striking the keys that teachers devise and then attach with the label
'method.' These varied contortions are, after all, largely a matter of
vision, and have little effect upon the real musical results that the
composition demands. Touch, as I have previously said, all comes down to
the question of the degree of weight applied to the keyboard and the
degree of quickness with which it is applied. In rapid octave and
staccato passages the hand touch is largely used. This is the touch
most dependent upon local muscular activity. Aside from this the
combination of muscular and weight touch almost invariably obtain.
DON'T NEGLECT EAR TRAINING
"I desire to reiterate that if the ideal touch is presented to the
pupil's mind, through the medium of the ear, he will be much more
successful in attaining the artistic ends required. The pupil must
realize clearly _what is good_ and _what is bad_, and his _aural sense_
must be continually educated in this respect. He should practice slowly
and carefully at the keyboard until he is convinced that his arm is at
all times relaxed. He cannot make his sense of touch too sensitive. He
should even be able to sense the weight or upward pressure which brings
the pianoforte key back into position after it has been depressed. The
arm should feel as if it were floating, and should never be tense.
"When I am playing I do not think of the arm motion. I am, of course,
absorbed in the composition being performed. A relaxed arm has become
second nature to me. It comes by itself. Players are rarely able to tell
just how they produce their results. There are too many contributing
factors. Even with the best-known performers the effects differ at
different performances. It is impossible for the performer to give a
program repeatedly in identically the same manner. If he did succeed in
doing this, his playing would soon become stereotyped.
"The teacher should, from the very beginning, seek to avoid stiffness
and bad hand positions, such as crooked fingers or broken-in knuckles.
If these details are neglected the pupil is liable to go through his
entire musical career greatly hampered. I would earnestly advise all
teachers to discourage the efforts of pupils to attain virtuoso heights
unless they are convinced beyond the possibility of a doubt that the
pupil has marvelous talent. The really great performers seem to be
endowed with a 'God-given' insight in the matter of both technic and
touch. They are unquestionably born for it. They possess the right
mental and physical capacity for success. No amount of training would
make a Normandy dray horse that could compete with a Kentucky
thoroughbred on the race course. It is a pitiful sight to watch students
who could not possibly become virtuosos slave year after year before an
ivory and ebony tread-mill, when, if they realized their lack of
personal qualifications, they could engage in teaching or in some other
professional or mercantile line and take a delight in their music as an
avocation that they would never find in professional playing.
ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION PARAMOUNT
"To some, the matter of touch is of little significance. They are
apparently born with an appreciation of tonal values that others might
work years to attain in vain. Those who imagine that touch is entirely
a matter of finger tips are greatly mistaken. The ear is quite as
important as the organs employed in administering the touch to the
keyboard. The pianist should in reality not think of the muscles and
nerves in his arm, nor of the ivory and ebony keys, nor of the hammers
and strings in the interior of the instrument. He should think first and
always of the kind of tone he is eliciting from the instrument, and
determine whether it is the most appropriate tonal quality for the
proper interpretation of the piece he is playing. He must, of course,
spend years of hard thought and study in cultivating this ability to
judge and produce the right touch, but the performer who is more
concerned about the technical claims of a composition than its musical
interpretation can only hope to give an uninteresting, uninspired,
stilted performance that should rightly drive all intelligent hearers
from his audience hall."
QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING
SERIES VII
OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH
1. What are the two means of administering touch?
2. State the effect of a rigid arm upon piano playing.
3. Can a pianist's playing be distinguished by touch?
4. How do the muscles of the shoulder come into action in piano playing?
5. How should the sense of hearing be employed in piano playing?
6. How did Rubinstein regard the theory of touch?
7. When is the hand touch generally employed?
8. How should the arm feel during the act of touch?
9. Does the virtuoso hamper himself with details of technic during a
performance?
10. What should be the pianist's first thought during the moment of
performance?
LEOPOLD GODOWSKY
BIOGRAPHICAL
Leopold Godowsky was born at Wilna, Russia (Russian Poland), February
13, 1870. His father was a physician. When Godowsky was nine years old
he made his first public appearance as a pianist and met with
instantaneous success--success so great that a tour of Germany and
Poland was arranged for the child. When thirteen he entered the Royal
High School for Music in Berlin as the _protégé_ of a rich banker of
Königsberg. There he studied under Bargeil and Rudorff. In 1884 he
toured America together with Ovide Musin, the violin virtuoso. Two years
later he became the pupil of Saint-Saëns in Paris. In 1887 and 1888 he
toured France and visited London, where he received a command to appear
at the British Court. In 1890 he returned to America and made this
country his home for ten years, appearing frequently in concert and
engaging in several tours. In 1894-1895 he became head of the piano
department of the South Broad Street Conservatory, Philadelphia. He then
became director of the Piano Department of the Chicago Conservatory and
held this position for five years. In 1900 Godowsky appeared in Berlin
and was immediately recognized as one of the great piano masters of his
time. In 1909 he became director of the Master School of Piano Playing
connected with the Imperial Conservatory of Vienna (a post previously
held by Emil Sauer and F. B. Busoni). His success as a teacher has been
exceptional. His compositions, particularly his fifty studies upon
Chopin Etudes, have won the admiration of the entire musical world.
