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Page 70
Wilhelm Bachaus, whose consummate technic we have so often admired,
says: "I am old-fashioned enough to still believe in scales and
arpeggios. Some of the players of the present day seem to have no use
for such things, but I find them of great importance. This does not
necessarily mean that I go through the whole set of keys when I practise
the scales. I select a few at a time and work at those. I start with
ridiculously simple forms--just the thumb under the hand and the hand
over the thumb--a few movements each way, but these put the hand in trim
for scales and arpeggios. I practise the latter about half an hour a
day. I have to overhaul my technic once or twice a week to see that
everything is in order. Scales and arpeggios come in for their share of
criticism. I practise them in various touches, but oftener in _legato_,
as that is more difficult and also more beautiful than the others. I
practise technic, when possible, an hour a day, including Bach."
Sigismond Stojowski considers that scales and arpeggios must form a
part of the daily routine.
Thuel Burnham says: "Of my practise hours at least one is given to
technic, scales, arpeggios, octaves, chords, and Bach! I believe in
taking one selection of Bach and perfecting it--transposing it in all
keys and polishing it to the highest point possible. So with �tudes, it
is better to perfect a few than to play _at_ so many."
THE PIANIST A MECHANIC
Edwin Hughes, the American pianist and teacher in Munich, remarks:
"Technic is the mechanical part of music making; to keep it in running
order one must be constantly tinkering with it, just as the engine
driver with his locomotive or the chauffeur with his automobile. Every
intelligent player recognizes certain exercises as especially beneficial
to the mechanical well-being of his playing; from these he will plan his
daily schedule of technical practise."
Teresa Carre�o asserts she had in the beginning many technical exercises
which her teacher wrote out for her, from difficult passages taken from
the great composers. There were hundreds of them, so many that it took
just three days to go the rounds. She considers them invaluable, and
constantly uses them in her own practise and in her teaching. Each
exercise must be played in all keys and with every possible variety of
touch and tone.
Paderewski gives much time daily to pure technic practise. He has been
known to play scales and arpeggios in a single key for three quarters of
an hour at a stretch. These were played with every variety of touch,
velocity, dynamic shading and so on.
It is seen from the instances quoted that many great pianists believe in
daily technic practise, or the study of pure technic apart from pieces.
Many more testify that scales, chords, arpeggios and octaves constitute
their daily bread. Some have spoken to me especially of octave practise
as being eminently beneficial. They feel these things are essential to
the acquiring of a fine technic, and keeping it up to concert pitch.
Some artists are partial to certain technical studies. Bachaus highly
recommends those of Brahms, for instance. All artists use Bach in
connection with their technic practise; in fact the works of Bach may be
considered to embody pure technic principles, and pianists and teachers
consider them a daily necessity.
INVENTING EXERCISES
Together with their studies in pure technic alone, the artists invent
exercises out of the pieces they study, either by playing passages
written for both hands with one hand, by turning single notes into
octaves, by using more difficult fingering than necessary, thus bringing
into use the weaker fingers, changing the rhythm, and in numerous other
ways increasing the effort of performance, so that when the passage is
played as originally written, it shall indeed seem like child's play.
Another means to acquire technical mastery is through transposition. One
would think Bach's music difficult enough when performed as written, but
the artists think nothing of putting it through the different keys.
Burnham relates that during early lessons with Dr. Mason, that master
gave him a Bach Invention to prepare, casually remarking it might be
well to memorize it. The simple suggestion was more than sufficient, for
the ambitious pupil presented himself at the next lesson with not only
that particular Invention learned by heart, but likewise the whole set!
De Pachmann, in his eagerness to master the technic and literature of
the piano, says that when a Bach Prelude and Fugue was on one occasion
assigned him by his teacher, he went home and learned the whole
twenty-four, which he was able to play in every key for the next lesson!
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