Santa Ana,
 
 THE PIANIST 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ART OF MUSIC 
 
 A TREATISE ON PIANO PLAYING FOR 
 TEACHERS AND STUDENTS 
 
 BY 
 
 ADOLPH CARPE. 
 
 LYON & HEALY, 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 UNIV. OF CALIF. LIBRARY. LOS ANGELES
 
 Copyright, 1893, 
 By ADOLPH CARPE.
 
 Music 
 Library 
 
 Mr 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 TECHNIC 7 
 
 FINGERING 26 
 
 EXPRESSION 41 
 
 CHARACTER 70 
 
 OUTLINE OF PIANO LITERATURE 89
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE pian.'st's relation to the art of music is in our 
 present age materially different from that of the 
 earlier virtuosos, not so much on account of greater 
 skill in the management of the improved instrument 
 as in reference to the ends which the artist is ex- 
 pected to accomplish. The piano-virtuoso, whose 
 efforts were of an individual type altogether, follow- 
 ing a long line of eminent players and composers 
 (Scarlatti, Mozart, dementi, Dussek, Woelfl, Stei- 
 belt, Gramer, Hummel, Field, Herz, Thalberg, etc.) 
 has, in the natural process of development, made 
 room to the pianists, whose strength rests in the 
 reproduction of the works of other masters, such as 
 Liszt, Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Reinecke, Hil- 
 ler, Halle, Rubinstein, Buelow, Essipoff, D'Albert, 
 Paderewski and others. The increasing beauty and 
 artistic variety of the masterworks of piano litera- 
 ture seem destined to gain a constantly increasing 
 influence in this direction, so that an adequate read- 
 ing of the gems of pianistic art will always be con- 
 sidered superior to the ephemeral, though perhaps 
 novel display of individual taste and talent. 
 
 Franz Liszt, the most eminent and successful of
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the piano virtuosos, was one of the first to devote all 
 the energy of his genial nature to the reproduction 
 of the better works from the days of Scarlatti, Bach 
 and Haendel to his time; all the notable great 
 pianists have since taken special pride in introducing 
 to the art-loving world the works of the great com- 
 posers. Some have made a specialty of one particu- 
 lar composer, notably Beethoven and Mozart; others 
 have devoted their efforts successfully to several 
 composers, and the possibility has been demon- 
 strated more than once that works of widely differ- 
 ent characteristic traits are accessible to the same 
 artist, so that they receive fully adequate readings. 
 Few programs are found nowadays where the names 
 of our great composers and a host of others do not 
 find place. 
 
 In this undeniable and praiseworthy advance- 
 ment the pianist's relation to the art of music has 
 become more intimate; the mechanical skill in the 
 use of the instrument is of a higher order; the in- 
 tellectual and emotional qualifications of the per- 
 former are made subservient to a versatile trustiness 
 in reproduction which, through the details of musical 
 tcclinic and expression, represents the character of a 
 particular work according to the general style and 
 manner of the composer.
 
 TECHNIC. 
 
 THE opinion has been gaining ground among 
 thinking teachers, that piano students waste too 
 much time and energy with studies of all grades and 
 kinds, from the prolific Carl Czerny down to the 
 present day; the conviction seems to be fairly estab- 
 lished that a careful selection among the whole host 
 of exercises and study-books would condemn most 
 of them as superfluous, if not useless. The whole 
 system of exercises which to the present day pre- 
 dominates in pianoforte instruction is certainly 
 based upon the theory that piano playing is essen- 
 tially a mechanical art. This inference to a limited 
 extent is true, since piano playing to a period not 
 far distant is almost solely mechanical, and progress 
 in the early stages is made too often by only stick- 
 ing at it. 
 
 The greater part of all these exercises brings long 
 strings of figures and rhythms in never varying com- 
 binations and repetitions, which are supposed to 
 give a lasting impression to the student's mind and 
 fingers. Truly their success in impressing the aver- 
 age student's mind can not be doubted; after 
 wrangling and struggling in the ordinary way of 
 " established methods," the student is so firmly 
 imbued with the mechanical side of piano playing, 
 
 7
 
 8 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 that his reproductions of the very gems of our piano 
 literature, old or new, fail to reveal often the faintest 
 trace of ideal meaning or feeling. Yet is it to be 
 wondered at that such results are usually obtained? 
 A child which has been drilled though to perfection 
 almost only in the spelling book, whose highest 
 attainment might prove the victory over words like 
 " procrastination," would fail just as truly in an 
 attempt at reading a small sentence with proper 
 emphasis, as a result of thought; yet the child enters 
 the school with the already formed power of speech. 
 
 The careful gradation of exercises accomplishes 
 the student's progress almost imperceptibly; they 
 have been manufactured mostly for the purpose of 
 furnishing an easy grade to the mediocre student. 
 Musical thought and feeling receive little or no con- 
 sideration; commonplace matter mostly is what they 
 contain, at all times injurious to the intellectual and 
 emotional qualifications the student originally brings 
 to his task. Their object is to produce in the dili- 
 gent worker a certain mechanical skill; and technic 
 being the most coveted of all the prerequisites of a 
 good pianist, the number of their admirers and wor- 
 shipers is, indeed, legion. 
 
 Technic! What is technic? It is the sum and 
 substance of all that is required to produce or repro- 
 duce a work of art, therefore the product of the 
 student's work, and as such it will represent all that 
 the student acquires by thorough systematic training. 
 
 In pianoforte playing the term technic is gener- 
 ally applied to the merely mechanical treatment of
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 9 
 
 the instrument and the skill and rapidity in execu- 
 tion. As a means of musical reproduction, which 
 must be the student's final aim, there are several 
 other things which fall under this head. Besides 
 digital skill this includes tone-development in all its 
 various grades and shades, a thorough and correct 
 understanding and rendition of time and rhythm, 
 and lastly an increased musical appreciation of the 
 meaning, character and emotional tendency of a 
 composition. 
 
 A great amount of digital skill is required, and in 
 the exclusive attention to this indeed most essential 
 factor in piano playing, students and teachers too 
 often forget that much theoretical advice may, and 
 must, go hand in hand with finger training. Musical 
 education should prepare also the intellectual appre- 
 ciation of the student, and much can be accomplished 
 by gi ym g the pupil, even at an early stage, an in- 
 sight into the particular means required to bring a 
 performance in close relationship with the character 
 of the composition and so make it truly enjoyable. 
 A modicum of intellect and feeling can be early de- 
 veloped in the average piano student, which, when 
 carefully fostered, will in course of time in a great 
 measure overcome the mechanical tendency of piano 
 playing, will lead to a more elevated enjoyment, to a 
 better defined outline of character and to a healthy 
 glow of artistic individuality. 
 
 It should always be borne in mind that, as music 
 is the language of emotion, the musical education 
 must strive to arouse the dormant energy of feeling,
 
 io THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 as well as to sharpen the intellectual faculties. This 
 craves a greater attention in the. piano student, from 
 the fact that the modus of acquiring skill in playing 
 will always remain morj or less a mechanical pro- 
 cess. Touch, time and correct motion are the ele- 
 mentary prerequisites; musical notation and rhythm, 
 according to grade, follow immediately, and the 
 pupil's first step in musical parlance, little pieces, 
 can be selected so as to appeal more or less strongly 
 to his intelligence and feeling. 
 
 When the student in the first stages of instruction 
 has acquired a reposeful position of the forearm, the 
 fingers may be more or less pliable, according to the 
 physical development, but attention should be given 
 most carefully to the mode and manner of touch. 
 The finger must press only (not strike) with as little 
 effort as possible, and complete restfulness must be 
 obtained at the moment of touch. A merely 
 mechanical process this, certainly! The student, 
 however, should be made to feel that this touch 
 implies an impressive treatment, and his mind must 
 be impressed before you can get any expression. 
 
 Awaken the ideas of different ways of touching; 
 the allusion to ideas, natural or latent, in the student 
 will greatly facilitate the teacher's effort. If you 
 compare this pressure-touch to the loving caress of 
 a dear friend, you will give the student a distinct 
 idea, and in all likelihood he will establish a more 
 intimate feeling with the mechanical motion. Such 
 a touch, close and clinging, varied in intensity 
 according to the nature of the student, will, in course
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. n 
 
 of time, shape itself into the most perfect means for 
 tone production, will be delicate or powerful, singing 
 or crisp as occasion requires, when the player's 
 musical progress is sufficiently advanced to adapt 
 the touch to the vital elements and characterization 
 in music. 
 
 Two-finger exercises are the most thriving means 
 for the development of a good touch, digital fa- 
 cility and correct time. Has the student's mind 
 grasped the idea of an equal division of time, two- 
 finger exercises in half, quarter and eighth notes will 
 soon establish, these values as time measures, and 
 some patience will see them correctly applied. 
 Two-finger exercises should be practiced daily for 
 their three-fold value in regard to touch, time and 
 execution, first on white keys only, later alternating 
 with black keys. Care should be taken, more 
 especially where black keys are employed, that there 
 be perfect equality in tone production, that there 
 is no discrimination in the length of tone induce 
 the student early to a little self-criticism; necessary 
 also is a good position of the hand and a uniform 
 finger movement. 
 
 When the student first comes to the keyboard it 
 is sometimes difficult to obtain a correct and repose- 
 ful position. It is in this as well as in later stages 
 of piano playing that the thumb plays an all-impor- 
 tant part. The thumb moves from the first joint 
 near the wrist and should touch the key with the 
 side between the third joint and the tip. If this is 
 strictly adhered to, so that the thumb is allowed to
 
 12 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 strike near the tip only in figures of a wider pattern, 
 the wrist and forearm will fall into position natu- 
 rally, provided the player sits neither too high nor too 
 low. If this is considered inconvenient by students 
 who desire a high seat, a short trial will generally 
 be convincing to them. 
 
 The development of touch, time and execution 
 are at first closely connected, and, though in the 
 next stages these factors still go hand in hand, each 
 requires a more distinct and separate treatment. 
 The touch w r ill continue to improve best in the two- 
 finger exercises, and a more momentary rise and fall 
 of the fingers without jerking should be cultivated 
 with the utmost repose at the moment of touch, so 
 as to obtain a genuine legato. The training of the 
 student in notation meanwhile has progressed so 
 that little pieces with easy rhythms can be taken into 
 consideration. The easier the pieces the more 
 should the student be left to find his way, as the 
 teacher at this period is only responsible for a cor- 
 rect reading, a good position of the hands, proper 
 fingering and time. Variety in shading had best 
 not be attempted too soon, but the striving for cor- 
 rect time must include all; even the last notes must 
 be given their full value, and rests should not give 
 occasion for hurrying. Many otherwise good piano 
 players indulge in liberties of this kind, where fault 
 could not easily be found with a musician or one 
 whose musical education has been of a high order. 
 Everything at an early stage of progress should be 
 done as thoroughly and correctly by the student as
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 13 
 
 possible; but as every pupil differs from another, 
 there will be occasionally a wide margin left. 
 
 When the student begins to find more pleasure 
 in any piece, take more pains with it, play it to give 
 a simple shading and expression, and so arouse more 
 interest in the pupil; let him memorize and finish 
 with at least a noticeable change in piano and forte. 
 Always insist on slow practice and playing, and con- 
 stantly keep some of the pieces that have been 
 memorized in view, for "repetitio est mater stiidiorum" 
 
 To more properly advance the execution, scales 
 and broken chords have soon to be employed along 
 with the two-finger exercises. All material of this 
 kind should be thoroughly studied, the rules for 
 each pattern pointed out and made familiar and the 
 fingering should be intrinsically a part of each new 
 evolution. Let the student's mind be active in all 
 mechanical work, make small use of books and the 
 student will be better able to classify and systematize. 
 
