It has been a LOOONG day... I don't recollect ever being this tired after a workday... my muscles doesn't seem to be responding to my will very well.... :P
But yet I am so deeply touched today that I must put down in words what I feel today.
It's Teacher's Day on Monday and since this week, presents have been coming in. While I can't deny that I am thrilled to receive such lovely presents, but what is actually meaningful to me is the reminder about the Human Touch in teaching, that teaching is really not about getting them to play scales or pieces etc... It's about treating them with respect and touching their lives and making a difference, no matter how small.
No matter how "hopeless" that student seems to be, you really should still treat them with respect and be patient with them. That's a teacher's duty. Remember that everyone is unique.
When people say that, sometimes it is the teacher that learns from the student, i can now vouch that this is true, not necessarily them giving me insights about music (which they certainly do!) but now they teach me how to be a human being, how to treat people. Today they make me realise, Everyone Is My Teacher. This is now my new motto. I remember last time Ven Hue Can also said something along those lines. She thanked us, her devotees, cos she said that we are her teachers too, that she is learning from us as well. Truly words of wisdom.
Getting a card from Joyce, who has since moved on to NAFA, really touched my heart. Aww I'm still remembered.
And the Swatch watch from Christina,.. I shall wear it like a badge of honour, not only that, but also to serve as a reminder that Everyone Is My Teacher :)
Ok the "paralysis" is affecting my flow of thought as well...
To be continued...........
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Claudio Arrau: Insecurity and Dreams
=========================
The troubles that kept me from giving everything I had had to do with vanity. I wanted to please. And I was afraid not to please. Abrahamsohn worked continuously on that idea. How right he was. The less vain you become, the more creative you are. One gets to the point where one is courageous enough to displease, if it's called for by the composer. There are certain places in Beethoven, for example where he is almost brutal.
JH: The word vanity usually suggests arrogance or excessive self confidence. But I think you're talking about a type of shyness- vanity in the sense of worrying what others will think of you,and therefore not expressing yourself in a way that might antagonise or confuse.
CA: I don't mean vanity in the sense of being conceited, but of wanting to please. And that is of course due to insecurity.
JH: Would you say that , as a result of conquering this impulse to please , your piano sound changed?
CA: It becamse richer, more assertive. Everything had more meaning.
================================
JH: One of the things you've mentioned in writing about this period is learning to interpret your dreams.
CA: Oh yes. I kept a notebook. And I trained myself, when I had an important dream, to wake up and write it down. I developed this capacity to wake up and when I felt my subconscious wanted to tell me something.
The troubles that kept me from giving everything I had had to do with vanity. I wanted to please. And I was afraid not to please. Abrahamsohn worked continuously on that idea. How right he was. The less vain you become, the more creative you are. One gets to the point where one is courageous enough to displease, if it's called for by the composer. There are certain places in Beethoven, for example where he is almost brutal.
JH: The word vanity usually suggests arrogance or excessive self confidence. But I think you're talking about a type of shyness- vanity in the sense of worrying what others will think of you,and therefore not expressing yourself in a way that might antagonise or confuse.
CA: I don't mean vanity in the sense of being conceited, but of wanting to please. And that is of course due to insecurity.
JH: Would you say that , as a result of conquering this impulse to please , your piano sound changed?
CA: It becamse richer, more assertive. Everything had more meaning.
================================
JH: One of the things you've mentioned in writing about this period is learning to interpret your dreams.
CA: Oh yes. I kept a notebook. And I trained myself, when I had an important dream, to wake up and write it down. I developed this capacity to wake up and when I felt my subconscious wanted to tell me something.
Arrau : of his teacher Martin Krause
Krause inculcated a reverence for music, and for music as a calling. He accepted no payment from the Arraus (an example Arrau has followed later in life - he teaches without a fee) . Mindful of his own venerated teachers, Liszt and Carl Reinecke, he taught as one bequeathing a tradition, his students comprised a sort of guild apprenticeship.
Q: Did Krause have any special teaching methods?
A: He believed in practising difficult passages at different speeds, and in different rhythms and in different keys. And then staccato, leggiero, martellato- all sorts of combinations. In fact he always told us that you shouldn't perform a work in public unless you were able to play it ten times as fast and ten times as loud as it would have to be in performance 0 that you only gave the feeling of mastery to an audience if you had tremendous reserves of technique, so that it seemed you could play much faster if you wished, or much louder.
Q: When you began working with Krause, his most famous pupil was Edwin Fischer. Yet Fischer's attitude tward textual fidelity was much different from yours. And he wasn't as polished a technician. Krause must not have stamped his students from a mould.
A: He encouraged thenm to develop their own approach. one thing I remember about him is that he hated people who just played, senselessly. "Klimpern" [tinkling] he called it. And he always said that one should have a general culture base.
==========================
He had heard Brahms, Clara Schumann, Carreno, Busoni, Sophie Menter. And of course Liszt. He would speak of Liszt's way of breaking chords, and of trilling. He taught us several ways to break a chord: to start slowly, and then accelerate toward the highest note; or to make a crescendo to the highest note; or to make a diminuendo; or to do it freely, with rubato. but always so that broken chords would have a meaning coming from what went before.
==========================
Q: You have said that Krause had you play all the preludes and fugues from the WTC in different keys.
A: Yes in front of all the pupils in the conservatory, he would test whether one could play in another key - usually one very far away, not just one tone or one half-tone. He also insisted on having us memorize single voices. Bach in general was one of the bases of his teaching. In those days, of course, there was no doubt it was correct to play Bach on the piano.
Q: Did Krause have any special teaching methods?
