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Page 73
CONSTANT REPAIRS NECESSARY
A repertoire once committed must be constantly kept in repair. The
public player, in his seasons of study, generally has a regular system
of repetition, so that all compositions can be gone over at least once a
week. One artist suggests that the week be started with the classics and
concluded with modern compositions and concerted numbers. Thus each day
will have its allotted task. The pieces are not merely to be played
over, but really overhauled, and all weak places treated to a dose of
slow, careful practise, using the printed pages. Artists on tour, where
consecutive practise is difficult or unattainable, always carry the
printed notes of their repertoire with them, and are ceaselessly
studying, repairing, polishing their phrases, thinking out their
effects.
To those who wish to become pianists, I would say: "Keep your memory
active through constant use. Be always learning by heart; do it
systematically, a little at a time. So it will be daily progress. So
your repertoire is built!"
SECTION V
_Rhythm and Tone Color in Piano Playing_
How shall two such opposites as rhythm and tone color be connected, even
in name, some will ask. One belongs to the mechanical side of piano
playing, while the other appertains to the ideal, the poetic, the
soulful. The two subjects, however, are not so wide apart as might at
first appear; for the beauty and variety of the second depends largely
upon the mastery of the first. You must play rhythmically before you can
play soulfully; you must first be able to keep time before you can
attempt to express color and emotion through any fluctuation of rhythm.
One depends on the other, therefore time and rhythm come first; when
these are well under control, not before, we can go further and enter
the wider field of tonal variety.
Rhythm is one of the pianist's most important assets, something he
cannot do without. It might be said that the possession of a
well-developed rhythmic sense is one point in which the artist differs
greatly from the amateur. The latter thinks nothing of breaking the
rhythm at any time and place that suits his fancy; while the artist is
usually conscientious about such matters, because his time sense is more
highly developed. A perfect time sense is often inherent in the artist,
a part of the natural gift which he has cultivated to such a high state
of achievement. It may be he has never had any difficulty with this
particular point in piano playing, while the amateur has constantly to
struggle with problems of time and rhythm.
THE METRONOME
When the subject of using such a mechanical aid as the metronome to
cultivate rhythmic sense, is broached to the executive artist, it does
not always meet with an assenting response. With such bred-in-the-bone
sense of time as the artist commands, it is little wonder he takes no
great interest in mechanical time-beating. Josef Hofmann's censure of
the metronome was probably due to his inborn rhythmic and artistic
sense; yet his words have doubtless had their effect on many students,
who, lacking his sense of rhythm, would have been greatly benefited by
its use.
Godowsky, when asked his opinion of the metronome, replied: "I
assuredly approve of its use; I have even devoted a chapter to the
metronome in the _Progressive Series_, my great work on piano playing."
Edwin Hughes remarks: "If pupils have naturally a poor sense of rhythm,
there is no remedy equal to practising with the metronome, using it
daily until results are evident, when there can be a judicious letting
up of the discipline. The mechanical sense of rhythm, the ability to
count and to group the notes of a piece correctly, can be taught to any
person, if one has the patience; but for the delicate rhythmic _nuances_
required by a Chopin Mazourka or a Viennese Valse, a special rhythmic
gift is necessary."
Artists and teachers who have come under Leschetizky's influence and use
his principles, are generally in favor of the metronome, according to
their own testimony. The fact is, they as teachers often find such
deficiency in their pupils on the subject of time sense and accuracy in
counting, that they are forced to institute strict measures to
counteract this lack of rhythmic comprehension.
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