 It seems not amiss to state here that, when more 
 varied rhythms are introduced in the pieces, the la- 
 bor bestowed on a single rhythmical figure, which 
 remains for a time obdurate, will for the future be a 
 great gain musically; no pains should be spared to 
 obtain at an early stage a rhythmical precision 
 which will leave a lasting impression on the stu- 
 dent's mind. 
 
 The use of pieces exclusively at an early stage of 
 the student's progress as an educational means to 
 obtain a proper knowledge of musical characteristics, 
 can not be too highly recommended, provided that
 
 14 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 they are selected in regard to their efficiency as a 
 means of musical expression as well as to their 
 pleasing effect on the student. Their use should be 
 continued regularly along with the labor requisite 
 for the mechanical mastery of the keyboard; as the 
 latter progresses it will even be advisable to bring 
 the pieces (and musical characteristics) more to the 
 foreground. The mechanical resources will continue 
 to grow after they have been thoroughly understood, 
 and a comparatively small amount of attention will 
 be sufficient to keep the student on the right road 
 and to prevent bad habits or faults of any kind. 
 
 The pieces should be selected with some care, 
 mainly for their musical value and pleasing char- 
 acter, and a certain gradation should be observed, 
 in such a way that the student proceeds from some- 
 thing familiar to what is new to him. The interest 
 will thus be kept wide awake, so that, even if marked 
 transitions occur in the mechanical skill necessary 
 for a correct rendition, the labor required for these 
 acquisitions will give small trouble. 
 
 When wrist studies are introduced the wrist 
 should be slightly lower than the knuckles, and the 
 fingers strictly curved. The practice of octaves with 
 hand extended, by simple movement of the first and 
 fifth finger is sometimes advisable; the great tension 
 required to reach the two points of the octave will 
 make this mode of practice, with a quiet hand and 
 wrist, particularly valuable for players with small 
 hands. 
 
 It can not be too strongly emphasized that much
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 15 
 
 attention should be given to rouse in the student 
 both the intellectual and emotional qualities, which 
 will prove that the ideal purpose of a composition is 
 sincerely appreciated. Vocal students experience 
 much less difficulty in determining the poetical 
 meaning of a composition. The living word gives 
 them a more definite idea, and the tendency is gen- 
 erally so plain that little comment is necessary. In 
 instrumental music much is indefinite and, unaccom- 
 panied by a text that familiarizes the meaning, this 
 must necessarily be more or less clouded, and the 
 difficultyto find the right shade of expression is 
 naturally increased. Violinists and performers on 
 all instruments, where the tone is produced directly 
 by the player, have from the very nature of this 
 process an advantage even in this over the pianist, 
 whose tone is ready and produced by indirect means. 
 A student of average ability will, however, hardly 
 fail to discriminate at first between widely different 
 characteristics of emotion, and he will soon learn to 
 give a reading that is more than merely intellectual 
 to such selections as carry the conviction of a very 
 definite meaning on the face of them. 
 
 Students should all be taught alike; whether they 
 study for pleasure, to make home life enjoyable, or 
 with an artistic purpose, their training ought to be 
 the same, and the difference should only be found 
 in the value of their individual performances. Artis- 
 tic training is only a higher grade of general musical 
 education, which is attainable to all, and it seems 
 unwarranted to exclude a student from the advan-
 
 16 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 tage of a better musical education, which may enable 
 him to find the right field for his talent. Would it 
 not be fully as unreasonable as to train every stu- 
 dent to be an artist and composer? 
 
 Music of a higher order should therefore be se- 
 lected, such as will constantly appeal to every stu- 
 dent's intellect and feeling. It is not at all necessary, 
 or even desirable, to feed pupils on classical litera- 
 ture only. Much has been written of a lighter char- 
 acter, which is well worth the learning, and truly 
 enjoyable. The greater the variety of composers 
 and compositions that come within reach of the stu- 
 dent's aim, the greater will be the benefit to his 
 musical development, provided every composition 
 is thoroughly studied and appreciated. The great 
 object of the teacher must be to elevate the pupil's 
 taste, to strengthen the intellectual faculties and 
 arouse the feeling; to gain this object and at the 
 same time the pupil's appreciation of his efforts, he 
 must put himself on a level with the pupil, and if 
 a good selection strikes at all a congenial spirit in 
 the pupil, the interest in good music is bound to 
 grow if the student's inclination to certain charac- 
 teristics is not altogether disregarded. 
 
 As the student's intellectual faculties increase 
 and his ability to reproduce certain well defined 
 characteristic qualities progresses, give ample illus- 
 trations in the matter of phrasing and the different 
 grades and qualities of touch. As a child can be 
 taught to speak a piece of poetry with some natural 
 grace and meaning, so the average music student
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. I/ 
 
 can be led to distinctly articulate musical phrases 
 and rhythms. Little may be accomplished at the 
 outset, still the attention should be aroused and kept 
 on the alert. A theoretical knowledge at this stage 
 of the student's progress of the construction and 
 symmetrical build of the composition will be of 
 great advantage in determining the general outline 
 for simple and rudimentary phrasing. As the rhyth- 
 mic, melodic and harmonic motives begin to display 
 more clearness, the student will attempt to give 
 them more definite meaning and shading, and will 
 perhaps develop a spark of artistic temperament. 
 
 Phrasing, even artistic phrasing, is something that 
 can be taught thoroughly; as long as the phrases are 
 more congruent with the metrical and rhythmical 
 constituents of a composition, as is generally the 
 case in classic works, no serious difficulty will be 
 encountered. In compositions of a romantic order, 
 metrical and rhythmical construction is much inter- 
 laced with musical phrases, characteristic accents are 
 heaped together, sometimes seemingly foreign to the 
 even flow of thought. Beethoven, in his later works, 
 and Schubert open this new field for expression, and 
 with Schumann it is one of the chief characteristics; 
 for this reason, probably, the latter composer has 
 spared no pains to make his phrasing as plain as 
 musical notation would permit in his time. 
 
 Phrasing in classic compositions, where greater 
 perfection of form enhances the beauty, is more a 
 matter of refined intelligence; inasmuch as in these 
 
 works emotional qualities are certainly latent, but do 
 2
 
 i8 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 not for expression appeal to any definite chord in 
 the human soul. In compositions which appeal more 
 directly to the imagination, as is the case with works 
 of the romantic order, phrasing seems more an out- 
 growth of a distinct feeling, and depends largely upon 
 the temperament, the emotional qualifications and 
 the discriminating abilities of the student. 
 
 Touch, as a means of tone production, and the 
 interpreter's most valuable medium for expression, 
 requires much thought and study. To become a 
 master of all the various grades and shades'of touch 
 is a laborious task; for the strong to produce a tone 
 that is replete with delicate refinement, to instill 
 power and vigor into delicate hands, to bring repose 
 to the restless and awaken energy in a lethargic tem- 
 perament, is all important. Is the physical power 
 at last brought under control and the long line of 
 pianists that have succeeded in this should give en- 
 couragement in untiring efforts the pianist's tem- 
 perament and intellect are called upon for each shade 
 of tone. Good examples, that furnish in musical 
 characteristics solid food for the student's intellect- 
 ual training, will in time give a versatility in touch, 
 which is essential in an artistic reproduction. The 
 pianist's last achievement is to put life into his touch ; 
 in the sympathetic intercourse of his inner life with 
 his hearers, he must strive to make convincing to 
 them through his touch what is alive in his artistic 
 conception. 
 
 The touch in itself should always be spontaneous, 
 that is, proceeding from natural feeling, tempera-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. IQ 
 
 ment or disposition, or from an internal tendency 
 without either compulsion or constraint. Has the 
 student acquired a proper insight into the intellect- 
 ual and emotional qualities of the composer's work, 
 the special mode of touch will be regulated by 'his 
 natural feeling, guided by the artistic taste which 
 has been developed. Touch, in a higher sense, is 
 the natural consequence of the musical growth in 
 feeling and intellect; an inexhaustible variety is at 
 the player's command, and experience will by and 
 by become a valuable and reliable guide. 
 
 In all the varieties of touch there must be sev- 
 eral uniform elements. Whether fingers or arm use 
 a high elevation or touch almost resting on the keys, 
 the movement itself should be quick as thought, sin- 
 cere in purpose and full of repose. As in execution 
 the least exertion insures the best effect, so in touch 
 the concentration of the effort to a minimum will 
 increase the beauty of tone. If the word "touch" 
 signifies not only the attack, but includes throughout 
 the connection of finger and key to the relieve, it 
 should be borne in mind that the finger continues 
 the pressure in complete repose and that the relieve- 
 ment should be accomplished in a perfectly unaf- 
 fected manner, that is, without changing to that end 
 the position of either hand or wrist. Who is not 
 aware that many of our amateur pianists in reliev- 
 ing the key contrive to "gracefully" pull up the 
 fingers by the wrist, a sort of conventional inclina- 
 tion for saying " good-bye! " 
 
 If the elementary parts of technic have been cor-
 
 2O THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 rectly understood and thoroughly practiced, time, 
 rhythm and execution will improve in good order if 
 the teacher quickly notices what needs special care, 
 and takes proper steps to correct what is wrong and 
 to improve what is amiss. There will always be 
 students more or less subject to weakness in one or 
 another of the essential elements of technic, for the 
 model student is still to be found, whose exceptional 
 qualities would enable him to reach a high grade in 
 every branch of the art without encountering greater 
 or lesser obstacles in one or another direction. Ex- 
 perience proves that to go to the root of the evil and 
 remedy what is wanting, fundamentally, gives 
 always the quickest and best cure, but it generally 
 requires patience and perseverance of a higher 
 order, both in the student and teacher. Where a 
 fundamental cure is not admissible, recourse to other 
 means must be had, and it is in such emergency that 
 the studies, which have been written to assist the 
 diligent student in his efforts to overcome special 
 defects, must be employed to remedy the evil. The 
 selection must be made with the particular object in 
 view, and the practice continued until this result has 
 been fairly well accomplished. Even where the 
 fundamental cure is employed, such exercises may 
 be used sparingly as a diet to prevent a relapse. 
 
 Reading at sight is an accomplishment which is 
 not always a natural gift, and little can be done at 
 first to acquire it, since the defect is not alone one 
 of the eye; the cause in most cases seems to be an 
 unsatisfactory co-operation of eye, intellect and
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 21 
 
 fingers. After a fair amount of skill in the manage- 
 ment of the keyboard has been acquired, some time 
 daily should be devoted to reading, beginning with 
 the simplest little pieces, the easiest arrangements 
 of popular songs, such as are found to any number 
 in our instruction books of later date for children; 
 little by little some readiness will be gained in read- 
 ing if every next trial brings something new. Easy 
 sonatinas, and everything that presents little diffi- 
 culty in rhythm, may thus be read until some satis- 
 factory result is obtained; it is, however, essential 
 that the reading matter should always be of a simple 
 kind, in gradation very much below the general 
 ability of the player, and that no attempt be made 
 to soon increase the harmonic or rhythmical diffi- 
 culties of the matter. 
 