A: He believed in practising difficult passages at different speeds, and in different rhythms and in different keys. And then staccato, leggiero, martellato- all sorts of combinations. In fact he always told us that you shouldn't perform a work in public unless you were able to play it ten times as fast and ten times as loud as it would have to be in performance 0 that you only gave the feeling of mastery to an audience if you had tremendous reserves of technique, so that it seemed you could play much faster if you wished, or much louder.
Q: When you began working with Krause, his most famous pupil was Edwin Fischer. Yet Fischer's attitude tward textual fidelity was much different from yours. And he wasn't as polished a technician. Krause must not have stamped his students from a mould.
A: He encouraged thenm to develop their own approach. one thing I remember about him is that he hated people who just played, senselessly. "Klimpern" [tinkling] he called it. And he always said that one should have a general culture base.
==========================
He had heard Brahms, Clara Schumann, Carreno, Busoni, Sophie Menter. And of course Liszt. He would speak of Liszt's way of breaking chords, and of trilling. He taught us several ways to break a chord: to start slowly, and then accelerate toward the highest note; or to make a crescendo to the highest note; or to make a diminuendo; or to do it freely, with rubato. but always so that broken chords would have a meaning coming from what went before.
==========================
Q: You have said that Krause had you play all the preludes and fugues from the WTC in different keys.
A: Yes in front of all the pupils in the conservatory, he would test whether one could play in another key - usually one very far away, not just one tone or one half-tone. He also insisted on having us memorize single voices. Bach in general was one of the bases of his teaching. In those days, of course, there was no doubt it was correct to play Bach on the piano.
Prodigy
Q: When Mozart was being shown off, he would identify chords on the piano from the other room. Would you perform tricks as well?
A: Yes they did that with me too. Someone would play bunches of notes, almost like modern music, and I could name every note from another room. And i would transpose preludes by Bach.
Q: A striking characteristic of the young Mozart was his complete immersion in music. Andres Schachtner wrote of Mozart:" No sooner had he begun to busy himself with music than his interest in every other occupation was as dead, and even children's games had to have a musical accompaniment if they were to interest him; if we, he and I were carrying his playthings from one room to another, the one of us who went empty handed always had to sing or fiddle a march the while. Were you that single-minded as a child:
A: I think so. All I wanted was music. I was even fed at the piano. Otherwise it seems, I wouldn't eat. I used to play with my mouth open, and my mother used to put food in it. I was so preoccupied with the music I hardly noticed. Whenever food was put in my mouth, I chewed it so I could get rid of it.
Q: Schlichtegroll's necrology says of Mozart that "in general he was full of enthusiasm and was very easily attracted to any subject. " There are these stories of Mozart being taught arithmetic and making his calculations all over the floors and walls, writing numbers everyplace. Every activity he undertook consumed him. Were you like that?
A: I concentrated on what I was doing. Still today, whatever it is, even something very unimportant, I am totally there.
A: Yes they did that with me too. Someone would play bunches of notes, almost like modern music, and I could name every note from another room. And i would transpose preludes by Bach.
Q: A striking characteristic of the young Mozart was his complete immersion in music. Andres Schachtner wrote of Mozart:" No sooner had he begun to busy himself with music than his interest in every other occupation was as dead, and even children's games had to have a musical accompaniment if they were to interest him; if we, he and I were carrying his playthings from one room to another, the one of us who went empty handed always had to sing or fiddle a march the while. Were you that single-minded as a child:
A: I think so. All I wanted was music. I was even fed at the piano. Otherwise it seems, I wouldn't eat. I used to play with my mouth open, and my mother used to put food in it. I was so preoccupied with the music I hardly noticed. Whenever food was put in my mouth, I chewed it so I could get rid of it.
Q: Schlichtegroll's necrology says of Mozart that "in general he was full of enthusiasm and was very easily attracted to any subject. " There are these stories of Mozart being taught arithmetic and making his calculations all over the floors and walls, writing numbers everyplace. Every activity he undertook consumed him. Were you like that?
A: I concentrated on what I was doing. Still today, whatever it is, even something very unimportant, I am totally there.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Freedom to Fail
The freedom to fail
Shawn Johnson's coach permits mistakes, leading to success
By Alan Abrahamson
Posted Thursday, August 7, 2008 10:09 AM ET
Shawn Johnson candidly acknowledges that she can feel nervous when the spotlight turns to her at major gymnastics events.
As she says, who wouldn't feel nerves when everyone's watching?
But you wouldn't know it watching the 16-year-old from West Des Moines, Iowa, who is widely considered a favorite to win the women's individual all-around competition at the Beijing Games.
And here's why:
Shawn has the express permission of her coach, Liang Chow, to make mistakes.
And, in one of those great twists, it's precisely because she feels the freedom to make mistakes that she rarely makes big ones.
Before the U.S. Olympic Trials, in June in Philadelphia, for instance, Chow told Shawn, as her mother, Teri recalled, just two things:
Perform like a champion.
And don't be afraid to make a mistake.
After which Shawn went out and, just as she did at the 2007 world championships in the individual all-around, came out on top -- finishing with the best overall score at the 2008 U.S. Trials.
"I remember him telling me that," Shawn said. "It is almost just a relief. You're just trying to please the person who has taught you eveyrthing; you want to show them that you can be just as perfect as they've trained you to be. You're afraid to make mistakes. You're afraid to let them down -- even though you wouldn't.
"For him to have told me that, that as long as I went out there and did my best and he knew I had done my best, no matter what happened, he would have been happy -- it made me have a lot more confidence in myself because I knew if I went out there and made mistakes it wouldn't be the end of the world."