[Illustration: LEOPOLD GODOWSKY]
X
THE REAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TECHNIC
LEOPOLD GODOWSKY
IDEAS UPON TECHNIC OFTEN ERRONEOUS
"It is quite impossible in a short talk to earnest music students to do
more than discuss a few of the more important points in the subject
proposed. It may safely be said at the start, however, that the popular
conception of technic is quite an erroneous one and one that deserves
correction. It is highly necessary that the student should have a
correct attitude of mind regarding this matter. First of all, I
distinguish between what might be called mere mechanics and technic.
"The art of piano playing as a whole seems to divide itself into three
quite distinct channels when it is considered from the educational
standpoint. The first channel is that of mechanics. This would naturally
include all that pertains to that branch of piano study which has to do
with the exercises that develop the hand from the machine
standpoint--that is, make it capable of playing with the greatest
possible rapidity, the greatest possible power, when power is needed and
also provide it with the ability to play those passages which, because
of fingering or unusual arrangement of the piano keys, are particularly
difficult to perform.
THE BRAIN SIDE OF PIANO STUDY
"In the second channel we would find the study of the technic of the art
of playing the instrument. Technic differs from the mechanics of piano
playing in that it has properly to do with the intellectual phase of the
subject rather than the physical. It is the brain side of the study not
the digital or the manual. To the average student who is short-sighted
enough to spend hours hammering away at the keyboard developing the
mechanical side of his work, a real conscious knowledge of the great
saving he could effect through technic, would be a godsend. Technic
properly has to do with Rhythm, Tempo, Accent, Phrasing, Dynamics,
Agogics, Touch, etc.
"The excellence of one's technic depends upon the accuracy of one's
understanding of these subjects and his skill in applying them to his
interpretations at the keyboard. Mechanical skill, minus real technical
grasp, places the player upon a lower footing than the piano-playing
machines which really do play all the notes, with all the speed and all
the power the operator demands. Some of these instruments, indeed, are
so constructed that many of the important considerations that we have
placed in the realm of technic are reproduced in a surprising manner.
THE EMOTIONS IN PIANO PLAYING
"However, not until man invents a living soul, can piano playing by
machine include the third and vastly important channel through which we
communicate the works of the masters to those who would hear them. That
channel is the emotional or artistic phase of piano playing. It is the
channel which the student must expect to develop largely through his own
inborn artistic sense and his cultivated powers of observation of the
playing of master pianists. It is the sacred fire communicated from one
art generation to the next and modified by the individual emotions of
the performer himself.
"Even though the performer may possess the most highly perfected
mechanism, technical mastery which enables him to play great
masterpieces effectively, if he does not possess the emotional insight,
his performances will lack a peculiar subtlety and artistic power that
will deprive him of becoming a truly great pianist.
INSPIRING THE STUDENT
"Exercises for the mechanical side of pianoforte playing abound. Czerny
alone wrote over one thousand opus numbers. There have also been
valuable attempts to provide books to assist the student in his
technical work, but it should always be remembered that this depends
first of all upon understanding and then upon the ability to translate
that understanding to the instrument.
"There can never be any exercises in the emotional side of the student's
work other than the entire literature of the instrument. One may as well
try to capture the perfume of the flower as define the requirements of
the emotional in pianoforte playing. A great deal may be done to inspire
the student and suggest ideas which may bring him to the proper artistic
appreciation of a passage, but it is this very indefinability which
makes the emotional phase one of the most important of all. Attendance
at the recitals of artistic pianists is of great help in this
connection.
"The student, however, may learn a vast amount about real piano technic
and apply his knowledge to his playing through the medium of the proper
studies. For instance, in the subject of touch alone, there is a vast
store of valuable information which can be gained from a review of the
progressive steps through which this significant phase of the subject
has passed during the last century. The art of piano playing, considered
apart from that of the similar instruments which preceded the piano, is
very little over one hundred years old.