 Mention has been made repeatedly that in the 
 early part of the student's training, material of 
 sound musical quality should be substituted alto- 
 gether for exercises, since the deteriorating tend- 
 ency of the latter in all that constitutes musical 
 characteristics can scarcely be denied in the abstract. 
 No mechanical exercises, save what may be termed 
 the elements of execution, should be employed; 
 these, however, should be studied and matured, as a 
 means to musical reproduction, until a high grade 
 of perfection is attained. The multumin parvo should 
 be the ruling principle, and a thoroughly correct 
 application of all that pertains to piano technic must 
 be considered as essential. Physical development 
 and the intellectual capacity of the individual will
 
 22 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 largely determine the successful issue; yet more 
 depends on thorough, systematic work. Every step 
 prepares the way for the next, but firm foothold 
 must be gained before the new step is attempted. 
 After the elements of piano technic have been firmly 
 established, the student will be able to successfully 
 develop greater variety in execution, provided that 
 in each new acquisition he adheres to the principle 
 of the utmost exactness. 
 
 The intellectual and moral development of the 
 individual depends largely upon the associations 
 which have influenced the early growth. The child 
 which has had free access to all the innocent pleas- 
 ures that brighten its tender existence while its 
 education carefully guards it from all harmful and 
 undesirable influences, will in the ordinary course 
 not only develop a more evenly balanced mind and 
 sense of duty, and find in the trials of life a strong 
 support, but will cherish, in advancing age, the treas- 
 ured recollections of a happy infancy. Individual 
 development is generally much easier influenced by 
 the mitigating recreations than by the unbending 
 rule of study, and only by the judicious, unequivocal 
 admixture of pleasure and duty that latent power in 
 life character can be evolved. 
 
 Parents have little difficulty in grading the read- 
 ing matter of studious children. Nursery rhymes, 
 fables, fairy stories, tales of fiction, which, while they 
 amuse, do not exclude information, follow each 
 other in well regulated rapid succession, excluding 
 fabrications which have a tendency to mislead and
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 23 
 
 deceive in wild freaks of unnatural imagination. Im- 
 perceptibly growing in strength the intellect will ac- 
 quire the intuitive judgment, known as common sense. 
 
 The piano teacher must combine study and recre- 
 ation at every stage of the pupil's progress. Pro- 
 vided that the selections are of a simple, unaffected 
 kind in their make-up and tendency, less given to 
 outward show than musical enjoyment, the recrea- 
 tions will best improve the educational purpose. 
 The touching strains of pathetic folk songs, the 
 little pieces full of sweet tenderness or childish 
 merriment, all the light matter whose unadorned 
 beauty calls for some interesting association of 
 ideas and sentiments, will lead the pupil to the 
 better appreciation of the frank and sturdy sincerity 
 of the great composers. 
 
 In the whole range of piano literature few com- 
 posers are found who have not written some easier 
 music, which at one time or another can fill an im- 
 portant place in the pupil's course of study; their 
 character is so varied that something can always be 
 found to please the average pupil. It is evident, 
 since the style and manner of each composer can 
 only be gathered from his own works, that a teacher 
 who introduces his pupils early to the better class of 
 composers, will not only furnish the student with 
 excellent material and give him a higher enjoyment, 
 but will largely improve his prospects for success in 
 later efforts. 
 
 Reinecke, Hiller, Gurlitt, Krause, Volkmann, 
 Jensen, Scharwenka and a host of others, have
 
 24 THE PIANIST'S AR?. 
 
 written many easy and enjoyable pieces for children, 
 which, with selections from the easier works of 
 Mozart, Haydn, Haendel, Mendelssohn and the 
 Album for the Young of Schumann's, offer a wealth 
 and variety which is truly excellent. According to 
 the ability and mettle of the pupil compositions of 
 a light genre may be employed alongside of this 
 better material, provided the empty, meaningless 
 phrase and the altogether patternlike technic in 
 composition is sufficiently shunned. 
 
 Necessarily, what will insure the greatest versa- 
 tility in execution, on the soundest musical princi- 
 ples, will be the best means to the end; and the 
 greatest exponent of music pure and simple, J. S. 
 Bach furnishes the student with the greatest variety 
 in technical figures. The student will find in him 
 every assistance in his efforts for greater variety and 
 superior neatness in execution, while the sound 
 musical character of his works will greatly mature 
 the healthy musical instincts. If it is conceded that 
 musical qualification should be combined with 
 technical efficiency, the student, whose selections of 
 a more technical tendency are largely interspersed 
 with Bach, from the little preludes to his "Well 
 Tempered Clavecin," will find an endless variety of 
 musical and technical material, which with proper 
 application will not only greatly enlarge his execu- 
 tive ability, but will give him intellectually the ordi- 
 nary complements, the first principles, which estab- 
 lish sound musical convictions, that will be a safe- 
 guard for his musical conscience.
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 25 
 
 Piano music and piano technic have been devel- 
 oped and broadened since Bach's time to an aston- 
 ishing degree, and though Bach may justly claim the 
 foremost consideration in the student's curriculum, 
 there would be no gain in a totally one-sided devo- 
 tion to his musical genius. It is no easy task for the 
 student to gain a thorough knowledge of the mas- 
 terworks of piano literature. Mozart, Haydn, Men- 
 delssohn and Haendel will prepare the way for Schu- 
 bert, Weber and Beethoven, while Chopin and Schu- 
 mann require a more mature development. The 
 works of the masters, each more or less perfect in its 
 own peculiar manner, are varied in the composer's 
 ideal vision of beauty, their creative power, their 
 technic of composition and individual use of the in- 
 strument so that an appreciation of their various 
 characteristic qualities can only be attained by care- 
 ful and persevering work. 
 
 As life's intercourse develops character and brings 
 out the qualities in man which distinguish one being 
 from another, so musical characteristics can only be 
 developed in constant interchange with the ideal 
 characters in the great works of our art. The greater 
 the variety of composers and compositions of 
 sterling value that come within the range of the 
 student's efforts, the more thoroughly each is studied 
 and appreciated in its musical character, the more 
 chance will the pianist have to acquire that subtle 
 intelligence, that broadness of character, and inten- 
 sity of feeling in musical reproduction, which is the 
 chief charm of piano playing.
 
 FINGERING. 
 
 FINGERING designates the manner or mode of 
 using the fingers in piano playing, and a rational 
 method of fingering applied to the mechanical man- 
 agement of the keyboard for practical purposes is 
 what constitutes the executive ability of the pianist. 
 The more the fingers are freed from natural restraint 
 the more will they be qualified for action, and execu- 
 tion in its highest attainable state will depend for 
 equality and rapidity upon the independence of the fin- 
 gers but for accuracy and faultlcssncss upon a thor- 
 oughly systematized fingering. So closely and 
 inseparably connected save for the indispensable 
 mechanical ability are systematic fingering and 
 executive skill that in effect the one is a comple- 
 ment to the other; even the mechanical independ- 
 ence of the fingers can not be developed without 
 some rudimentary system in fingering. 
 
 The execution can be even without being swift, 
 and correct without reaching that perfected state 
 which almost excludes defect but it is self-evident 
 that an even execution must rely to a great ex- 
 tent on a correct system of fingering; and that a per- 
 fect execution (which includes swiftness) is only the 
 
 20
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 27 
 
 highest degree of equality and accuracy which can 
 be obtained. 
 
 A systematic fingering includes all grammatical 
 rules which govern digital skill according to sound 
 principles and established usage; etymological rules 
 will comprise the fingering of all elementary techni- 
 cal forms and their changes and inflections, syntac- 
 tic will be the application of the elementary rules to 
 the musical sentences themselves, and in their nec- 
 essary relations to each other in compositions. 
 
 The elementary rules of fingering have been 
 established so thoroughly in course of time by the 
 constant attention of the masters, and the later 
 phases of pianistic art have so perfected and ar- 
 ranged the material, that a reliable basis for a theory 
 of fingering seems to have been gained. The appli- 
 cation of these rules, however, to connected musical 
 sentences in composition is still, and probably al- 
 ways will be, more or less arbitrary, since the practi- 
 cal analysis is always to a great extent influenced by 
 individual adaptability, which allows and often ne- 
 cessitates modifications to all rules. The perfect 
 practical mastery of fingering in the artist must be, 
 so to say, individualized to obtain in conjunction 
 with an adequate independence of the fingers a 
 faultless execution. 
 
 Our knowledge of any attempt to give rules for 
 fingering reaches back to the sixteenth century, and 
 sufficient evidence can be found in all the various 
 epochs of piano music and piano playing to prove 
 that the masters at all times considered a well-
 
 28 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 matured method in fingering one of the most essen- 
 tial requirements in the pianist's artistic make-up. 
 
 The views expressed in the earliest days are of 
 such primitive order and in the light of our ad- 
 vanced attainments so insufficient and erroneous, 
 that they have none but an historical interest nowa- 
 days. The hands and elbows of the player were at 
 first below the keyboard and permissible only was 
 the use of the three middle fingers; when, somewhat 
 later, the hands were raised to be in a line with the 
 fingers, these were held stiff and straight so as 
 to still exclude the use of the thumb and fifth 
 finger. The keyboard in those days had only the 
 lower keys and two B flats, the instrument itself 
 was altogether inferior and offered small chance 
 for musical combinations, so that the above mode of 
 fingering was probably tantamount to all the re- 
 quirements of execution. 
 
 With the introduction of the chromatic half- 
 tones, the division of each octave into seven lower 
 and five upper keys, and the tempered tuning of the 
 instrument, a decided change in composition must 
 have caused a marked revolution in fingering and 
 the treatment of the instrument. The first treatise 
 on "musical temperature" by Andreas Werkmeister 
 (1691) is very likely the result of many prior experi- 
 ments; these radical changes themselves, however, 
 can hardly be many years older. 
 
 Francois Couperin highly esteemed for his 
 originality and musical qualities in composition, and 
 for his elegant and expressive performances on the
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 29 
 
 clavecin who made use of the even temperament, 
 gives in his "/' art de toucher du clavecin' (1717) ex- 
 amples of fingering, which, though extremely dar- 
 ing, seem altogether capricious and void of method, 
 a proof that the ideas on fingering for the new key- 
 board were at that time, in France at least, still 
 vague and unsettled. Couperin's novel use of the 
 thumb and fifth finger, though apparently nowhere 
 subject to any rule, forms the bridge to the rational 
 system which was developed about that time. 
 Scarlatti's mode of fingering must have been well 
 systematized to judge the great performer by his 
 compositions, though there seems to be no trace left 
 of any method. 
 
 Joh. Seb. Bach's system, which forms the basis for 
 our modern fingering, was, no doubt, due to his very 
 superior ability as a player and may have been 
 developed in his earlier years it is, however, diffi- 
 cult to say whether he originated this system inde- 
 pendently, since Buxtehude (1635-1707), celebrated 
 as organist before Bach's time, required as thorough 
 a system of fingering for a good rendition of his 
 complicated works, as Bach was probably well 
 matured when he wrote the first part of his Well- 
 Tempered Clavecin (about 1720), and the ideas were 
 transmitted to posterity mainly through his son, 
 Ph. Em. Bach. 
 
 The salient feature of this new system was the 
 employment of all the fingers and their curved po- 
 sition so as to equalize the reach of the longer and 
 shorter members; the use of the thumb and fifth
 
 30 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 finger must have been nearly equal to that of the 
 other fingers, though their serviceableness for the 
 upper keys was restricted by Bach to cases of 
 necessity. Only with such a basis for fingering it is 
 possible to reproduce the difficult and complicated 
 works which Bach is said to have played with ease 
 and where polyphone playing in either hand fre- 
 quently necessitates the use of the thumb and fifth 
 finger on the black keys. 
 