"I think that is so helpful to her, that he gives her permission to be imperfect, to be human," Shawn's mother, Teri Johnson, said, adding, "It's as simple as, 'Go do your best.' And, truthfully, that's all anybody can do."
In high-level sport, the mental edge often can -- and does -- make the difference.
Only the bounds of human ingenuity limit the ways in which coaches, trainers and others in the camp of an elite athlete seek that edge.
Chow's way is refreshingly simple.
It is based, he says, on a humanistic approach to the sport and to his athletes.
It is based, he says, on the idea of love.
Love? In gymnastics, perhaps the most rigorous of all competitive sports?
Growing up in China -- his return to the Beijing Games marks one of the most enchanting stories of the 2008 Olympics -- Chow said, "I had a very loving environment." So, at the gym that he and his wife, Liwen Zhuang, run in West Des Moines, they are committed to what he called a "fun, loving and supportive environment."
He said, "As many times as I talk to the girls -- I have eight or 10 girls in my group -- I tell them, 'You are all like sisters.'
Which means, he said: "It's not necessarily that I like you more than I like her, or whatever. And [one of the girls] might like, or might not like, sister one better than sister two. But we all have to help each other and enjoy each other."
That sort of approach resonates deeply with Shawn, who is -- for 16 -- keenly aware of her emotional environment. During the Trials, when she wasn't practicing or competing, she was reading; she read at least three books cover to cover during the Trials, noting her affinity for works by Dan Millman, perhaps best known for the best-seller first published in 1980, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior."
"In competition," Chow said of Shawn, "she knows I care about her seeking perfection. I care about how she hits her routines beautifully. But there is no pressure if she is making mistakes, from me or Li.
"We are just there to help prepare her so she can perform beautiful routines. She's a human being -- we have to realize that."
It is in the vault, in particular, that this approach is most easily seen for those who don't have a technical eye for gymnastics.
Shawn performs an extraordinarily difficult vault called a Yurchenko 2 1/2; she is the only American woman who even attempts it. Instead of sticking the landing, it's not uncommon to see her take a little step.
On purpose.
Better, Chow reasons, that Shawn should give in and allow that small step, if she feels she needs to, than obsess over the perfection of sticking it.
"She absolutely is allowed to make some mistakes," he said, adding, "She has a great personality ... she enjoys herself on the floor -- and in the gym, also. I can't say enough words, enough great things, about this kid. She is a loving person and very respectful.
"She is the world champion, the all-around champion. She is a huge star. But she is also like a normal kid, helping the younger kids, moving the mats, just like all the little things the other kids are doing. There are no exceptions for her.
"I'm very proud of what she does on the floor," he said. "But I am also very proud of her for who she is, as a real person."
Shawn Johnson's coach permits mistakes, leading to success
By Alan Abrahamson
Posted Thursday, August 7, 2008 10:09 AM ET
Shawn Johnson candidly acknowledges that she can feel nervous when the spotlight turns to her at major gymnastics events.
As she says, who wouldn't feel nerves when everyone's watching?
But you wouldn't know it watching the 16-year-old from West Des Moines, Iowa, who is widely considered a favorite to win the women's individual all-around competition at the Beijing Games.
And here's why:
Shawn has the express permission of her coach, Liang Chow, to make mistakes.
And, in one of those great twists, it's precisely because she feels the freedom to make mistakes that she rarely makes big ones.
Before the U.S. Olympic Trials, in June in Philadelphia, for instance, Chow told Shawn, as her mother, Teri recalled, just two things:
Perform like a champion.
And don't be afraid to make a mistake.
After which Shawn went out and, just as she did at the 2007 world championships in the individual all-around, came out on top -- finishing with the best overall score at the 2008 U.S. Trials.
"I remember him telling me that," Shawn said. "It is almost just a relief. You're just trying to please the person who has taught you eveyrthing; you want to show them that you can be just as perfect as they've trained you to be. You're afraid to make mistakes. You're afraid to let them down -- even though you wouldn't.
"For him to have told me that, that as long as I went out there and did my best and he knew I had done my best, no matter what happened, he would have been happy -- it made me have a lot more confidence in myself because I knew if I went out there and made mistakes it wouldn't be the end of the world."
"I think that is so helpful to her, that he gives her permission to be imperfect, to be human," Shawn's mother, Teri Johnson, said, adding, "It's as simple as, 'Go do your best.' And, truthfully, that's all anybody can do."
In high-level sport, the mental edge often can -- and does -- make the difference.
Only the bounds of human ingenuity limit the ways in which coaches, trainers and others in the camp of an elite athlete seek that edge.
Chow's way is refreshingly simple.
It is based, he says, on a humanistic approach to the sport and to his athletes.
It is based, he says, on the idea of love.
Love? In gymnastics, perhaps the most rigorous of all competitive sports?
Growing up in China -- his return to the Beijing Games marks one of the most enchanting stories of the 2008 Olympics -- Chow said, "I had a very loving environment." So, at the gym that he and his wife, Liwen Zhuang, run in West Des Moines, they are committed to what he called a "fun, loving and supportive environment."
He said, "As many times as I talk to the girls -- I have eight or 10 girls in my group -- I tell them, 'You are all like sisters.'
Which means, he said: "It's not necessarily that I like you more than I like her, or whatever. And [one of the girls] might like, or might not like, sister one better than sister two. But we all have to help each other and enjoy each other."
That sort of approach resonates deeply with Shawn, who is -- for 16 -- keenly aware of her emotional environment. During the Trials, when she wasn't practicing or competing, she was reading; she read at least three books cover to cover during the Trials, noting her affinity for works by Dan Millman, perhaps best known for the best-seller first published in 1980, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior."
