pianoforte composition that is sufficient unto itself and which does not
require any of the other arts to enhance its beauty. However, in the
cases of some of our modern composers who have professedly drawn their
musical inspiration from tales, great pictures or from nature, I can see
the desirability of investigating these sources in order to come closer
to the composer's idea. Some of the works of Debussy demand this. Let me
play you his '_Night in Granada_,' for instance. The work is most subtle
and requires an appreciation of Oriental life, and is indeed a kind of
tonal dream picture of the old fortified palace of Moorish Spain. I feel
that in cases of this kind it helps the performer to have in mind the
composer's conception and in playing this piece in public I always
follow this plan.
STUDYING THE PHRASING
"Each phrase in a piece requires separate study. I believe that the
student should leave nothing undone to learn how to phrase or rather to
analyze a piece so that all its constituent phrases become clear to him.
Each phrase must be studied with the same deference to detail that the
singer would give to an individual phrase. This is by no means an easy
matter. More important still is the interrelation of phrases. Every note
in a work of musical art bears a certain relation to every other note.
So it is with the phrases. Each phrase must be played with reference to
the work as a whole or more particularly to the movement of which it is
a part.
MARKING THE FINGERING
"It seems hardly necessary to say anything about the fingering when so
much attention is being given to the matter by the best teachers of the
country, but certainly one of the most essential considerations in the
study of a new piece is the study of the fingering. A detailed study of
this should be made and it should be clearly understood that the
fingering should be adapted to fit the hand of the player. It is by no
means necessary to accept the fingering given in the book as 'gospel.'
The wise student will try many fingerings before deciding upon the one
that suits him best. Students who go to these pains are the ones who
invariably succeed. Those who take anything that is presented to them
without considering its advisability rarely attain lofty musical
heights.
"When a fingering has once been determined upon it should never be
changed. To change a fingering frequently means to waste many hours of
practice. This may be considered a mechanical method but it is the
method invariably employed by successful artists. Why? Simply because
one fingering closely adhered to establishes finger habits which give
freedom and certainty and permits the player to give more consideration
to the other details of artistic interpretation.
"I ofttimes find it expedient to adapt a more difficult fingering of
some given passage for the reason that the difficult fingering
frequently leads to a better interpretation of the composer's meaning. I
know of innumerable passages in the piano classics which illustrate this
point. Moreover a fingering that seems difficult at first is often more
simple than the conventional or arbitrary fingering employed by the
student, after the student has given sufficient time to the new
fingering. The required accent often obliges the performer to employ a
different fingering. The stronger fingers are naturally better adapted
to the stronger accents. Otherwise it is best to use a similar fingering
for similar passages.
MEMORIZING
"I should like to add a few words with regard to committing pieces to
memory. There are three ways. 1, By sight; that is, seeing the notes in
your mind's eye; 2, memorizing by 'ear,' the way which comes to one most
naturally; 3, memorizing by the fingers, that is training the fingers to
do their duty no matter what happens. Before performing in public the
student should have memorized the composition in all of these ways. Only
thus can he be absolutely sure of himself. If one way fails him the
other method comes to his rescue.
"After careful attention has been given to the various points of which I
have spoken and the details of the composition satisfactorily worked out
the student should practice with a view to learning the piece as a
whole. Nothing is so distressing to the musician as a piece which does
not seem to have coherence and unity. It should be regarded aurally as
the artist regards his work visually. The painter stands off at some
distance to look at his work in order to see whether all parts of his
painting harmonize. The pianist must do much the same thing. He must
listen to his work time and time again and if it does not seem to 'hang
together' he must unify all the parts until he can give a real
interpretation instead of a collection of disjointed sections. This
demands grasp, insight and talent, three qualifications without which
the pianist cannot hope for large success."
QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING
SERIES XVIII
ERNEST SCHELLING
1. What should be the preliminary study of a new composition?
2. How should the mechanical difficulties of the piece be studied?
3. How may one find the bearing of one movement upon another?
4. State the importance of deciding upon the appropriate touch.
5. How may the right tempo be established?
6. What did Chopin call the left hand?
7. What is it in playing that sways the audience?
8. How should the fingering of a new piece be studied?
9. Why is a more difficult fingering sometimes preferable?
10. Give a practical plan for memorizing.
SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI
BIOGRAPHICAL
Sigismund Stojowski was born at Strelce, Poland, May 2, 1870. He studied
piano with L. Zelenski at Cracow and with Diémer at the Paris
Conservatoire. At the same institution he studied composition with Léo
Delibes. His talent both as a composer and as a pianist was considered
extraordinary at that time and he was successful in carrying off two
first prizes, one for piano and one for composition (1889). At that time
Stojowski's great fellow countryman, Paderewski, assumed the educational
supervision of his career and became his teacher in person.
Stojowski's orchestral compositions attracted wide attention in Paris
and he met with pronounced success as a virtuoso. Mr. Stojowski came to
America in 1906 and he entered immediately into the musical life of the
country, taking foremost rank as a composer, pianist and teacher. Aside
from his musical talent he is a remarkable linguist and speaks many
languages fluently. His articles written in English, for instance, are
unusually graphic and expressive. Once when complimented upon his
linguistic ability he remarked "We Poles are given the credit of being
natural linguists because we take the trouble to learn many languages
thoroughly in our youth." In 1913 Mr. Stojowski made a highly successful
tour abroad, his compositions meeting with wide favor.
[Illustration: S. STOJOWSKI]
XXI
WHAT INTERPRETATION REALLY IS
SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI
THE COMPOSER'S LIMITATIONS IN HIS MEANS OF EXPRESSION
It is difficult for some people who are not versed in the intricate
mysteries of the art of music to realize how limited are the means
afforded the composer for communicating to the interpreter some slight
indication of the ideal he had in mind when writing the composition. It
may be said that, while every great composer feels almost God-like at
the moment of creation, the merest fraction of the myriad beauties he
has in mind ever reach human ears. The very signs with which the
composer is provided to help him put his thoughts down on paper are in
themselves inadequate to serve as a means of recording more than a
shadow of his masterpiece as it was originally conceived. Of course, we
are speaking now in a large sense--we are imagining that the composer is
a Beethoven with an immortal message to convey to posterity. Of all
composers, Beethoven was perhaps the one to employ the most perfect
means of expression. His works represent a completeness, a poise and a
masterly finish which will serve as a model for all time to come. It
must also be noted that few composers have employed more accurate marks
of expression--such as time marks, dynamic marks, etc.
In all these things Beethoven was obliged to adhere to the conventions
adopted by others for this purpose of attempting to make the composer's
meaning clearer to other minds. These conventions, like all conventions,
are partly insufficient to convey the full idea of the composer, and
partly arbitrary, in that they do not give the interpreter adequate
latitude to introduce his own ideas in expression. The student should
seek to break the veil of conventions provided by notation and seek a
clearer insight into the composer's individuality as expressed in his
compositions. From this point of view the so-called subjective
interpretation seems the only legitimate one. In fact, the ones who
pretend to be objective in the sense of being literal and playing
strictly according to the marks of expression and admitting little
elasticity in the interpretation of these are also, as Rubinstein
pointed out, subjective at heart. This may be more concisely expressed
thus: Since all things of permanent value in music have proceeded from a
fervid artistic imagination, they should be interpreted with the
continual employment of the performer's imagination.
On the other hand, the subjective method, right as it is in principle,
can become, of course, according to the Italian saying, _Traduttore,
traditore_--that is, an absolute treachery to the composer's ideal, if
the performer's understanding and execution of the composition is not
based upon long and careful investigation of all the fundamental laws
and associated branches of musical study, which are designed to give him
a basis for forming his own opinions upon the best method of
interpreting the composition. Inadequate training in this respect is the
Chinese Wall which surrounds the composer's hidden meaning. This wall
must be torn down, brick by brick, stone by stone, in a manner which we
would call "analytical practice." It is the only way in which the
student may gain entrance to the sacred city of the elect, to whom the
ideal of the composer has been revealed.