 This theory has held good with all the great 
 players and teachers after Bach who held connection 
 with him in an almost unbroken line through his 
 sons. Dussek, Clementi, Mozart, Hummel, Cramer, 
 Czerny, Moscheles and many others have on this 
 same basis specified rules for fingering according to 
 their own individual requirements. Special rules 
 were made for the various practical ends and ex- 
 emplified in many a great piano method, but the 
 fundamental principle of Bach's system remained 
 unchanged. As, however, the predominant homo- 
 phone style of piano music after Bach offered hardly 
 any needful occasion to use the shorter fingers on 
 the black keys, it became in course of time a strict 
 rule not to use the thumb or fifth finger on the upper 
 keys. 
 
 As long as the figures in piano passages were of a 
 narrower pattern, seldom reaching an octave and in 
 very extraordinary cases only going beyond that 
 interval, this positive interdiction of the short fingers 
 on the black keys could not become a serious obsta- 
 cle in execution. When, however, in the last, most
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 3! 
 
 brilliant and versatile epoch of pianistic art the pas- 
 sages were made up more frequently of the very 
 widest patterns; when everything that nature and 
 training could bring within reach of the artist was 
 not only considered practicable but made use of on 
 all occasions ; when all the parts of the arm, wrist and 
 hand joined in the most complete physical develop- 
 ment, it became a matter of necessity to often 
 employ the shorter fingers on the upper keys. The 
 modern school recognizes the necessity of putting 
 the shorter fingers as much as possible on an even 
 basis with the longer fingers; reckoning with perfect 
 freedom of the hand in complete repose, and with 
 thoroughly independent fingers, it relieves the latter 
 from all restrictions, so that henceforth the artistic 
 purpose in musical performance and the convenience 
 of the player are the only considerations which 
 govern the choice of fingers for any end whatever. 
 
 It is an erroneous idea to suppose that the me- 
 thodical and convenient way of playing, what might 
 be termed the elements of execution which has 
 been rationally developed and is upheld by the 
 approval of all, even the latest masters has been or 
 ever will be radically changed by any new theory. 
 As long as the mechanism of the instrument remains 
 the same the use of the thumb or fifth finger on black 
 keys in the scales or other elementary combinations 
 is neither obligatory nor desirable without urgent 
 cause, though perfectly permissible under circum- 
 stances. The established way of playing has not
 
 32 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 been changed, although in many instances it has been 
 considerably improved in a rational manner. 
 
 The fundamental principles for a systematic fin- 
 gering, whether applied to elementary formations or 
 adjusted to practical purposes in playing by student 
 or artist, may be summed up as follows: That the 
 natural succession of the fingers is the most desir- 
 able, that the simplest fingering is the best and most 
 methodical, and that according to the natural posi- 
 tion of the fingers within compass of a fifth, octave 
 or tenth, the fingering must be constructed on these 
 principles. Based on these ideas, the rules for a 
 rational system of fingering have been developed for 
 the elements of execution, and while such rules as 
 would be fitting for the various possibilities in musi- 
 cal practice can not possibly be framed, since the 
 various combinations in composition can as little be 
 brought into connection with general precepts in 
 fingering, as the individual qualifications of the 
 student or artist can be disregarded, a general synop- 
 sis of some particular features in the application of 
 fingering to practical purposes can be given. 
 
 Five fingers, slightly curved and resting on five 
 lower keys in an unbroken row, will represent the 
 most natural position; this position may either be 
 contracted by omission of one or more fingers, or 
 expanded. All groups of notes ranging from the 
 interval of the second to that of the sixth will be 
 within easy reach in this position; an extension of 
 the hand to the octave will include the seventh and 
 easily cover the ninth, and the further extension to
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 33 
 
 the tenth will include the interval of the eleventh 
 for all such as are sufficiently favored by nature to 
 be able to reach it with a quiet hand. 
 
 Any one of these positions of the fifth, octave or 
 tenth may be transposed and interchanged by cross- 
 ing the fingers over the thumb or by gliding the lat- 
 ter under the fingers; or it may be slightly shifted 
 by slipping the fifth finger below the longer fingers 
 or the latter over the little finger. 
 
 The elements of execution trills, diatonic and 
 chromatic scales in all their various combinations, 
 the broken chords and arpeggios in all their posi- 
 tions, variations and transpositions, the repeating 
 notes, the diatonic and chromatic scales in thirds, 
 sixths and octaves, the broken chords and arpeg- 
 gios in double notes have a stereotyped fingering 
 which can be traced in any of the modern hand- 
 books. (Plaidy's Technical Studies.) A thorough 
 knowledge of harmony will further elucidate the 
 fingering of these typical tone combinations and will 
 enable the student to locate the different patterns 
 and figures derived from scales and chords correctly 
 as to their position and so find their normal finger- 
 ing. A combination of different positions or trans- 
 position will change nothing in the system of finger- 
 ing, as the change, once effected, restores the same 
 quiet position of the hand. Carl Tausig's daily 
 studies offer a much larger variety of technical fig- 
 ures which, inasmuch as they are developed system- 
 atically from trills, scales and chords, and cleverly 
 transposed through the whole harmonious system, 
 
 3
 
 34 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 are likely to broaden and mature in a careful student 
 the ideas for a good method in fingering. 
 
 The correct fingering of these elementary com- 
 binations, if properly and thoroughly mastered by 
 the student, will give his fingers in course of time 
 a sort of instinctive tendency to perform certain 
 movements, and some deliberation will enable him 
 to apply his proficiency to advantage in composition. 
 The later standard editions, as Peters, Litolff, etc., 
 are, in their carefully revised fingering, an invaluable 
 aid to student and teacher, if the same imperative 
 necessity compels the use of the right fingers, that 
 calls for the right notes. 
 
 Though a natural succession of the fingers is usu- 
 ally preferable, trills often gain in power and brill- 
 iancy by employing fingers out of their natural 
 order, 1.3 or 3.5 fingers instead of 1.2 2.3 3.4 4.5; 
 a change, however, of 1,3,2,4, for trills require a 
 very even touch and great facility to be effective. 
 The use of one and the same fingering for all the 
 scales beginning with the thumb and ending with 
 the fifth finger would simplify the fingering for the 
 scales in flats, would work, perhaps, to perfection 
 theoretically, but could not fail to be awkward and 
 clumsy if carried out persistently even by an excel- 
 lent player. Musical construction makes it desirable 
 sometimes to use the thumb or fifth finger on the 
 upper keys, even in scale passages, mostly, however, 
 toward the end of such passages for the purpose of 
 getting a more desirable position of the hand for the 
 next phrase.
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 35 
 
 For short chromatic passages the use of the fourth 
 ringer on upper keys and the fifth on the lower keys 
 insures a very effective mezzo voce; for rapid play- 
 ing of the chromatic scale, a fingering (a) has great 
 advantages and is practicable, as the change from 
 fifth to thumb is by no means difficult to overcome. 
 A certain amount of proficiency in changing after 
 the fifth finger should be developed, as it may fre- 
 quently be found useful; it is one of the prominent 
 features in modern fingering. Scale passages, or 
 their derivations, will gain in swiftness the fewer the 
 changes of position; there is no fingering that wdl 
 give the scale in C the supreme dash that two 
 changes of five fingers each (b) for two octaves will 
 impart to it. 
 
 Passages or figures developed from or made up 
 of scales can easily be fingered systematically; pas- 
 sages composed of a succession of similar figures 
 should be fingered uniformly; if they are made up 
 in close position after the manner of the classic 
 school, it is desirable to avoid the use of the thumb 
 on upper keys as much as convenient; in the ex- 
 tended figures of the modern writers a change to a 
 higher or lower octave will often make the use of 
 the two short fingers on the black keys necessary.
 
 36 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 Even in common arpeggios, according to their posi- 
 tion and extent, a change to the thumb after the 
 fifth finger may be advisable in reference to the 
 ensuing position of the hand, which will always 
 decide the choice of fingers. 
 
 Repeating notes may be played with various 
 orders of fingers (i, 2, 3, 4 or 4, 3, 2, I or i, 4, 3, 2, 
 etc.), but a regular change in the succession should 
 be adhered to and the grouping should be such that 
 the accents are rendered with the stronger fingers. 
 In all the later standard editions of classic and mod- 
 ern piano works a change of fingers for a renewed 
 attack of the same key, where and whenever it 
 occurs, is carried out with characteristic conse- 
 quence, a usage which highly recommends itself, as 
 it insures an almost unfailing repetition in the 
 mechanism of the instrument. This practice, how- 
 ever, appears less urgent in polyphone playing in the 
 same hand, more especially when one part is of 
 strong, melodious import, while the other is second- 
 ary; the methodical change in such cases seems to 
 increase frequently the difficulty in the more neces- 
 sary qualifications of the touch, and is even more 
 often liable to interfere with rhythmical precision. 
 
 For diatonic scales in thirds, a fingering analo- 
 gous to that of the simple scale, with one change of 
 position(<r), is preferable, and the modern way of fing- 
 
 I I I t ' i . I
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 37 
 
 ering the chromatic scale in thirds (d] is superior for 
 smoothness and agility. The more extended in 
 compass the double passages become, the more 
 liable is the thumb to get the entire charge of one 
 part, while the 3, 4, 5 fingers take the other. The 
 use of the longer fingers for the upper keys, and the 
 fifth finger for the lower, more particularly in octave 
 playing, seems the most natural. For arpeggios in 
 double notes a regularly recurring fingering for 
 every octave is advisable. 
 
 In melodious passages with accompaniment in 
 the same hand, recourse may often be had to a quiet 
 change of fingers, by continued pressure, on the 
 notes of the melody, so as to render them well con- 
 nected. The notes in the accompaniment should be 
 played leggiero that is non-legato and the fingers 
 should leave them before the next note of the 
 melody is taken. This mode of cantabile playing 
 with accompaniment in the same hand, though by 
 no means the only nor the most effective one, is well 
 calculated to purify the melodious feeling in the 
 student. 
 
 In polyphone playing in the same hand, the parts 
 will either move in parallel motion, in which case 
 the fingering may be developed after that of the 
 scales in thirds or sixths; or in contrary motion, 
 when the thumb will generally take care of one 
 
 I I 5 I \ \ \ \ I I 
 
 1 ft a t a i a 1 i a l a
 
 38 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 part, while the four fingers take the other; or in 
 oblique motion; in this case the moving part will be 
 fingered according to the natural order of the fin- 
 gers. If a change of position in the moving part is 
 required generally when the fifth finger holds the 
 other part this must be effected with due regard to 
 the following phrase. The use of the thumb and fifth 
 finger on the upper keys in polyhone playing is 
 often indispensable and, like the change of fingers 
 on the same key without striking, frequently a mat- 
 ter of necessity. 
 
 When the accompaniment is made up of wide- 
 spread harmonies in the left hand and the chords are 
 struck after a fundamental bass note, it is desirable 
 to retain the extended position of the hand as much 
 as possible, and the chords are struck without the 
 use of the fifth finger whenever practicable. 
 
 The execution of some passages can be at times 
 facilitated and certainly made much more brilliant 
 and dazzling, by dividing them between both hands. 
 The particular fingering for each group can be easily 
 developed some routine in this special manner can 
 be acquired in Carl Reinecke's studies, op. 121. 
 
 To give a succession of notes in a melodious pas- 
 sage greater delicacy, Chopin often uses one of the 
 weaker fingers, and a strong finger for a martellato; 
 of much greater effect, producing with full arm 
 stroke a tone of great penetrating quality, is the 
 alternate use of a strong finger in either hand in 
 melodious passages or trills. 
 