"In competition," Chow said of Shawn, "she knows I care about her seeking perfection. I care about how she hits her routines beautifully. But there is no pressure if she is making mistakes, from me or Li.
"We are just there to help prepare her so she can perform beautiful routines. She's a human being -- we have to realize that."
It is in the vault, in particular, that this approach is most easily seen for those who don't have a technical eye for gymnastics.
Shawn performs an extraordinarily difficult vault called a Yurchenko 2 1/2; she is the only American woman who even attempts it. Instead of sticking the landing, it's not uncommon to see her take a little step.
On purpose.
Better, Chow reasons, that Shawn should give in and allow that small step, if she feels she needs to, than obsess over the perfection of sticking it.
"She absolutely is allowed to make some mistakes," he said, adding, "She has a great personality ... she enjoys herself on the floor -- and in the gym, also. I can't say enough words, enough great things, about this kid. She is a loving person and very respectful.
"She is the world champion, the all-around champion. She is a huge star. But she is also like a normal kid, helping the younger kids, moving the mats, just like all the little things the other kids are doing. There are no exceptions for her.
"I'm very proud of what she does on the floor," he said. "But I am also very proud of her for who she is, as a real person."
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Wyatt Earp
"Fast is fine. Accuracy is final. You must learn to be slow in a hurry."
-Wyatt Earp
I found this on a website on shooting... it applies to piano playing as well!
1. Safety- before speed or accuracy there must be safety. You'd be surprised at the dangerous / unsafe things untrained shooters do every day at the range or in the woods. When there is a shootingaccident all shooters suffer as the anti-gun nuts try and place more restrictions on those of us who use firearms safely.
2. Accuracy- If you can't hit what you are aiming at there is no useowning or using a firearm. One needs to train how to hit one or more targets multiple times from different shooting positions, preferably with some low light shooting thrown in as well since many defensive shootings occur during periods of low-lighting.
3. Speed will come naturally as you build up muscle memory. Trainingwith someone else who is proficient or training at one of the many fine training schools is a great way to realize your full potential for bothaccuracy and speed.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Artur Schnabel: Memorising & Composing
Q: Some teachers seem to feel that if a person memorizes easily and naturally without thinking about it a great deal, he should be made to think about it a great deal. And some teachers believe that only those truly memorize who write out all the music they learn.
A: That is really very advisable. But not for the purpose of memorizing, rather to establish more and more intimacy with music. I would definitely recommend that everybody who studies music should spend at least half an hour a day copying some music. Eventually, he would do it very quickly.
Q: Do it from memory?
A: Compositions he learned, he could write out from memory. But I thought really more of copying from music. Once a gifted music student has, for instance, copied on of the string quartets of Beethoven or, let me say, the first movement of a symphony, he will have benefited much morethan he ever divined. I think this is actually the quickest way to get into music. Of course, it should not only be a graphic activity. He should hear the music while he is writing it, should enjoy its beauty and greatness, and stop sometimes to delight fully in the happiness of having discovered something he had not noticed when he read or played it. He will notice much more when he writes it.
Today, I wish to recommend the copying of music strongly. And I also think that every musician should try to compose, even if he is so disgusted with the results that he destroys every composition immediately after he has written it. That does not matter. It is the activity and not the result which is so important
I never perform my own compositions, because when I have finished a composition my urge is to start the next composition. I cannot spend time practising my own compositions - and they are not too easy to play. I hardly know them: a composer does not know his own compositions. He only knows his next composition - which is forming and working in him.
I am sure Beethoven did not know his sonatas as well as we know them. After he had composed a sonata, it was finished - for him.
A: That is really very advisable. But not for the purpose of memorizing, rather to establish more and more intimacy with music. I would definitely recommend that everybody who studies music should spend at least half an hour a day copying some music. Eventually, he would do it very quickly.
Q: Do it from memory?
A: Compositions he learned, he could write out from memory. But I thought really more of copying from music. Once a gifted music student has, for instance, copied on of the string quartets of Beethoven or, let me say, the first movement of a symphony, he will have benefited much morethan he ever divined. I think this is actually the quickest way to get into music. Of course, it should not only be a graphic activity. He should hear the music while he is writing it, should enjoy its beauty and greatness, and stop sometimes to delight fully in the happiness of having discovered something he had not noticed when he read or played it. He will notice much more when he writes it.
Today, I wish to recommend the copying of music strongly. And I also think that every musician should try to compose, even if he is so disgusted with the results that he destroys every composition immediately after he has written it. That does not matter. It is the activity and not the result which is so important
I never perform my own compositions, because when I have finished a composition my urge is to start the next composition. I cannot spend time practising my own compositions - and they are not too easy to play. I hardly know them: a composer does not know his own compositions. He only knows his next composition - which is forming and working in him.
I am sure Beethoven did not know his sonatas as well as we know them. After he had composed a sonata, it was finished - for him.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Artur Schnabel : Bach
Q: Do you agree that in playing Bach one should try to imitate the harpsichord, that is, its dynamic qualities, playing on different dynamic levels rather than with any crescendo or diminuendos?
A: I know; a war has been going on between musicologists for a long time over the issue as to whether crescendo and diminuendo is permissible in Bach's music, the Mannheim School having invented the expressions crescendo and diminuendo after Bach's time. But crescendo and diminuendo are not only expressions; they are elements of articulation and modulation, and if Bach's music were performed without articulation and modulation - or inflection, as in language - it would be unbearable, it would not be music. The same applies to legato and staccato. I am absolutely against the exclusive non-legato in performances of Bach's music.
There is no necessity to imitate the sonority of old instruments, for we have to assume that Bach chose those instruments only because better ones were not available. It is known that he wrote for four different instruments and that each time an improved instrument appeared he wanted even those of his works which were written for the previous instrument to be played on the improved instrument. These are facts.