CHANGES IN THE MECHANISM OF THE INSTRUMENT
"During this time many significant changes have been made in the
mechanism of the instrument and in the methods of manufacture. These
changes in the nature of the instrument have in themselves doubtless had
much to do with changes in methods of touch as have the natural
evolutions coming through countless experiments made by teachers and
performers. Thus we may speak of the subject of touch as being divided
into three epochs, the first being that of Czerny (characterized by a
stroke touch), the second being that of the famous Stuttgart
Conservatory (characterized by a pressure touch), and the third or new
epoch which is characterized by weight playing. All my own playing is
based upon the last named method, and I had the honor of being one of
the first to make application of it when I commenced teaching some
twenty years ago.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WEIGHT PLAYING
"In this method of playing, the fingers are virtually 'glued to the
keys' in that they leave them the least possible distance in order to
accomplish their essential aims. This results in no waste motion of any
kind, no loss of power and consequently the greatest possible
conservation of energy. In this manner of playing the arm is so relaxed
that it would fall to the side if the keyboard were removed from beneath
it. Since the hand and the arm are relaxed the back (top) of the hand is
almost on a level with the forearm.
"The high angular stroke which characterized the playing of the Czerny
epoch and which could hardly fail to cause tired muscles and unbearably
stiff playing, is seen very little in these days. By means of it the
student was taught to deliver a blow to the keyboard--a blow which
permitted very little modification to the requirements of modern
technic.
"In my experience as a pianist and as a teacher, I have observed that
the weight touch allows the greatest possible opportunity for the proper
application of those all-important divisions of technic without which
piano playing is not only inartistic, but devoid of all interest.
Weight playing permits nothing to interfere with discriminative
phrasing, complicated rhythmical problems, the infinitely subtle
variation of time for expressive purposes now classed under the head of
agogics, all shades of dynamic gradation; in fact everything that falls
in the domain of the artist pianist.
MOULDING THE FINGERS TO THE KEYS
"In weight playing the fingers seem to mould the piano keys under them,
the hand and arm are relaxed, but never heavy. The maximum of relaxation
results in the minimum of fatigue. In legato playing, for instance, the
fingers rest upon the fleshy part behind the tip rather than immediately
upon the tip as they would in passage work when the player desired to
have the effect of a string of pearls. The sensation in legato playing
is that of pulling back rather than striking the keys. In passages where
force is required the sensation is that of pushing.
"Much might be said of the sensibility of the finger tips as they come
in contact with the ivory and ebony keys. Most every artist has a strong
consciousness that there is a very manifest relation between his
emotional and mental conditions and his tactile sense, that is his
highly developed sense of feeling at the finger tips on the keyboard.
However, the phenomena may be explained from the psychological
standpoint, it is nevertheless true that the feeling of longing,
yearning, hope or soulful anticipation, for instance, induces a totally
different kind of touch from that of anger, resentment or hate.
"The artist who is incapable of communicating his emotions to the
keyboard or who must depend upon artifice to stimulate emotions rarely
electrifies his audiences. Every concert is a test of the artist's
sincerity, not merely an exhibition of his prowess, or his acrobatic
accomplishments on the keyboard. He must have some vital message to
convey to his audience or else his entire performance will prove
meaningless, soulless, worthless.
"That which is of great importance to him is to have the least possible
barrier between his artistic conception of the work he would interpret
and the sounds that are conveyed to the ears of his audience. If we
obliterate the emotional side and depend upon artifice or what might be
called in vulgar parlance "tricks of the trade," pianism will inevitably
descend to a vastly lower level. By cultivating a sensibility in touch
and employing the technical means which will bring the interpreter's
message to the world with the least possible obstruction, we reach the
highest in the art. Those who would strain at gnats might contend that
with the machinery of the instrument itself, intervening between the
touch at the keyboard and the sounding wires, would make the influence
of the emotions though the tactile sense (sense of touch) is wholly
negligible. To this I can only reply that the experience of the artist
and the teacher is always more reliable, more susceptible to finer
appreciations of artistic values than that of the pure theorist, who
views his problems through material rather than spiritual eyes. Every
observing pianist is familiar with the remarkable influence upon the
nerves of the voice-making apparatus that any emotion makes. Is it not
reasonable to suppose that the finger tips possess a similar sensibility
and that the interpretations of any highly trained artist are duly
affected through them?
INDIVIDUALITY, CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT
"Indeed, Individuality, Character and Temperament are becoming more and
more significant in the highly organized art of pianoforte playing.
Remove these and the playing of the artist again becomes little better
than that of a piano-playing machine. No machine can ever achieve the
distinguishing charm that this trinity brings to pianoforte playing.
Whether the performer is a 'genius' who has carefully developed the
performance of a masterpiece until it evidences that distinguishing mark
of the authoritative interpretation, or whether he is a 'talent' who
improvises as the mood of the moment inspires him and never plays the
same composition twice in anything like a similar manner, he need not
fear the rivalry of any machine so long as he preserves his
individuality, character and temperament.