 Liberal views and rules which more readily
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 39 
 
 adapt themselves to the greater variety of technical 
 matter in composition, distinguish our modern fin- 
 gering from the old system. Modern training aspires 
 pre-eminently to a certain natural freedom in execu- 
 tion, which equally affects the movements of the 
 fingers, hand, wrist and arm, a freedom which was 
 not needed in the homophone style of composition 
 after Bach, with its more limited practical require- 
 ments; but if greater diversity in the executive 
 qualification of the pianist is necessary to accom- 
 plish the higher, more difficult and varied technical 
 problems, greater liberty and variety in fingering will 
 naturally follow. Yet it does not always appear that 
 a greater variety will insure a better result. A 
 continual change in the natural order of the fingers 
 and the consequent shifting in the position of 
 the hand may be under circumstances very desir- 
 able, may even become necessary, but should 
 never become a ruling principle in fingering. 
 Mechanical ability in playing always admirable 
 when a means to the end in musical reproduction 
 has just as much right to become the sole and final 
 aim of the artist. 
 
 In all cases where a moderate or slow motion is 
 required in the character of the phrase, where a quiet 
 and reposeful position of the hand will more prop- 
 erly represent the expressive quality of the composi- 
 tion, a continued change in the regular succession 
 of the fingers is decidedly undesirable and unnec- 
 essary. Whenever the regular stereotyped manner of 
 fingering is apt to tire the muscles, in the unvarying
 
 4O THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 employment of the same fingers in natural order; 
 wherever greater power of tone is required obtain- 
 able by combined movement of fingers and hand 
 and wherever a vacillating character demands an 
 agitated, restless rendition, the regular routine of 
 the system may be altered to obtain the desired 
 effect.
 
 EXPRESSION. 
 
 EXPRESSION is the evidence of emotion, a vivid 
 representation of a certain meaning or feeling, 
 and implies in music a style or manner which gives life 
 and suggestive force to ideas and sentiments. Emo- 
 tion is a state of intense excitement of feeling; emo- 
 tion in music, or an emotional expression in music, 
 would impart a degree of excitement which is not 
 compatible with art. Is, however, music the lan- 
 guage of emotion, it must be an emotion which has 
 been intellectually conceived, and prepared by the 
 mind for utterance or reproduction; that the feeling 
 must be latent in the artist to be by him well under- 
 stood and defined, seems certain; yet it is the ar- 
 tistic intelligence which shapes the means for the re- 
 production of the emotional characteristics, and the 
 imagination reconstructs and combines the material 
 furnished by the artist's apprehension. 
 
 Musical expression is, therefore, not emotional, 
 but represents in the abstract certain qualities of 
 emotion in repose, and each emotion appears as repre- 
 sented by certain characteristics, which make it dis- 
 tinctly different from some universal sentiment. Its 
 chief promoter seems to be a distinct order of intel- 
 
 41
 
 42 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 lectual faculty, which conceives a more or less defi- 
 nite idea of certain emotions, develops the means by 
 which this idea is made manifest, and commands 
 them in musical reproduction. As an intellectual 
 process, musical expression requires instinctive dis- 
 crimination in regard to the means employed. This 
 discrimination is a part of intellectual training, and 
 can be developed to a certain degree. 
 
 In a general way, musical expression will represent 
 a correct musical sentiment, and a proper apprecia- 
 tion of the outline of character designated by the 
 composer in the meter, indications of movement and 
 shading. If this correct musical sentiment, as first 
 conceived by the composer, is intensified by higher 
 intellectual power and temperament of the artist, it 
 becomes a manifestation of artistic individuality, 
 which is the highest attainment in reproductive mu- 
 sical art. 
 
 Melody, harmony and rhythm, the essential and 
 integral parts of composition, form the basis of ex- 
 pression in music. Melody and harmony represent 
 the musical matter to which rhythm gives the system- 
 atic order and logical importance. As a principle 
 of order, rhythm is quantitative, it gives each note its 
 special value and arranges the notes into groups, so 
 as to fill the meter of the composition; it is qualita- 
 tive inasmuch as it determines the logical importance 
 of notes and groups. Meter is a systematic arrange- 
 ment in musical art, which regulates the succession 
 of parts to a satisfactory interchange, according to 
 strict laws. Meter, therefore, arranges the musical
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 43 
 
 matter, and is the embodiment of rhythmical law, 
 while rhythm represents the material in everchang- 
 ing motion. Rhythm and meter spring from the 
 same source, one always changing in endless variety, 
 the other constant in the special form it assumes. 
 
 Meter represents time (German, tact measure), 
 and it includes always more than one unit, each of 
 which is important as part of the meter, though the 
 first gives the normal conditions of the others; it is, 
 as such, more prominent, and receives an accent. 
 Parts of the meter, though as units and time meas- 
 ures unchangeable, can be represented in all rhyth- 
 mical figures. Meter is distinguished as simple and 
 compound; the latter, as the name implies, is a com- 
 bination of simple meters. Meters of two or three 
 units will always be considered as simple (2-4, 3-4); 
 four, six, eight, nine, etc., units will constitute com- 
 pound meters. Units, as time-measures, can repre- 
 sent different note values, as half, quarter, eighth- 
 notes, etc. 
 
 As a means of bringing the first and important 
 part of the meter into prominence, metrical accents 
 are part of the meter, and metrical accents will not 
 change as long as the meter is unvarying in the form 
 it has taken; the metrical accent can not be trans- 
 ferred to an unaccented part of the meter. In com- 
 pound meter each of the component parts claims an 
 accent, and, as in simple meter, the first unit gives 
 the normal conditions for the others, so in compound 
 meter, the first component holds the same relation 
 to the others; it naturally follows that metrical ac-
 
 44 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 cents in compound meter should be related in the 
 same manner; the first accent should be more promi- 
 nent than those of the other components should be 
 primary in importance and grade of tone, the others 
 secondary. 
 
 As simple meter has one accented part, and com- 
 pound meter an accent to each component, it follows 
 that simple meter will represent an easier flow of 
 matter than compound meter, and the larger the 
 compound the more will be gained in breadth and 
 importance. 
 
 A change of meter of one kind to another will 
 plainly mark a change in the fundamental rhythmic 
 principle, and a decided change in character. 
 
 Melody, harmony and a vivid reproduction will 
 always insure minute modifications of the strict laws 
 of constancy in metrical division, and human feeling 
 will, to some extent, vary an unchanging monotony 
 in the grade of tone. 
 
 Rhythmical division depends on the same laws 
 as the metrical. In the subdivision of time values, 
 taking a whole note as a unit, the first of two half 
 notes will be the weightier, the first and third out of 
 four quarters, and so on in each following sub- 
 division; the ideas of metrical importance and meter 
 accent apply to the rhythmical division, so that the 
 first of a pair is always the weightier of the two. For 
 the same reason, the first in each triplet will be 
 accented, and with each new subdivision the accents 
 of either pair or triplet will become less significant 
 and less marked, so that finally the player simply
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 45 
 
 retains the firm consciousness of the rhythmical 
 pulsation, which will prevent accents on wrong parts, 
 or exaggerated accents in their right place. 
 
 Metrical and rhythmical accents require different 
 grades of tone according to the importance of the 
 accented parts, yet this accentuation, when simply 
 indicating the outline of structure, should be 
 moderate and adapted to the character of the com- 
 position; where rhythmic clearness only is required 
 a slight increase of tone will therefore be sufficient. 
 In all forms, where rhythm becomes a characteristic 
 and determining factor, as in valses, polonaises, 
 mazurkas and marches, the metrical accent must be 
 strengthened to some extent, but never so as to be- 
 come violent. 
 
 As in poetry metrical form establishes the verse 
 by joining a series of meters according to certain 
 rules, and fashions verses into groups, so in music 
 metrical formation is extended to sections and 
 periods. As a meter holds two, three, or more units, 
 a section will contain two, three, four, or more 
 meters, and a period will include several sections; 
 and as in meter the first unit is the rule for the 
 others, so in a section the first meter holds promi- 
 nence before the others. Greater discrimination in 
 accents will be the natural consequence of this prog- 
 ress in metrical construction, and as in rhythmical 
 subdivision the rhythmic pulsation is finally reduced 
 to a firm consciousness on the part of the performer, 
 so in metrical formation the accents of single 
 meters will assume an intuitive quality that makes
 
 46 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 their presence felt, and brings them to a steady 
 recognition without undue prominence. 
 
 Metrical formation and metrical accents offer a 
 study of great value to the piano student as forming 
 the basis for phrasing and expression. Meters are 
 plainly indicated, metrical groups may be easily dis- 
 tinguished with some practice, and periods are 
 determined by the reappearance of the first or the 
 introduction of a new subject which begins the next 
 period. A composition must be thoroughly appre- 
 ciated in its architectonic construction before the 
 intellect can clearly grasp the ideas, and if the 
 student's attention is called to the matter early and 
 oft^n, at first in a more casual way and with slight 
 insistence, the subject will soon become clear to 
 him. 
 
 Metrical accents are positive and absolutely 
 necessary, and do not depend on changing circum- 
 stances. Their presence must be felt under all cir- 
 cumstances, and the fact that at times the positive 
 accent seems removed by reason of the musical con- 
 struction does not in itself alter the fundamental 
 principle. When by syncopation an accented part 
 of the meter is contracted to an unaccented part, 
 this contraction apparently throws the accent on the 
 weaker part of the meter. Syncopation, however, 
 as a divergency in musical construction, will only 
 appear clearly organic when a non-syncopic form 
 brings it to the fore by direct contrast, and in this 
 case the non-syncopic part bears the accent. 
 
 Metrical accents and the pulsation of rhythmical
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 47 
 
 matter do not always coincide, and in this case both 
 accents should be present and distinctly felt, though 
 one will generally predominate. 
 
 In the Weber Concertstueck a rhythmical figure 
 in 3-4 occurs in a meter of 6-8 time; a rhythmical 
 accent (a) for each figure will change the meter 
 from 6-8 time to 3-4, a fault which often can plainly 
 be noticed even in public performances. The 
 rhythmical figure is so unmistakable that it scarcely 
 requires accentuation, and the metrical accent (&) 
 should be of sufficient power to preserve the char- 
 ter of the 6-8 time, while the impression made by the 
 running figure in 3-4 rhythm will lend a higher 
 charm to the otherwise mechanical passage. 
 
 In the Schubert Impromptu, op. 142, No. IV, in 
 F minor, the following passage (c) in 3-8 time, re-
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 quires a most emphatic metrical accent to give it its 
 true character in spite of the numerous sforzati 
 marked to show the change of the rhythmical figure 
 to 2-8 groups. How plain and trivial the following 
 "improvement" of that passage in notation (d) 
 would sound, anybody can see who takes the trouble 
 to study the beautiful composition. 
 
 If in syncopated passages the non-syncopic part 
 is wanting, as is often the case with Schumann, the 
 principle must still be latent, though the accent falls 
 on the unaccented part of the meter. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that Schumann, and all 
 his predecessors and followers in syncopation with- 
 out an accompanying and contrasting non-syncopic 
 part, was lacking the practical sense to avoid mysti- 
 fication, which is the effect of his notation to the 
 uninitiated. It seems apparent that a passage like 
 
 ^*$^H"rr^ri 
 
 :b ? i-i?i::?!^
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 49 
 
 the following from the Faschingsschwank (e) would 
 have been more properly written (/), and modern 
 experts in notation, who see no occasion for syncopa- 
 tion, may insist that Schumann's notation is not as it 
 should be. However, let a violinist play the passage 
 in the two different readings, and the increased ideal 
 charm in Schumann's notation will be unquestion- 
 able, since the original will imply more intensity of 
 feeling -==r r==- (espressivo), while the other will 
 read plainly rr>- (diminuendo). 
 
