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Page 54
"An artistic technic can be acquired only by those who have an aptitude
for it, plus the willingness to undertake the necessary drudgery;
practise alone, no matter how arduous, is not sufficient. Technic is
evolved from thought, from hearing great music, from much listening to
great players; intent listening to one's own playing, and to the effects
one strives to make. It is often said that the pianist cannot easily
judge of the tonal effects he is producing, as he is too near the
instrument. With me this is not the case. My hearing is so acute that I
know the exact dynamics of every tone, every effect of light and shade;
thus I do not have to stand at a distance, as the painter does, even if
I could do so, in order to criticize my work, for I can do this
satisfactorily at close range.
"I hardly know when I learned technic; at all events it was not at the
beginning. At the start I had some lessons with quite a simple woman
teacher. We lived near Paris, and my elder sister was then studying with
Raoul Pugno; she was a good student and practised industriously. She
said she would take me to the master, and one day she did so. I was a
tiny child of about seven, very small and thin--not much bigger than a
fly. The great man pretended he could hardly see me. I was perched upon
the stool, my feet, too short to reach the floor, rested on the
extension pedal box which I always carried around with me, I went
bravely through some Bach Inventions. When I finished, Pugno regarded me
with interest. He said he would teach me; told me to prepare some more
Inventions, some Czerny studies and the Mendelssohn Capriccio, Op. 22,
and come to him in four weeks. Needless to say, I knew every note of
these compositions by heart when I took my second lesson. Soon I was
bidden to come to him every fortnight, then every week, and finally he
gave me two lessons a week.
"For the first five years of my musical experience, I simply played the
piano. I played everything--sonatas, concertos--everything; large works
were absorbed from one lesson to the next. When I was about twelve I
began to awake to the necessity for serious study; then I really began
to practise in earnest. My master took more and more interest in my
progress and career: he was at pains to explain the meaning of music to
me--the ideas of the composers. Many fashionable people took lessons of
him, for to study with Pugno had become a fad; but he called me his only
pupil, saying that I alone understood him. I can truly say he was my
musical father; to him I owe everything. We were neighbors in a suburb
of Paris, as my parents' home adjoined his; we saw a great deal of him
and we made music together part of every day. When he toured in America
and other countries, he wrote me frequently; I could show you many
letters, for I have preserved a large number--letters filled with
beautiful and exalted thoughts, expressed in noble and poetic language.
They show that Pugno possessed a most refined, superior mind, and was
truly a great artist.
"I studied with Pugno ten years. At the end of that time he wished me to
play for Emil Saur. Saur was delighted with my work, and was anxious to
teach me certain points. From him I acquired the principles of touch
advocated by his master, Nicholas Rubinstein. These I mastered in three
months' time, or I might say in two lessons.
"According to Nicholas Rubinstein, the keys are not to be struck with
high finger action, nor is the direct end of the finger used. The point
of contact is rather just back of the tip, between that and the ball of
the finger. Furthermore we do not simply strive for plain legato touch.
The old instruction books tell us that legato must be learned first, and
is the most difficult touch to acquire. But legato does not bring the
best results in rapid passages, for it does not impart sufficient
clarity. In the modern idea something more crisp, scintillating and
brilliant is needed. So we use a half staccato touch. The tones, when
separated a hair's breadth from each other, take on a lighter, more
vibrant, radiant quality; they are really like strings of pearls. Then I
also use pressure touch, pressing and caressing the keys--feeling as it
were for the quality I want; I think it, I hear it mentally, and I can
make it. With this manner of touching the keys, and this constant search
for quality of tone, I can make any piano give out a beautiful tone,
even if it seems to be only a battered tin pan.
TONE WHICH VIBRATES THROUGH THE WHOLE BODY
"Weight touch is of course a necessity; for it I use not only arms and
shoulders, but my whole body feels and vibrates with the tones of the
piano. Of course I have worked out many of these principles for myself;
they have not been acquired from any particular book, set of exercises,
or piano method; I have made my own method from what I have acquired and
experienced in ways above mentioned.
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