THE INTERPRETER MUST COÖPERATE WITH THE COMPOSER
In a certain sense the interpreter is a coöperator with the composer,
or, more definitely expressed, he is the "continuer" along the line of
the musical thought and its adequate expression. Music, of all arts, is
the unfinished art. When a great painting is completed, time, and time
only, will make the changes in its surface. When the great masterpieces
left the brushes of Raphael, Rubens, Holbein, Correggio or Van Dyck they
were finished works of art. When Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms put
their thoughts down upon paper they left a record in ink and paper which
must be born again every time it is brought to the minds of men. This
rebirth is the very essence of all that is best in interpretative skill.
New life goes into the composition at the very moment it passes through
the soul of the master performer. It is here that he should realize the
great truth that in music, more than in any other art, "the letter kills
and the spirit vivifies." The interpreter must master the "letter" and
seek to give "rebirth" to the spirit. If he can do this he will attain
the greatest in interpretative ability.
From the literal or objective standpoint, then, an insight is gained
into the nature of the composer's masterpiece,--by close and careful
study of the work itself, by gaining a knowledge of the musical laws
underlying the structure and composition of a work of its kind as well
as the necessary keyboard technic to give expression to the work,--but
the veil is torn from the composer's hidden meaning, only becoming
intimate with his creative personality as a master, by studying his life
environments, by investigating the historical background of the period
in which he worked, by learning of his joys and his sufferings, by
cultivating a deep and heartfelt sympathy for his ideals and by the
scrupulous and constant revision of one's own ideals and conceptions of
the standards by which his masterpieces should be judged.
STUDYING THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
To exemplify what I mean, I could, for instance, refer to Paderewski's
interpretations of Liszt and Chopin. During the time I was associated
with the master pianist as a pupil I had abundant opportunities to make
notes upon the very individual, as well as the highly artistically
differentiated expressions of his musical judgment. It was interesting
to observe that he played the Rhapsodies with various extensions and
modifications, the result of which is the glorification of Liszt's own
spirit. On the contrary, in order to preserve Chopin's spirit, the
master would always repudiate any changes, like those of Tausig, for
instance, by which some virtuosos pretend to "emphasize" or "modernize"
Chopin's personal and perfect pianism. Differences in treatment are the
outcome of deep insight as well as the study of the time and conditions
under which the work was produced.
The study of musical history reveals many very significant things which
have a direct bearing not only upon the interpretation of the performer,
but upon the degree of appreciation with which the listener is able to
enjoy a musical work. It was for this reason that I prefaced the first
two recitals of my course of historical recitals given at Mendelssohn
Hall, New York, during the past season, with a lecture upon the
historical conditions which surrounded the masters at the time the
compositions were composed.
THE INADEQUACY OF MUSICAL SIGNS
I have already referred to the inadequacy of musical signs. Even the
mechanical guide, the metronome, is not always to be depended upon to
give the exact tempo the composer had in mind. Let me cite a little
instance from the biography of Ries, the friend of Beethoven. Ries was
preparing to conduct a performance of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony. He
requested Beethoven to make notes upon paper regarding the metronomic
marks of speed at which the composition should be played. The metronome
at that time was a comparatively new instrument. Maelzel, its inventor
(or, rather, its improver, since the principle of the metronome was of
Dutch origin), was a friend of Beethoven. At times they were on the best
of terms, and at other times they were literally "at swords' points."
Nevertheless, Maelzel, who had a strong personality, succeeded in
inducing Beethoven to put metronomic markings upon several of his
compositions. Naturally, the metronome was immediately accorded an
important place in the musical world even at that day. Ries was
consequently very anxious to give the Choral Symphony according to
Beethoven's own ideas. Beethoven had complied with the publisher's
desire and sent a slip of paper with the tempi marked metronomically.
This slip was lost. Ries wrote to Beethoven for a duplicate. Beethoven
sent another. Later the lost slip was found, and, upon comparing it with
the second slip, it was found that Beethoven had made an entirely
different estimate of the tempi at which he desired the Symphony to be
played.
Even with the most elaborate and complete marks of expression, such as
those, for instance, employed by Beethoven and by Wagner, the composer
is confronted with his great poverty of resources to present his views
to the mind of the interpreter. Extensive as some of the modern
dictionaries of musical terminology seem to be, they are wholly
inadequate from the standpoint of a complete vocabulary to give full
expression to the artist's imagination. It also gives full scope to an
infinite variety of error in the matter of the shades or degrees of
dynamic force at which the conventional marks may be rendered.