 The point can now be argued that the piano does 
 not offer the means for the reproduction in the 
 original sense, and in the abstract this can not be 
 denied. If, however, in playing this syncopic 
 passage the pedal is employed in the following man- 
 ner () a result will be obtained, which, though 
 faintly representing the ideal, will be more adequate 
 
 .(2. (2
 
 5<D THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 to Schumann's delightful mysticism than the realistic 
 and dry effect of the new notation. 
 
 In the last movement of Schumann's wonderful 
 concerto, the second motive is introduced by the 
 orchestra in sixteen very simple measures. In the 
 original notation (//) a feeling is latent of such su- 
 preme inner joy, that it scarcely can find utterance 
 (hesitating shyness the omission of the accented 
 part in every second measure); what a charming 
 contrast this ideal conception to the almost defiant 
 outburst in the first part of the movement. An im- 
 proved notation for the sixteen measures (k] would, 
 indeed, prove a veritable march of the "wooden 
 shoemakers in a puppet show!" 
 
 Melody, the outgrowth of musical thought and 
 feeling, is a rhythmical succession of single tones so 
 related as to form a musical sentence. As a product 
 of musical thought melody appears mostly in a com- 
 pact form as an essential part in musical composi- 
 tion, and it forms the basis for thematic construe- 
 
 
 

 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 5! 
 
 tion, either in its integrity or in the shape of shorter 
 parts taken from it and called motives. Melodious 
 forms of this kind occur chiefly in classic works, and 
 wherever musical form and thought govern expres- 
 sion. 
 
 In thematic work the melody, or theme, must be 
 brought out clearly; in many instances it will be 
 sufficient to mark the entrance of the theme by an 
 accent, while generally the whole theme in its musi- 
 cal characteristics should be brought into promi- 
 nence. Artistic discrimination will find new shades 
 of tone and expression for the delivery of the theme 
 at each new entrance, and though the character must 
 remain the same, a wide margin is left to the per- 
 former for a display of more or less intensity of feel- 
 ing. The shorter motives should, in a measure, re- 
 flect the character of the theme, displaying greater 
 energy and craving more attention when uncon- 
 trolled by the theme, subdued again by the entrance 
 of the latter. 
 
 Every theme or motive, as it gives expression to 
 thought or feeling, becomes musically valuable. The 
 succession of tones in itself gives utterance to a cer- 
 tain fundamental sentiment, to which rhythm gives 
 the power of characteristic insinuation, and as such, 
 rhythm is an integral and inseparable essence in 
 melody. Rhythm gives the logical importance to 
 melodic phrases, and insures their higher musical 
 merit. In ascending melodious phrases the general 
 sentiment will indicate rising emotion, descending 
 succession of tones greater subsidence of feeling; a
 
 52 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 series of diatonic intervals will represent a more even 
 flow, wider steps a greater excitement; a series of 
 ascending and descending phrases will give an undu- 
 lating character. Melodious form will gain in rich- 
 ness and refined character when diatonic intervals 
 are intermixed with chromatic and harmonic steps, 
 will retain greater clearness as long as tonality is 
 preserved, and will become more erratic and indefi- 
 nite as it diverges from tonality. 
 
 The general sentiment thus implied in the con- 
 struction of musical phrases is easily understood, 
 and it can not be difficult to find expression for it 
 in a natural way ; diligent study will bring on a 
 greater refinement in artistic discrimination and the 
 necessary qualification of touch, and if the principle 
 of metrical construction is always correctly applied 
 to the melodious flow, musical characteristics in 
 melody will find proper reproduction. 
 
 Shorter themes find full expression through dia- 
 lectic deduction. When the theme is enlarged so as 
 to give in its several parts a complete exposition of 
 its meaning, the scientific investigation assumes the 
 form of variations. In the variations the theme is 
 remodeled in its harmonic and rhythmic construc- 
 tion, the melody itself appears in various shapes, 
 major and minor modes are interchanged, a slow 
 movement is replaced by one of a livelier character, 
 even the meter is changed to represent the meaning 
 in an entirely new aspect. Every facility that art 
 offers in musical characteristics is at the disposal of 
 the composer, and it stands to reason that in the
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 53 
 
 master-works of this kind the student will firrd every 
 assistance in the acquisition of all that is required 
 for a good characteristic reproduction. Mozart and 
 Haydn have employed this form large!y for a richer 
 and more varied display of technical means, but 
 Beethoven gives in this form a series of characteris- 
 tic sketches, each of which represents the original 
 idea in distinctly different shape and meaning. 
 
 The student will derive greater benefit for a 
 development of musical characteristic in works of 
 this kind the more he bears in mind that, as the vari- 
 ations find their basis in the theme and are only new 
 expositions of a first idea, the theme, however sim- 
 ple it may be, requires in the first instance a thorough 
 appreciation. The outlines of construction and the 
 general sentiment of the theme can be traced in the 
 variations, and a more complete understanding of 
 the first in all its details will largely assist in the 
 development of the new characteristics, which in 
 turn may reflect a new light on the theme. 
 
 As an outgrowth of musical feeling melody often 
 assumes a broader form; the feeling is, so to say, 
 individualized, and in a generous flow it seems often 
 to overrun musical form by the sway of its power, 
 and as melody increases in impressiveness harmony 
 becomes more subservient and takes the place of an 
 accompaniment. In this the bass, as the musical 
 foundation, requires some prominence, so as to better 
 support the melody, and this it generally receives 
 through metrical accentuation. The accompaniment 
 should always be discreet, the bass giving enough
 
 54 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 sustenance so that the melody stands out clear and 
 distinct. A well guarded connection in musical 
 sentiment between accompaniment and melody will 
 be requisite, and a discreet continuity in the melo- 
 dious steps of the bass will occasionally lend new 
 charm to the melody. When two melodies contrast 
 with each other, they are best rendered in such man- 
 ner that in either of them increased motion comes 
 more to the foreground. Expression can not come 
 from an accompaniment, and should emanate from 
 the melody, yet the expression of the latter can be 
 materially assisted by the other parts. All the grades 
 and shades of expression should be carried mainly 
 by the melody, and only when greater insistence is 
 required the accompaniment can rise to a more 
 powerful delivery. 
 
 Harmony in musical composition is the concord 
 of two or more parts, as well as the connection of 
 chords according to established rules. Harmony 
 offers the essential means for larger forms, for the 
 formation and connection of musical phrases; it sup- 
 ports and strengthens the melody, clearly defines 
 doubtful connections of the same, and is invaluable 
 as a means for varying and changing the melodious 
 flow of musical matter. 
 
 Harmony, as connected with expression in music, 
 is the great undercurrent which exercises the strong- 
 est influence, though it does not in itself offer for 
 expression such distinct features as rhythm and 
 melody. When, however, in harmonic progression 
 one or more intervals of a chord are retarded or sus-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 55 
 
 pended this retardation should be well marked; the 
 suspended note as such causes the solution, and 
 stands, therefore, in close relation to it. Is the sus- 
 pended the longer note of the two, the solution will 
 be slurred to the same and show a perceptible de- 
 crease in tone; if the suspended note is shorter than 
 the solution, which is generally the case when the 
 suspension is unprepared, the two notes are discon- 
 nected and the solution also receives an accent. 
 
 Emotion is of an individual character, different 
 in every human being, and expression in an artistic 
 performance is an individual gift, the result of in- 
 stinctive definition of varied emotions differing in 
 intensity of feeling as well as in the means employed 
 for reproduction, according to the nature of the per- 
 former. Expression, as a manner of reproduction, 
 which gives suggestive force to musical ideas, may 
 be effected in two ways: by the application of vari- 
 ous degrees of power, and by the employment of 
 different grades of motion. The first is generally 
 understood to be the theory of dynamics, and the 
 latter would fitly be called the theory of agogics.* 
 
 The dynamics include the various grades and 
 shades of strength, the piano and forte, their differ- 
 ent degrees from the pianissimo to the fortissimo, 
 the crescendo and diminuendo; under this head fall 
 also the metrical and rhythmical accents and the 
 sforzato. 
 
 The agogics comprise a correct time (time-keep- 
 ing), the even tenor of motion, the different degrees 
 
 *From ayeoyrj action, as dynamics from fiuVaftis force.
 
 56 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 of movement, adagio and allegro, with their modifi- 
 cations from the largo to the prestissimo, the ritar- 
 dando and accelerando, the tenuto or pathetic stress, 
 the fermate and the rubato. 
 
 Dynamics, as far as they include the different 
 grades of power, are part of the pianist's technical 
 outfit represented in the adequateness of his touch; 
 as a medium for expression dynamics require the in- 
 tellectual faculty, which finds the proper grade of 
 tone in the right place, and qualifies the touch; this 
 faculty is based upon comparative estimation and is 
 part of the artistic discrimination. Piano and forte 
 and their various degrees imply an even grade of 
 tone for the passages so indicated, which should in- 
 clude accented parts as well as unaccented and in- 
 cidental modifications of tone, so that they are dis- 
 tinctly different in piano and forte. Crescendo and 
 diminuendo imply gradual changes in the even 
 grade of power; crescendo is piano growing into 
 forte, and diminuendo is forte leading gradually to 
 piano; the change in the tone gradation must be 
 gradual whether crescendo or diminuendo are of 
 long or short extent, and the greater the duration 
 of this gradual change the more will it tax the pian- 
 ist's capabilities, both intellectually and in the de- 
 velopment of tone. When crescendo and diminu- 
 endo are combined, this implies a gradual increase 
 to a climax and a subsequent gradual decrease; the 
 climax is mostly in the center of the "swell," and 
 the greater the climax the more intensity of feeling 
 is manifested. This swell is frequently employed in
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 57 
 
 phrasing, to give vital energy and a well qualified 
 feeling to melodious passages, according to the nat- 
 ural sentiment implied byascewding and descending 
 series of tones, and could in this proper adjustment 
 find no fitter name than the "espressivo." The cli- 
 max of the espressivo will always coincide with a 
 metrical accent, and will vary according to the in- 
 tensity of feeling, which in turn must be governed 
 by the general character of the composition. Greater 
 accents for single notes in musical notation are 
 marked by a sforzato; sudden changes in the grade 
 of power for passages or phrases are indicated by a 
 forte subito, or piano subito; changes of this kind are 
 in some works, particularly Beethoven's, too mark- 
 edly characteristic to admit of conventional prepara- 
 tion by crescendo or diminuendo, and must be stri'ctly 
 carried into effect. 
 
 The underlying current in all that pertains to 
 agogics is keeping time, i. e., to regulate the succes- 
 sion of sounds according to their rhythmical value 
 by an even principle. To keep time is the first and 
 fundamental requirement in a musical performance, 
 and only when this most essential faculty has been 
 fully obtained by the student's efforts, artistic free- 
 dom in time-keeping will appear as emanating from 
 a master's purpose, while it will otherwise imply in- 
 capacity, carelessness, or frivolous license. 
 
 Next to keeping strict time, which is one of the 
 technical prerequisites, comes the selection of a 
 proper degree of motion, and the thorough appreci- 
 ation of the composer's intent and purpose, as indi-
 
 58 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 cated by the technical terms: largo, adagio, andante, 
 allegro, presto, and their various modifications. 
 For the student who aims in the first place at a 
 proper reproduction of the composer's intentions, 
 these indications should always be the rule, though 
 artistic temperament will in course of time acquire a 
 limited freedom, and become an essential factor in 
 the minute selection of the proper movement. 
 
