from the keyboard. Many of the most
perplexing musical questions and difficulties that have ever confronted
me have been solved mentally while I have been walking upon the street
or lying in bed at night.
"Sometimes the solution of difficult details comes in the twinkling of
an eye. I remember that when I was a very young man I was engaged to
play a concerto with a large symphony orchestra. One part of the
concerto had always troubled me, and I was somewhat apprehensive about
it. During one of the pauses, while the orchestra was playing, the
correct interpretation came to me like a flash. I waited until the
orchestra was playing very loud and made an opportunity to run over the
difficult passage. Of course, my playing could not be heard under the
_tutti_ of the orchestra, and when the time came for the proper delivery
of the passage it was vastly better than it would have been otherwise.
"I never neglect an opportunity to improve, no matter how perfect a
previous interpretation may have seemed to me. In fact, I often go
directly home from the concert and practice for hours upon the very
pieces that I have been playing, because during the concert certain new
ideas have come to me. These ideas are very precious, and to neglect
them or to consider them details to be postponed for future development
would be ridiculous in the extreme."
QUESTIONS ON STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANO PLAYING
SERIES V
FERRUCCIO BENVENUTO BUSONI
1. What is it which distinguishes the performance of the great pianist
from that of the novice?
2. Upon what detail of interpretation does musical performance most
depend?
3. Should the student continually estimate his own ability?
4. Which difficulty should you practice most?
5. What was the principle which made the Tausig exercises valuable?
6. Upon what does fine phrasing depend?
7. Why is it that the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach are so
useful in piano study?
8. How may complex musical problems be solved mentally?
9. Is it advisable to isolate difficulties and practice them separately?
10. How should one seize opportunities to improve?
TERESA CARREÑO
BIOGRAPHICAL
Teresa Carreño was born at Caracas, Venezuela, December 22, 1853. She
descended from one of the foremost families of Spanish America, which
boasted of Simon Bolivar "the Washington of South America" as one of its
members. Artists have been known among her ancestors as far back as the
fourteenth century when the famous painter Carreño lived in Spain.
Mme. Carreño's first teacher was her father. Later she studied with a
German teacher in her native country. At seven she played the _Rondo
Capriccio_ of Mendelssohn with great _éclat_. A revolution obliged the
Carreño family to move to New York. The death of a friend to whom funds
had been entrusted placed the party of eighteen refugees in dire straits
and a concert was arranged at which the tiny Teresa came to the front
and secured sufficient means for their existence.
Gottschalk, then in the height of his fame in New York, became the
child's next teacher. She remained with him for two years. Then she went
to Paris and became a pupil of Georges Mathias, the famous disciple of
Chopin. Her success as a virtuoso pianist in Europe excited the
attention of Rubinstein who devoted a great deal of time to giving her
invaluable advice and instruction in interpretation. Indeed Rubinstein
was so proud of her that he repeatedly introduced her as his daughter in
art and would jokingly say "Are not our hands exactly alike?"
Mme. Carreño's brilliance, force, breadth of thought and almost sensuous
love for the beautiful made her numerous tours through all of the
music-loving countries remarkably successful.
[Illustration: TERESA CARREÑO]
VIII
DISTINCTIVE PIANO PLAYING
TERESA CARREÑO
EARLY EVIDENCES OF INDIVIDUALITY