GENIUS AND WORK
"The fault with many students, however, is the very erroneous idea that
genius or talent will take the place of study and work. They minimize
the necessity for a careful painstaking consideration of the infinite
details of technic. To them, the significance of the developments of
Bach, Rameau, and Scarlatti in fingering means nothing. They are content
with the superficial. They are incapable of comparing the value of the
advances made by Von Bülow, Tausig and other innovators whose lives were
given to a large extent to the higher development of the technic of the
instrument. They struggle laboriously at the keyboard, imagining that
they are dealing with the problem of technic, when in reality they are
doing little more than performing a drill in a kind of musical
gymnasium--a necessary drill to be sure, but at the same time quite
worthless unless directed by a brain trained in the principles of the
technic of the art.
QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING
SERIES VIII
LEOPOLD GODOWSKY
1. How may the mechanics of playing be distinguished from the larger
subject of technic?
2. With what has technic to do?
3. What channel in the study of pianoforte must the pupil develop most
thoroughly?
4. Name three epochs into which the subject of touch may be divided.
5. How does weight playing differ from the high angular playing of the
Czerny epoch?
6. How should the fingers rest in legato playing?
7. What may be said of the sensitiveness of the finger tips?
8. By what device may pianism descend to a lower level?
9. What qualities must the student preserve above all things?
10. Will genius or talent take the place of study and work?
[Illustration: KATHARINE GOODSON]
KATHARINE GOODSON
BIOGRAPHICAL
Miss Katharine Goodson was born at Watford, Herts, England. She
commenced the study of music at so very youthful an age that she made
several appearances in the English Provinces before she was twelve years
of age. Her talent aroused such interest that she was sent to the Royal
Academy of Music in London. There she was placed under the artistic
guidance of one of the foremost English teachers of pianoforte, Oscar
Beringer, with whom she remained for six years. This was followed by
four years under Leschetizky in Vienna.
Leschetizky saw splendid opportunities in such talented and regularly
trained material and is said to have given particularly careful
attention to Miss Goodson. It is not surprising that upon her return to
London Miss Goodson made a profound impression upon the musical public
and laid the foundation for a splendid reputation. She toured in
England, Germany, Austria and America with great success. In the Grove
Dictionary, her playing is described in the following manner: "It is
marked by an amount of verve and animation that are most rare with the
younger English pianists. She has a great command of tone gradation,
admirable technical finish, genuine musical taste and considerable
individuality of style." In 1903 Miss Goodson married Mr. Arthur Hinton,
one of the most brilliant of modern English composers.
XI
ANALYZING MASTERPIECES
KATHARINE GOODSON
THE NATURAL TENDENCY TO ANALYZE
"Judging from the mischievous investigations of things in general, which
seem so natural for the small boy to make, it would appear that our
tendency to analyze things is innate. We also have innumerable
opportunities to observe how children, to say nothing of primitive
people, struggle to construct--to put this and that together for the
purpose of making something new--in other words, to employ the opposite
process to analysis, known as synthesis. Moreover, it does not demand
much philosophy to perceive that all scientific and artistic progress is
based upon these very processes of analysis and synthesis. We pull
things apart to find out how they are made and what they are made of. We
put them together again to indicate the mastery of our knowledge.
"The measure of musicianship is the ability to do. All the analyzing in
the world will not benefit the pupil unless he can give some visible
indications of his proficiency. Indeed, important as the process is, it
is possible to carry it to extremes and neglect the building process
which leads to real accomplishment.
THE FIRST STEP IN ANALYZING A NEW PIECE
"A great many of the pupils who have come to me indicate a lamentable
neglect in an understanding of the very first things which should have
been analyzed by the preparatory teachers. It is an expensive process to
study with a public artist unless the preparation has been thoroughly
made. Reputation naturally places a higher monetary value upon the
services of the virtuoso, and for the student to expect instruction in
elementary points in analysis is obviously an extravagance. The
virtuoso's time during the lesson period should be spent in the finer
study of interpretation--not in those subjects which the elementary
teacher should have completed. Often the teacher of an advanced pupil is
deceived at the start and assumes that the pupil has a knowledge, which
future investigations reveal that he does not possess.
"For instance, the pupil should be able to determine the general
structure of a piece he is undertaking and should be so familiar with
the structure that it becomes a form of second nature to him. If the
piece is a sonata he should be able to identify the main theme and the
secondary theme whenever they appear or whenever any part of them
appears. Inability to do this indicates the most superficial kind of
study.
"The student should know enough of the subject of form in general to
recognize the periods into which the piece is divided. Without this
knowledge how could he possibly expect to study with understanding?
Even though he has passed the stage when it is necessary for him to mark
off the periods, he should not study a new piece without observing the
outlines--the architectural plans the composer laid down in constructing
the piece. It is one thing for a Sir Christopher Wren to make the plans
of a great cathedral like St. Paul's and quite another thing for him to
get master builders to carry out those plans. By studying the composer's
architectural plan carefully the student will find that he is saving an
immense amount of time. For example, let us consider the Chopin _F Minor
Fantasie_. In this composition the main theme comes three times, each
time in a different key. Once learned in one key, it should be very
familiar in the next key.