Did you know taht the pianoforte was invented during Bach's lifetime? The first ones were built around 1710 in Padua, Italy. Some musicians hailed it with great enthusiasm, but the inventor was not succesful and few of these instruments were built. Bach saw an apparently poor imitation, the first one built in Germany in 1726, and found it unsatisfactory. In the last years of his life, Bach then saw a much improved model. So I think it is most important that Bach, during a substantial part of his life, knew about the invention and existence of the pianoforte and even played on it.
A: I know; a war has been going on between musicologists for a long time over the issue as to whether crescendo and diminuendo is permissible in Bach's music, the Mannheim School having invented the expressions crescendo and diminuendo after Bach's time. But crescendo and diminuendo are not only expressions; they are elements of articulation and modulation, and if Bach's music were performed without articulation and modulation - or inflection, as in language - it would be unbearable, it would not be music. The same applies to legato and staccato. I am absolutely against the exclusive non-legato in performances of Bach's music.
There is no necessity to imitate the sonority of old instruments, for we have to assume that Bach chose those instruments only because better ones were not available. It is known that he wrote for four different instruments and that each time an improved instrument appeared he wanted even those of his works which were written for the previous instrument to be played on the improved instrument. These are facts.
Did you know taht the pianoforte was invented during Bach's lifetime? The first ones were built around 1710 in Padua, Italy. Some musicians hailed it with great enthusiasm, but the inventor was not succesful and few of these instruments were built. Bach saw an apparently poor imitation, the first one built in Germany in 1726, and found it unsatisfactory. In the last years of his life, Bach then saw a much improved model. So I think it is most important that Bach, during a substantial part of his life, knew about the invention and existence of the pianoforte and even played on it.
Artur Schnabel: Russian vs German Techniquea
Q: I often hear the expression 'German Technique' and 'Russian Technique'. Would you explain what you think of that.
A: You ought to ask your teachers who use these expressions. I don't know to what they refer. Do they use four fingers only in the one school and in the other, five - or what? Or do they play with their knuckles? What are they doing? I have never heard of it. I would be very interested to hear from you as to what the difference is.
Q: I have come across it in studying with Russian teachers. They speak of their approach being the Russian approach to piano playing, and they refer to playing with straighter and flatter fingers instead of round ones, resulting in more metallic or brittle playing than they associate with the German technique.
A: I cannot accept that there is anything specifically Russian about playing with straight and flat fingers. I lived in 30 years in Germany and even so I would not be able to say what the 'German technique' is. For in Germany all kinds of piano technique were taught - flat or round fingers, stretched out or drawn in, elbows fixed or waving, glued to the hips or far out, like a washerwoman's. Some put the tip of their nose on the keys, others looked at the ceiling. Which one was the 'German technique'?
In my opinion these unfrotunate distinctions and simplifications are really absurd. There is only one good technique, whether you ride a bicycle or swim or whatever else you do, and that is to attain a maximum of achievement with a minimum of effort. That applies to all physical activity.
A: You ought to ask your teachers who use these expressions. I don't know to what they refer. Do they use four fingers only in the one school and in the other, five - or what? Or do they play with their knuckles? What are they doing? I have never heard of it. I would be very interested to hear from you as to what the difference is.
Q: I have come across it in studying with Russian teachers. They speak of their approach being the Russian approach to piano playing, and they refer to playing with straighter and flatter fingers instead of round ones, resulting in more metallic or brittle playing than they associate with the German technique.
A: I cannot accept that there is anything specifically Russian about playing with straight and flat fingers. I lived in 30 years in Germany and even so I would not be able to say what the 'German technique' is. For in Germany all kinds of piano technique were taught - flat or round fingers, stretched out or drawn in, elbows fixed or waving, glued to the hips or far out, like a washerwoman's. Some put the tip of their nose on the keys, others looked at the ceiling. Which one was the 'German technique'?
In my opinion these unfrotunate distinctions and simplifications are really absurd. There is only one good technique, whether you ride a bicycle or swim or whatever else you do, and that is to attain a maximum of achievement with a minimum of effort. That applies to all physical activity.
Artur Schnabel: Amateur Musicians
Those who are professional musicians became professional, I would say, from necessity and not from choice. Some seem to be undecided, in spite of their sufficiently strong desire, because of specific conditions or their particular situation, when for instance their parents are not in favour of their becoming professional musicians.
I have known cases of amateur musicians who, up to their thirty-fifth or even fortieth year, were lawyers or doctors and then gave it up finally to become professional musicians - an activity in which they earned much less than they did as doctors or lawyers. Now they had no reputation at all but they were professional musicians and for the first time in their lives they were happy.
I have known cases of amateur musicians who, up to their thirty-fifth or even fortieth year, were lawyers or doctors and then gave it up finally to become professional musicians - an activity in which they earned much less than they did as doctors or lawyers. Now they had no reputation at all but they were professional musicians and for the first time in their lives they were happy.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Artur Schnabel: Misc
Do you know that the teacher of Beethoven was Mr Christian Neefe? I don't think he was a great man. He was jsut available in Bonn. If all good musicians required a great man as a teacher, in order to be good musicians, there wouldn't be too many of them, I am afraid. That applies to all branches of teaching.
[PC: that's true, food for thought. while the teacher has the responsibility to teach well, you shouldn't put all "blame and responsibility" on the teacher, the student has the responsibility to "think for themselves" too]
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You might live in a small place where only 3 or 4 people agree with you on artistic values. Then you should neither think poorly of yourself nor of the people who do not share your insight. There is no reason for being arrogant, just a reason for being grateful and happy to have the privilege of understanding.
