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Page 49
"For myself, I love Mozart's music. One of my greatest successes was in
a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Orchestra. I afterward remarked to
one of my colleagues that it had been one of the most difficult tasks I
had ever accomplished. 'Yes, when one plays Mozart one is so _exposed_,'
was his clever rejoinder."
(7) How do you keep repertoire in repair?
"If you mean my own, I would answer that I don't try to keep all my
pieces up, for I have hundreds and hundreds of them, and I must always
save time to study new works. A certain number are always kept in
practise, different programs, according to the requirements of the hour.
My method of practise is to play slowly through the piece, carefully
noting the spots that are weak and need special treatment. To these I
give a certain number of repetitions, and then repeat the whole to see
if the weak places are equal in smoothness to the rest. If not, they
must have more study. But always slow practise. Only occasionally do I
go through the piece at the required velocity.
"My pupils are always counseled to practise slowly. If they bring the
piece for a first hearing, it must be slowly and carefully played; if
for a second or third hearing, and they know it well enough to take it
up to time, they can play it occasionally at this tempo before coming to
me. But to constantly play a piece in rapid tempo is very harmful; it
precludes all thought of analysis, of _how_ you are doing it. When you
are playing at concert speed, you have no time to think of fingering,
movement or condition--you are beyond all that. It is only in slow
practise that you have time and opportunity to think of everything.
"As an illustration, take the case of a pianist in a traveling concert
company. He must play the same pieces night after night, with no
opportunity to practise between. For the first few days the pieces go
well; then small errors and weak spots begin to appear. There is no time
for slow practise, so each nightly repetition increases the uncertainty.
In a few months his playing degenerates so it is hardly fit to listen
to. This is the result of constant fast playing."
(8) How do you keep technic up to the standard?
"If one is far advanced a few arpeggios and scales, or a brilliant �tude
will put the hand in condition. After one has rested, or had a vacation,
some foundational exercises and finger movements may be necessary, to
limber up the muscles and regain control and quickness. One may often
have to review first principles, but technical facility is soon regained
if it has once been thoroughly acquired. If one has stopped practise for
quite a period, the return is slower, and needs to be more carefully
prepared.
"I use considerable Czerny for technical purposes, with my pupils. Op.
299, of course, and even earlier or easier ones; then Op. 740. A few of
the latter are most excellent for keeping up one's technic. The Chopin
Studies, too, are daily bread."
(9) The best way to study chords?
"From the wrist and with fingers of steel Small hands must of course
begin with smaller positions."
(10) What gymnastic exercises do you suggest?
"Whatever seems necessary for the special hand. Tight hands need to be
massaged to limber the fingers and stretch the web of flesh between
them. The loose, flabby hand may also be strengthened and rendered firm
by massage; but this is often a more difficult task than to stretch the
right hand. If technical training is properly given, it is sure to
render the hand flexible and strong."
XXV
AGNES MORGAN
SIMPLICITY IN PIANO TEACHING
One of the busiest of New York piano teachers, whose list of students
taking private lessons in a season, almost touches the hundred mark, is
Mrs. Agnes Morgan. Mrs. Morgan has been laboring in this field for more
than two decades, with ever increasing success. And yet so quietly and
unobtrusively is all this accomplished, that the world only knows of the
teacher through the work done by her pupils. The teacher has now risen
to the point where she can pick and choose her own pupils, which is a
great comfort to her, for it dispels much of the drudgery of piano
teaching, and is one of the reasons why she loves her work.
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