One might venture to remark that composers are the most keen, most
conscious judges of their own works, or, rather, of the garments which
fit them best. There is in all composition a divine part and also a
conscious part. The divine part is the inspiration. The conscious part
has to do with dressing the inspiration in its most appropriate
harmonic, polyphonic, and rhythmic garments. These garments are the
raiment in which the inspiration will be viewed by future generations.
It is often by these garments that they will be judged. If the garments
are awkward, inappropriate and ill-fitting, a beautiful interpretation
of the composer's ideal will be impossible. Nevertheless, it is the
performer's duty in each case to try to see through even unbecoming
garments and divine the composer's thought, according to the
interpreter's best understanding.
LEARNING THE MUSICAL LANGUAGE
Where interpretation is concerned, one is too often inclined to forget
that while there is a higher part, the secrets of which are accessible
only to the elect, there is also an elementary part which involves the
knowledge of musical grammar, and beyond that the correct feeling of
musical declamation--since music, after all, is a language which is at
all times perfectly teachable, and which should be most carefully and
systematically taught. I consider the book of Mathis Lussy, _Rhythm and
Musical Expression_, of great value to the student in search of truths
pertaining to intelligent interpretation. Lussy was a Swiss who was born
in the early part of the last century. He went to Paris to study
medicine, but, having had a musical training in the country of his
birth, he became a good pianoforte teacher and an excellent writer upon
musical subjects. While teaching in a young ladies' school, he was
confronted with the great paucity of real knowledge of the rudiments of
expression, and he accordingly prepared a book upon the subject which
has since been translated into several languages. This book is most
helpful, and I advocate its use frequently. It should be in the hands of
every conscientious piano student.
MISTAKES PECULIAR TO THE PIANOFORTE PLAYER
The nature of the keyboard of the piano, and the ease with which certain
things are accomplished, make it possible for the performer to make
certain errors which the construction of other instruments would
prevent. The pianist is, for instance, entirely unlike the violinist,
who has to locate his keyboard every time he takes up his instrument,
and, moreover, locate it by a highly trained sense of position. In a
certain way I sometimes feel somewhat ashamed for the pianist profession
when I hear players, even those with manifest technical proficiency,
commit flagrant mistakes against elementary rules of accentuation and
phrasing, such as, for instance, an average violinist acquainted with
good bowing is accordingly prevented from making upon his instrument.
The means of discovering the composer's hidden meaning are, in fact, so
numerous that the conscientious interpreter must keep upon continuous
voyages of exploration. There are many easily recognizable paths leading
to the promised land--one is the path of harmony, without an
understanding of which the would-be performer can never reach his goal;
another is musical history; others are the studies of phrasing, rhythm,
accentuation, pedaling, etc., etc., _ad infinitum_. To fail to traverse
any one of these roads will result in endless exasperation. Find your
guide, press on without thinking of failure, and the way to success may
be found before you know it.
QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING
SERIES XIX
SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI
1. What composer preserved the most perfect balance between artistic
conception and expression?
2. How may the student break the veil of conventions?
3. What fundamental laws should underlie interpretation?
4. How may master works be born again?
5. Is one ever warranted in altering a masterpiece?
6. Tell of Beethoven's attitude toward the metronome.
7. How may errors arise in the use of the terms of expression?
8. How may one be helped in learning the musical language?
9. State some mistakes peculiar to the pianoforte.
10. What voyages of exploration must the student make?
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| Transcriber's note: |
| |
| Page 8: Torquamada _sic_ |
| Page 153: subtilities _sic_ |
| Page 159: regretable amended to regrettable |
| Page 187: dumfounded _sic_ |
| Page 251: "polish Prussia" amended to "Polish Prussia" |
| Page 257: Klaverspiels amended to Klavierspiels |
| Page 262: pedagogs _sic_ |
| |
| Hyphenation has generally been standardized. However, when |
| a word appears hyphenated and unhyphenated an equal number |
| of times, both versions have been retained |
| (offhand/off-hand). |
| |
| "Etude/Étude" and "etude/étude" are used interchangeably. |
| This has been retained. |
| |
| Discrepancies between the Table of Contents and individual |
| chapter headings have been retained. Page references have |
| been corrected. |
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