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Q: Do you plan to go back to Germany, and if not what is your reason?
A: A very simple reason. I don't want to go to a country to which I am only admitted because it has lost a war.
By not returning I don't punish the Germans, not at all. Moreover, the Germans are completely irrelevent. For my decision it does not matter how they feel, but rather how I feel.
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Q: Do you feel that ht playing of Beethoven is a touchstone by which any pianist should be judged?
A: No. I Think a pianist should be judged by whatever he plays.
[PC: that's true, food for thought. while the teacher has the responsibility to teach well, you shouldn't put all "blame and responsibility" on the teacher, the student has the responsibility to "think for themselves" too]
========================================
You might live in a small place where only 3 or 4 people agree with you on artistic values. Then you should neither think poorly of yourself nor of the people who do not share your insight. There is no reason for being arrogant, just a reason for being grateful and happy to have the privilege of understanding.
=========================================
Q: Do you plan to go back to Germany, and if not what is your reason?
A: A very simple reason. I don't want to go to a country to which I am only admitted because it has lost a war.
By not returning I don't punish the Germans, not at all. Moreover, the Germans are completely irrelevent. For my decision it does not matter how they feel, but rather how I feel.
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Q: Do you feel that ht playing of Beethoven is a touchstone by which any pianist should be judged?
A: No. I Think a pianist should be judged by whatever he plays.
Artur Schnabel: C major scale
C major scale on the piano, which is adhered to with greatest reverance - uses the RH thumb, the strongest finger, on the subdominant, with the LH on the dominant. This RH movement, 3-4-3, is certainly ingenious. But musical only for the LH; musical by accident. As it is built the LH start with the 5th finger, which in the case of C major scale is a 'priority'. The RH should compensate its disadvantage with only 4 fingers, thumb on 'G'. If played as ordered, RH alone - or worse, in unison with LH, the subdominant, touched with the strongest finger, might easily get a musically unintended accent on it, and thus lead to a crime against the harmonic system of centuries and make music the victim of standardization. Not ingenious, but just silly, is the order never to use your thumb on a black key. Why not, if the position of the hand makes it by far the best fingering?
Artur Schnabel: Bravura vs Musicality
Chopin's lovely studies are for some performers fascinating because of the opportunities they give for showing how they master the keyboard. Another type of performer is less interested in the keyboard as such. His desire is to project music purely - to let the mediator disappear. To succeed he must, needless to say, have full command of his instrument. There are performers who are almost equally gifted in both directions, and attracted to both. If it comes to the one-sided ones, it should not be a problem to decide who has got the better part.
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Q: In one of your books you say that you feel technical problems in piano playing should not be attached as such, that they should be worked out as you come to them in the music.
A: Yes, one should never make any music, not even sound one musical tone, without a musical intention preceding it.
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Q: In one of your books you say that you feel technical problems in piano playing should not be attached as such, that they should be worked out as you come to them in the music.
A: Yes, one should never make any music, not even sound one musical tone, without a musical intention preceding it.
Artur Schnabel: Perfect pitch
Q: Do you think having perfect pitch is an advantage or disadvantage?
A: It is an advantage, but no indispensable. Relative pitch is, however, sufficient and even more important. If you know with what tones a piece of music starts, you ought to know also all relations and modulations which follow. To have absolute pitch is, I repeat, a musical asset, but by no means the sign of a good musician.
A: It is an advantage, but no indispensable. Relative pitch is, however, sufficient and even more important. If you know with what tones a piece of music starts, you ought to know also all relations and modulations which follow. To have absolute pitch is, I repeat, a musical asset, but by no means the sign of a good musician.
Artur Schnabel: Leschetizky method
There is no Leschetizky method. It is a mere legend - an absolute fallacy. He never spoke, at least I never heard him speak, of technique. Several of his assistants and some of his pupils have published books on his method which are all diametrically opposed. Don't be misled by them. There was no method. His teaching was much more than a method. It was a current which sought to release all latent vitality in the student. It was addressed to imagination, taste, and personal responsibility, not a blue print, or shortcut to success. It gave them a task but no prescription.
Q: When they didn't produce what he thought was beautiful, did he think it didn't come from within or did he think they weren't prepared enough?
A: He thought your ears were untrained if your tone was not adequate. Also, much depends on one's standard of measurement. THere are those who can't stand a vigorous fortissimo; they are too touchy or too soft for it. Other people, if they hear a real pianissimo, miss the big, lush tone. Music requires thousands of tones and not one standard sonority. Technique is never an end. Mere dexterity is not sufficient - I can try it with an street boy, he will execute a glissando at once - and if he has enough sitting capacity, he will thunder octaves as rapidly as possible for a full hour. That has nothing to do with music. It is athletics. The blending of tones, the articulation of tones, has to be directed by the inner ear. Great physical efforts are not conducive to musical performance. Anyhow every physical accomplishment should be achieved with a minimum effort.
Q: When they didn't produce what he thought was beautiful, did he think it didn't come from within or did he think they weren't prepared enough?
A: He thought your ears were untrained if your tone was not adequate. Also, much depends on one's standard of measurement. THere are those who can't stand a vigorous fortissimo; they are too touchy or too soft for it. Other people, if they hear a real pianissimo, miss the big, lush tone. Music requires thousands of tones and not one standard sonority. Technique is never an end. Mere dexterity is not sufficient - I can try it with an street boy, he will execute a glissando at once - and if he has enough sitting capacity, he will thunder octaves as rapidly as possible for a full hour. That has nothing to do with music. It is athletics. The blending of tones, the articulation of tones, has to be directed by the inner ear. Great physical efforts are not conducive to musical performance. Anyhow every physical accomplishment should be achieved with a minimum effort.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Artur Schnabel : Performing
If one is afraid of getting nervous about playing in public, one ought to look for a listener. It doesn't matter much who it is. One may ask a janitor to come and listen.