 An important part in all that pertains to agogics 
 seems to be assigned to the metrical units. The fact 
 that a meter may be represented in different units of 
 half, quarter, eighth notes, etc., in the same degree 
 of motion, gives in itself an abundant variety. A 
 movement, for instance, in allabreve time (2-2), con- 
 stitutes a meter of two units, each of which repre- 
 sents the value of one half note; if the proper degree 
 of movement is adagio the metronome will probably 
 mark sixty units, that is, half notes, to a minute. A 
 movement in common time (C) constitutes a meter 
 of four units, each of which has the value of one 
 quarter note, and if the movement is the same as in 
 the allabreve time, i. e., adagio, there will Le sixty 
 quarter notes to a minute, while in three-eighths 
 time in adagio movement there will be sixty eighth 
 notes to a minute. It follows that, if the movement 
 is the same, the different units as half, quarter and 
 eighth notes represent different values; this fact 
 could not have any influence on the movement 
 proper, inasmuch as slow movements could be ren- 
 dered so much faster, and vice versa; or an allabreve 
 time could be written in 2-4 time by reducing the
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 59 
 
 notes in writing to half their value. However, as 
 large bodies move slower than small bodies, it seems 
 clear that the larger unit of allabreve time will insure 
 a more dignified and broader flow, and as an increase 
 in size, barely perceptible in a large unit, would swell 
 the smaller out of all proportion, it follows that 
 larger units will allow a greater breadth of expres- 
 sion, so that greater scope can be permitted 
 wherever modifications of the strict time are in order. 
 
 As in poetry there is a distinct difference in mod- 
 ern usage to that of the halcyon days of Greece and 
 Rome, inasmuch as the latter distinguished between 
 long and short feet, thus giving greater occasion for 
 pathetic display, while modern poetry gains in 
 rhythmical precision by the use of accented and 
 unaccented syllables, so in musical reproduction a 
 distinction must be made between rhythmic flow and 
 pathetic stress. Rhythm forms the realistic basis 
 which a pathetic rendition under certain circum- 
 stances idealizes, and, to some extent, modifies. 
 Pathos is a contagious warmth of feeling, especially 
 that which awakens tender emotions; and it implies 
 in musical performance, where emotion finds repro- 
 duction as the artistic realization of an abstract idea, 
 greater breadth and quiet in rhythmic motion itself. 
 To clearly define this pathetic stress is as impossible 
 as to analyze individuality; it is altogether an indi- 
 vidual attribute in musical expression, and varies 
 according to the artistic potentiality of the individ- 
 ual. 
 
 The rhythm ! I for instance represents in itself
 
 60 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 a fact, which as such can not be altered, yet in artis- 
 tic rendition this rhythm embodies a different mean- 
 ing according to the character of the composition 
 and requires a different reading under changed cir- 
 cumstances. A martial spirit, bold and aggressive, 
 will give the ^ in a full and determined manner, 
 while the fc will represent a short, elastic swing to 
 the I . This same rhythm in a nocturne or any 
 composition of pathetic character will give less full- 
 ness and decision to the I s and more breadth to the 
 fc to represent the languid longing, will do so as 
 much, in fact, as is compatible with the rendition of 
 the rhythmical figure. It does not naturally follow 
 that all short notes in slow movements require 
 greater breadth, but the pathos of the slow move- 
 ment can only be attained by greater quietness in 
 the rhythmical flow. This pathetic stress does not 
 at any time call for greater power of tone, is entirely 
 independent as a means of expression from metrical 
 or rhythmical accent, and may be employed wher- 
 ever greater breadth or intensity of feeling seeks 
 utterance. If this pathetic stress coincides with the 
 rhythmic or metrical accent, the emphasis will be so 
 much more powerful. 
 
 The pathetic stress does not affect the movement 
 nor change rhythmical motion; it is only a slight 
 sustaining of notes or rests, depending in musical 
 rendition on the individual nature of the performer. 
 When such pathetic stress is a distinct feature of 
 musical character in the intentions of the composer, 
 it is indicated in musical notation by a tenuto; if
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 61 
 
 part of a movement or the whole movement is to be 
 rendered with greater pathos, it is marked sostenuto. 
 
 The fermate seems to have been intended origi- 
 nally to mark the end of a composition, and when 
 it occurred in the course of the piece the word 
 " fine " was added to show that it was intended to 
 close the piece at the fermate after repetition; it 
 was also used in sacred music to designate the 
 verses in the chorale, and in secular music to point 
 out notes which the singer or player was expected 
 to ornament and embellish ad libitum. The fermate 
 arrests motion, either to effect greater emphasis or 
 to allow a more complete and exhaustive display of 
 feeling, and the length of the fermate depends 
 therefore on the power of thought or emotion dis- 
 played, and will vary accordingly from a long 
 tenuto to a full stop, which brings the feeling of 
 complete rest. 
 
 Gradual changes in the even flow of time are the 
 ritardando and accelerando. Ritardando implies a 
 slackening of speed by degrees, and accelerando a 
 gradual increase in motion. Ritardando and accel- 
 erando applied to short sentences in musical con- 
 struction require less artistic judgment, but when 
 they cover larger periods great care must be taken 
 that the change in motion appears more noticeable 
 only toward the end. Ritardando is, perhaps, more 
 frequently applicable and easily effected than accel- 
 erando. Ritardando and accelerando can be ap- 
 plied to any part or portion of phrases or periods; 
 they do not affect the rhythmical construction
 
 62 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 since the relative value of notes must be strictly 
 carried into effect; it is the general flow of rhyth- 
 mical matter, which is retarded or accelerated. 
 Accelerando and ritardando in agogics are analogous 
 to crescendo and diminuendo in dynamics, and are 
 often combined, crescendo with accelerando, and 
 ritardando with diminuendo, in accordance with a 
 natural sentiment; accelerando can, however, be 
 combined with diminuendo and crescendo with 
 ritardando, and acquire, in that case, greater signifi- 
 cance of expression. Accelerando and crescendo 
 succeeded by a ritard-diminuendo form an " ex- 
 pressivo " of a more erratic character. 
 
 Ritenuto requires a perceptible change to the 
 slower at once, as stretto demands a sudden increase 
 in speed; ritenuto and stretto are subject to musical 
 construction inasmuch as they can be applied only 
 to a whole phrase or sentence or a plurality of these; 
 neither of them require preparation by degrees, nor 
 do they in themselves include various degrees of 
 speed; still greater changes from the original mo- 
 tion are designated by piu ritenuto or piu stretto. 
 
 Ritardando and accelerando, as well as ritenuto 
 and stretto, as essential factors in the composer's 
 ideal conception of the character of his work, will 
 find place in notation, and can not be mistaken; their 
 rendition, however, is an individual matter and de- 
 pends largely on artistic discrimination and the tem- 
 perament of the performer. 
 
 A proper insight into metrical construction and 
 an instinctive appreciation of musical characteris-
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 tics, which can be developed to a degree by good 
 examples, are the prerequisites for artistic phrasing. 
 To clearly define musical sentences in every detail 
 in themselves, as well as in their relation to each 
 other and in regard to their position in metrical 
 construction, * constitutes the art of phrasing. 
 Every instance will call for a special treatment, and, 
 though the natural sentiments underlying melodious 
 form will to some extent determine a general out- 
 
 * The following from Beethoven's op. 14, No. II 
 
 
 would require a markedly different reading if the position of the sentence in 
 metrical construction were changed, as in the following examples: 
 
 
 =Hpiiiii= ES^^jEE^gggf;
 
 64 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 line, every case requires particular study. Phrasing 
 can be effected by dynamic means or agogic, or 
 both; and individual artistic taste will determine to 
 what extent tone shading, or modifications in the 
 even motion of time shall be employed in each in- 
 stance, yet there are some distinct features in musi- 
 cal characteristics, which an individual conception 
 must take into consideration. 
 
 In classic compositions, where a logical develop- 
 ment insures lucidity of thought and clearness of 
 form, where sentiment and expression are of a more 
 uniform character clearly defined in the relationship 
 of harmonic connections, phrasing should be a mat- 
 ter of tone shading to preserve the ideas in their 
 simplicity and beauty of form. The flow of musical 
 matter must be uninterrupted; delicate tone shading 
 will sufficiently mark the different phrases, and only 
 at the close of larger musical periods greater 
 breadth may be in place merely as a matter of log- 
 ical emphasis. That a certain human feeling in a 
 simple way can thus be imparted even to works of 
 the severest form, without affecting the architectonic 
 beauty, is undeniable, and the very nature of a con- 
 struction, which impresses mainly through its beauty 
 and compactness of form, makes it obligatory to 
 avoid arbitrary changes, however slight, in the even 
 tenor of motion. 
 
 When melodious form assumes a broader cast 
 and a more predominating influence in musical 
 construction; when systematic conclusions give way 
 to imagination, which in fanciful dreams creates
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 65 
 
 forms of a more fictitious character; when indefin- 
 able longing seeks expression for feeling which has 
 scarcely been realized intellectually; when logical 
 deduction and classic perfection of form give way to 
 the fantastic; when in harmonic connection affinity 
 is disregarded so that tonality is frequently lost 
 sight of; when more or less sudden changes in har- 
 mony appear less natural and comprehensible, the 
 general movement (though smooth and even) will 
 reflect largely these musical characteristics, and 
 phrasing and expression take on a more erratic char- 
 acter. Phrasing, the outward style, which the artist's 
 taste lavishes on the details of musical construction, 
 and expression, representing the inner value of 
 musical phrases, must be in intimate relationship to 
 the character of the work, and musical characteristic 
 superior to individual conception. 
 
 It is generally understood among pianists and 
 musicians that Bach must be played in strict time, 
 that there is no indecision in his musical strides, no 
 wavering in the connecting links of his works. 
 Haydn and Mozart are too little taken into consider- 
 tion in this fast musical life of ours; they are sadly 
 depreciated and often rated as antiquated and child- 
 ish, and if Beethoven is played in conformity with 
 the clearness of musical thought and form which, at 
 least in his two first periods, admits of little change 
 in the even tenor of motion, the performance is 
 characterized as a matter-of-fact rendition, and as 
 manifesting an intelligence which appreciates notes 
 but not their sentiment and poetry. In the eager- 
 
 5
 
 66 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 ness for new phases of emotion revealed in musical 
 expression, the critical musical world sometimes for- 
 gets that musical characteristics of different times 
 and different schools must be rendered in some con- 
 formity with their style and manner, and the rubato 
 style of playing will just as little serve Beethoven 
 as the severe style would give a true representa- 
 tion of Chopin. If Mozart, Haydn and the early 
 Beethoven show greater freedom of thought and 
 expression than the venerable cantor of Leipzig, 
 their musical construction offers such well-defined 
 outlines that little occasion can be found for expres- 
 sion by agogic means; ritardando and accelerando 
 or sudden changes in time, can very rarely be em- 
 ployed, and only in the most imperceptible degrees, 
 except when indicated in the composer's notation. 
 
 Beethoven in his later works shows a decided 
 contrast in the details of notation to those of earlier 
 date; the inner necessity for larger scope in expres- 
 sion can easily be traced in his careful notation in 
 opus 90 and the later works for the piano, and, 
 though the firmness and compactness of his sen- 
 tences are unimpaired and require a reading in close 
 conformity with the construction, the contrasts 
 effected by a juxtaposition of strongly differing 
 musical sentiments offer at times occasion for a 
 noticeable change in movement, and the connecting 
 phrases allow the greater freedom of a singer in time 
 and expression. 
 