[PC: hmmm sounds exactly like what Dr House did :P )
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We all have to relax physically in order to perform with minimum effort and at the same time we have to concentrate mentally. I used to advise my pupils that all concentration, while they perform music, should begiin above the eyes; it should not involve the shoulders, because any tension in the shoulders will make it impossible to relax arms and hands completely.
Satisfaction is chiefly provided by uninterrupted concentration. But this uninterrupted concentration is practically never achieved, even when one is at home. In a concert hall it is almost unthinkable, for there are always noises, sometimes adverse acoustic conditions, the unaccustomed piano which is often unsatisfactory, or for other instrumentalists and singers their accompanists or partners - and the constant possibility of diversion by the presence of the audience. I have tried all my life to become independent of all this, more and more.
[PC: hmmm sounds exactly like what Dr House did :P )
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We all have to relax physically in order to perform with minimum effort and at the same time we have to concentrate mentally. I used to advise my pupils that all concentration, while they perform music, should begiin above the eyes; it should not involve the shoulders, because any tension in the shoulders will make it impossible to relax arms and hands completely.
Satisfaction is chiefly provided by uninterrupted concentration. But this uninterrupted concentration is practically never achieved, even when one is at home. In a concert hall it is almost unthinkable, for there are always noises, sometimes adverse acoustic conditions, the unaccustomed piano which is often unsatisfactory, or for other instrumentalists and singers their accompanists or partners - and the constant possibility of diversion by the presence of the audience. I have tried all my life to become independent of all this, more and more.
Artur Schnabel: On Mozart
... how do you explain that all children play Mozart so well? "
Schnabel answered: Children have at least one very important element in common with Mozart, namely purity. They are not yet spoiled and prejudiced and personally involved. but these are, of course , not the reasons why their teachers give them Mozart to play. Children are given Mozart because of the small quantity of the notes; grown-ups avoid Mozart because of the great quality of the notes - which, to be true, is elusive!
Schnabel answered: Children have at least one very important element in common with Mozart, namely purity. They are not yet spoiled and prejudiced and personally involved. but these are, of course , not the reasons why their teachers give them Mozart to play. Children are given Mozart because of the small quantity of the notes; grown-ups avoid Mozart because of the great quality of the notes - which, to be true, is elusive!
Artur Schnabel: On pianos
I got a Bechstein piano. They were, in Germany, what Steinway is in the United States and Bosendorfer in Vienna. The Bechstein was for certain musical purposes an ideal instrument. Why the best pianos made in Germany, in Austria, in France and the US differ, is a fascinating question. I have come to the conclusion that it must have been the personality of the locally most successful, most respected, most influential pianiast of an earlier generation which decided the character of the instrument. His style, repertoire, ambitions presented a model, created a fashion, acquired validity. I estimate that three quarters of the piano music publicly performed in Germany before 1900 belonged to the pre-Wagnerian epoch. Pianos were built in accordance with the sonority requirements of that music ( as understood by the pianistic 'commander in chief' ). Three quarters of the music performed in the States belonged to the post-Wagnerian epoch, demanding more 'extrovert' qualities of key- and sound-boards. It is desirable and, I think also feasible gradually to abandon these provincial distinctions of pianos and to provide a type good for any musical climate.
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Q: Could you tell us something more about the differences between the pianos you used in Europe and liked so much and our instruments here?
A: Those pianos had less of a personality. I would say that the quality which distinguishes the piano from all other instruments, is its neutrality. On a piano a single tone cannot be beautiful; it is the combination and proportion of tones which bring beauty.
You are forced to produce at least two or three tones in order to create a sensous impression or to give a sensation of music to the ear, while almost other instruments (except percussion) or the voice can give you a sensuous pleasure even from a single tone. Around 1910 it was considered "modern' to say that the piano is a percussion instrument.....
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He can produce all kinds of tones; not only louder or softer, shorter or longer, but also different qualities. It is possible on a piano to imitate, for instance, the sound of an oboe, a cello, a French horn. Bit it is not possible to imitate the sound of an oboe on a flute, or a clarinet on a violin; these other instruments always retain their own characteristics. That is why I said that the distinction of the piano is in its being the most neutral instrument.
The Bechstein piano fulfilled this demand for neutrality better than any other piano I have known. You could do almost anything on that piano. The Steinway - or rather the Steinway of 20 years ago, for it has changed somewhat since that time- was a piano which always wanted to show something. You see it had much too much of a personality of its own.
At first when I wanted to produce something like the voice of a bird on a Steinway, the piano always sounded to me like the voice of a tenor instead of a bird. For many years I had the feeling that the Steinway piano did not like me. An absurd idea, but I had that feeling.
It would not take the kind of treatment I gave a piano, so I conclude that the Steinway is more limited. The Bechstein piano enabled me to show effects not possible on a Steinway. The tone of the Steinway vibrates much more; also there are technical reaons: it has a different action.
When you push a Steinway key very lightly and slowly down, it will stop before it has reached the bottom and requires a certain pressure, a second pressure to go down all the way.
By now I am so used to it that it hardly irritates me. At first, it disturbed me greatly: for in order to produce a fortissimo, you can play lightly, but whenever you want to play a pianissimo you have to use a great deal of weight as otherwise the key would not go down. It certainly seems perverse.
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Q: Could you tell us something more about the differences between the pianos you used in Europe and liked so much and our instruments here?
A: Those pianos had less of a personality. I would say that the quality which distinguishes the piano from all other instruments, is its neutrality. On a piano a single tone cannot be beautiful; it is the combination and proportion of tones which bring beauty.
You are forced to produce at least two or three tones in order to create a sensous impression or to give a sensation of music to the ear, while almost other instruments (except percussion) or the voice can give you a sensuous pleasure even from a single tone. Around 1910 it was considered "modern' to say that the piano is a percussion instrument.....
...............
He can produce all kinds of tones; not only louder or softer, shorter or longer, but also different qualities. It is possible on a piano to imitate, for instance, the sound of an oboe, a cello, a French horn. Bit it is not possible to imitate the sound of an oboe on a flute, or a clarinet on a violin; these other instruments always retain their own characteristics. That is why I said that the distinction of the piano is in its being the most neutral instrument.
The Bechstein piano fulfilled this demand for neutrality better than any other piano I have known. You could do almost anything on that piano. The Steinway - or rather the Steinway of 20 years ago, for it has changed somewhat since that time- was a piano which always wanted to show something. You see it had much too much of a personality of its own.
At first when I wanted to produce something like the voice of a bird on a Steinway, the piano always sounded to me like the voice of a tenor instead of a bird. For many years I had the feeling that the Steinway piano did not like me. An absurd idea, but I had that feeling.
It would not take the kind of treatment I gave a piano, so I conclude that the Steinway is more limited. The Bechstein piano enabled me to show effects not possible on a Steinway. The tone of the Steinway vibrates much more; also there are technical reaons: it has a different action.
When you push a Steinway key very lightly and slowly down, it will stop before it has reached the bottom and requires a certain pressure, a second pressure to go down all the way.
By now I am so used to it that it hardly irritates me. At first, it disturbed me greatly: for in order to produce a fortissimo, you can play lightly, but whenever you want to play a pianissimo you have to use a great deal of weight as otherwise the key would not go down. It certainly seems perverse.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Artur Schnabel: Quiet Hands
Leschetizky's wife, Madame Essipoff, a then famous piano virtuoso took care of my pianism. I had to play studies and exercises, chiefly Czerny's. She used to put a coin on my hand, a silver coin, and if I played on Czerny study without dropping it, she gave it to me as a present. In the meantime, I have changed my way of handling the piano so radically that now if I were to play only a few tones the coin would drop. I don't think that the "static" hand is a recommendable technique for the expression of music. For very young beginners, however, it might, temporarily, be the only method.
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I don't believe in finger playing. The fingers are like the legs of the horse. If its body wouldn't move, there wouldn't be any progress; it would always remain on the same spot.
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I don't believe in finger playing. The fingers are like the legs of the horse. If its body wouldn't move, there wouldn't be any progress; it would always remain on the same spot.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Review: Daniel Barenboim playing WTC @ Carnegie
Daniel Barenboim performing at Carnegie Hall on Saturday.
By ALLAN KOZINN
Published: January 23, 2007
The two books of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” contain an immense amount of music. Their 48 preludes and fugues touch not only on every major and minor key, twice, but also on just about every way an 18th-century musician might have conceived and executed either form.
The preludes range from comparatively simple, arpeggiated strolls through straightforward chord progressions, to grandly structured, ornate proclamations. And the fugues, each an elegant puzzle, tour the solutions composers used to make these exercises in mathematical perfection into expressive music.
Playing both books over a weekend and making each prelude and fugue leap off the page is a tall order. But Daniel Barenboim has never been thwarted by self-doubt, and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his Carnegie Hall debut — and perhaps to give a fresh push to his recent Erato recording of the complete work — Mr. Barenboim undertook a marathon, playing Book I on Saturday evening and Book II on Sunday afternoon.
A listener never knows what to expect from Mr. Barenboim’s piano recitals. He personalizes his performances to the point of perversity at times, but in a field so clogged with cookie-cutter players, there’s something to be said for that, not least because Mr. Barenboim is as likely to play with insight and beauty.
He touched both those extremes in these recitals. He was at his most rewarding either in fleet, light-textured readings (like his accounts of the Preludes in D and D minor from Book I and the Prelude and Fugue in C from Book II), or in forceful, crisp performances in which every line stood out clearly within the contrapuntal texture (as in the starkly chromatic Prelude in E flat from Book I and the Fugue in F from Book II).
Appealing as well were nuanced interpretations in which Mr. Barenboim imposed a scale of dynamics — sometimes gradual, sometimes sudden — that would have been impossible on the harpsichord. His reading of the C sharp minor Prelude from Book I, for example, was flexible and introspective, and the D major Prelude from Book II, with its fanfarelike figuration, took on a sense of high drama, with the slowly unfolding fugue offsetting it.
Often Mr. Barenboim’s fluid dynamics and tempos created an orchestration of sorts, as if moving the music from the harpsichord to the modern piano weren’t enough of a leap for him.
But engaging performances of this kind were sprinkled between solipsistic readings so quiet and introspective that you had to wonder whether Mr. Barenboim had forgotten that he was playing for an audience in a huge hall, or odd dissections (like the Prelude and Fugue in E flat, from Book I) in which emphases and tempo changes were exaggerated and labored. Other movements lacked even these peculiarities and were merely soporific.
In a program note Mr. Barenboim plays down the importance of the early-music movement’s research into how Baroque works were played in their day, saying that understanding what was done is less important than understanding why. Few period-instrument players would dispute that. Perhaps Mr. Barenboim should consider this: If you’re going to replace the performance style of a work’s own time with your own interpretive notions, will it be clear to your listeners that more is gained than lost? He accomplished this some of the time, but not consistently.
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