 Schubert, not inferior to any of our great com- 
 posers, develops in course of time a rnythmical
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 67 
 
 construction strongly contrasting at times with the 
 meter, and a superabundance of negative melodious 
 accents, which can scarcely be traced in his earlier 
 piano compositions; the systematic and energetic 
 development of a greater variety in expression still 
 preserves the outlines of form, but gives occasion for 
 noticeable modifications in time. 
 
 Schumann's "motives show a marked simplicity, 
 a sturdy compactness, which calls for a healthy 
 rendition, free from sentimentality and artificial 
 affectation; their sentiment, full of vigor and cordial 
 warmth, is one of deliberate reason and judgment, 
 the outgrowth of a severe musical conscientiousness, 
 which the master's art and imagination clothe in 
 many fantastic garbs. While the poetic essence of 
 Schumann's motives, whether full of indefinable 
 longing or youthful vigor, give a definite outline for 
 reproduction, their exposition full of visionary 
 imagination and often of a rich fantastic turn must 
 govern the expression which will require large free- 
 dom in movement according to the more or less 
 erratic nature of the work. Schumann's visionary 
 spirit often disregards but scarcely loses sight alto- 
 gether of form as the underlying principle, and in a 
 number of compositions of the highest artistic and 
 musical merit he finally succeeds in assimilating 
 beauty of form and his romantic spirit. 
 
 Larger power of musical exposition in the com- 
 poser calls for greater freedom of expression in the 
 performer, and tone shading, as the fundamental 
 principle for phrasing and expression in the severe
 
 68 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 style, still remains a prominent feature in classic ex- 
 positions, while only the inner tendency and meaning 
 of later compositions have, by degrees and in a nat- 
 ural process, through greater expressive power in 
 details, necessitated such modifications in time as 
 musical exposition engendered, until it finally ap- 
 pears as a self-assertive and essential factor in Chopin, 
 known as the rubato. 
 
 To Chopin, form and rule become a fetter and a 
 burden his genius is wont to roam free and unre- 
 stricted, and only the lithe and pliable forms unfold 
 truly his wonderful power of expression. The rich 
 display of harmony seems almost always improvised; 
 the idea of tonality is often altogether vague and 
 undecided, and sharply accented rhythms in decided 
 contrast to the metrical construction give the melo- 
 dious strains a style of " recitative," which calls for an 
 expression as capricious as the mood of the writer. 
 The world in which he dreams; the pride and glory 
 of heroes; the love and grace of beautiful women; 
 brilliant deeds and festive scenes; sweet secrets and 
 dark lore, the hopes and despair of his nation, all 
 are brought near to us in kaleidoscopic array in his 
 mazurkas, valses, impromptus, nocturnes, polonaises, 
 etc. Chopin's original style of playing, the rubato, 
 is a capricious robbing of time by accelerando or 
 ritardando, more often by sudden changes in time, 
 subject to no particular rule but the whim of the 
 performer, yet only truly effective when fully con- 
 trolled by the consciousness of musical feeling and 
 highly matured artistic taste.
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 69 
 
 More or less characteristic features can be dis- 
 tinctly traced in each of our great piano composers; 
 definite outlines that give suggestive force of mean- 
 ing and feeling can be found in all compositions of 
 high merit, which an artistic reproduction must re- 
 flect in some measure even in outward style. It is 
 in this way only that a well-matured characteristic 
 reading can be given to our great masters each in 
 his separate way, and musical reproduction will be 
 of a higher order, the more the composer's ideas and 
 his mode of development in thought and expression 
 are absorbed by truly artistic individuality.
 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 ART in a general way presumes an activity which, 
 by more than ordinary skill and judgment, pro- 
 duces results that have a certain grade of perfection 
 and inner merit; any one showing science and taste 
 superior to a deft manipulation is an artist, and what 
 he accomplishes artistic. Every composition of 
 higher musical and artistic merit is a work of art ; 
 which is in itself the more perfect the more it is en- 
 dowed with a pervading and unifying principle, in 
 which all the parts are so intimately joined and 
 co-related as to find their ideal existence and artistic 
 qualification only in their well defined relations to 
 each other. Thought becomes clearly conscious of 
 itself in the composer, and produces the beautiful 
 with the distinct aim of embodying some definite 
 phase of truth clearly discernible from some other 
 ideal in its particular qualities. As the composer 
 has the power of apprehending this ideal character, 
 the inner consciousness of truth and beauty, and 
 realizes it in his work, so the performer must seek it 
 by virtue of intellectual comprehension. 
 
 Our great composers impress more even by the 
 truth of their convictions and the logic of their ideas 
 
 70
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 'Jl 
 
 than the perfect beauty of their work; none has 
 greater power of conceiving graceful forms, nowhere 
 may be found a more profound devotion to the 
 beautiful, but the grace and beauty are inherent only 
 to their artistic purpose in giving expression to an 
 ideal truth which their creative genius calls forth 
 from the fertile domains of boundless imagination. 
 Their work shows all the clearness of outline in con- 
 struction, the symmetry and eurhythmy which realize 
 the impression and an artistic perfection in detail 
 which includes the most intricate and difficult com- 
 binations, as well as the least perceptible grada- 
 tions. The works of the various masters show a 
 marked difference in the technic of composition and 
 the individual manner of the instrument, and it is 
 the sum total of all the qualities which represents the 
 character of a composition and makes it distinctly 
 different from another. 
 
 The intervals, rhythm, meter, the degree of mo- 
 tion and the volume of sound are the means which 
 materialize the composer's ideas, and their complex 
 aggregate is required to reproduce the work in the 
 fullness of artistic merit as the master saw it in the 
 unvarnished truth of artistic beauty and heard it in 
 his own artistic conception. A change in the rhythm, 
 any marked deviation from the degree of motion, or 
 a misplacement in the volume of sound which is not 
 justified in the composer's intentions, or the general 
 character of his style, changes the meaning of a 
 musical phrase entirely and mars the artistic beauty 
 of the work.
 
 72 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 Beethoven's sonatas and concertos retain their 
 undiminished power and beauty after a lapse of 
 many decades, while thousands of compositions 
 have disappeared, whose melodious and brilliant 
 make-up, beautiful modulations and striking rhythms 
 for a time were the supreme delight of enthusiastic 
 amateurs. If Beethoven's art seems to have grown 
 stronger in its perennial, youthful beauty, it is because 
 every phrase and detail, every light and shade is so 
 full of the consciousness of artistic qualification as 
 to withstand the decaying influence of time and 
 fashion, while in the host of forgotten works the 
 disparity between cause and effect, creative genius 
 and artistic shapeliness did not insure a lasting life. 
 
 Whatever is done by composer or performer has 
 an effect of one kind or another and is never indif- 
 ferent. As the composer in the full consciousness of 
 his ideal creates the work of art in sincerity of pur- 
 pose and honest devotion, so the performer, intent 
 on higher artistic merit in reproduction, must repro- 
 duce the composition in all its detailed qualifications, 
 and the ideal character whose original beauty has 
 inspired the master, and which he has traced in 
 unmistakable outlines, must be the object of the 
 pianist's aspiration. The hearty desire to do full 
 justice to the composer and his work is not sufficient 
 as it lacks the prudence and foresight which govern 
 and direct the romantic and imaginary essence in the 
 individual. 
 
 Expression, always of an individual type in the 
 performer, though it employs all the refinement
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 73 
 
 of pianistic art, frequently affects a sort of sameness 
 in playing which, in course of time, loses its charm 
 to a great extent, becomes dull and monotonous 
 even in excellent players, and gives at best an 
 impoverished satisfaction to the connoisseur. The 
 purely individual reflection of an artistic ideal shows 
 a greater artistic weakness the more it lacks the 
 inner force of living beauty which is embodied in 
 the truth and sincerity of the composer's art. The 
 student must gain that thoroughly practical musical 
 ability and artless devotion to the master's creative 
 authority which will fit the artist to overcome by a 
 characteristic reading the dullness and insipidity of 
 a purely individual and conventional style. 
 
 Playing is like speech something that anybody, 
 even a parrot, can acquire under normal conditions. 
 Language as well as playing is a matter of practice 
 and education; the most capable individual, if de- 
 prived of all the benefits which civilization has accu- 
 mulated for him, would just as little find language a 
 natural means of communication as the pianist who 
 did not benefit by the discoveries and improve- 
 ments of others would find execution a natural gift. 
 Language is one of the commodities of ordinary life 
 which rises to greater dignity only as it adapts itself 
 to higher purposes. The speech of the lower classes, 
 as well as of the educated and refined, gains in value 
 and power over the prattle of children and the small 
 talk of the day when it becomes the carrier of ideas 
 and sentiments. The well-matured effort of the 
 orator with all its rhetorical flourish relies for effect
 
 74 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 mainly on the well-planned arguments, but its power 
 and sway is proportionate to the truth and sincerity 
 of the convictions. 
 
 Piano playing is a feat of manual dexterity and 
 mechanical skill which rises to artistic importance as it 
 becomes a means of expression in musical reproduc- 
 tion. The elegant smoothness of intricate passages, 
 the dazzling brilliancy of trills and the grace of deli- 
 cate ornamentation, all the various qualifications of 
 the touch the scintillating staccato, the clinging 
 legato, the insinuating tenderness of the piano and 
 the commanding power of the forte; the even more 
 expressive restrictions of the movement the impet- 
 uous accelerando, the lingering ritardando, the 
 ritenuto and stretto and the fanciful rubato all are 
 at the player's bidding to serve his artistic purpose, 
 yet more artistic and effective as the performer sacri- 
 fices individual taste and liking to the higher 
 requirements of musical art as qualified in the char- 
 acter of the composition. 
 
 The pianist's education, as practical as it is in all 
 mechanical work, is thoroughly romantic, i. e., spec- 
 ulative and impractical in a musical way; though 
 painstaking and exacting in all the details of execu- 
 tion, the teacher allows a remarkably large freedom 
 to the pupil in musical matters. Even where the 
 mechanical element in the average pupil is not more 
 responsive to his efforts than the intellectual, the 
 teacher who finds in the brilliant though empty dis- 
 play of his pupil a readier assurance of success aims 
 at the production of an executant rather than the
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 75 
 
 development of an intellectual conception. True 
 interest in the art and its elevating mission and the 
 pupil's increased ability in musical appreciation and 
 enjoyment are sacrificed to a digital facility, which, 
 though of the highest value as an agent in musical 
 art, has in itself no intrinsic or artistic merit how- 
 ever prized it may be by the multitude. 
 
 While working with patient insistence for the 
 greatest possible accuracy in execution and finger- 
 ing, would it not be well to use the same gentle, 
 never-failing persuasion in regard to the more indef- 
 inite requirements of musical technic? To not 
 only have the pupil know that forte means loud, that 
 crescendo is piano growing to forte, explain what is 
 meant by ritardando or ritenuto, etc., etc., but wait 
 in the same hopeful spirit until the pupil does these 
 things with some assurance and efficiency, instinct- 
 ively, as the matters of execution when and wherever 
 they are required? It is much more difficult for the 
 student to acquire a practical ability in musical mat- 
 ters than in mechanical work, yet what assistance 
 does he generally receive in this respect? The sim- 
 ple knowledge of technical terms which every 
 music-primer affords will never insure that capabil- 
 ity which is to guide the pianist to the inner sanct- 
 uary of musical art. 
 
 Individual taste and liking of the student com- 
 mand an early and prominent consideration in mat- 
 ters musical, and as long as they do not counteract 
 the established principles i. e , smoothness and 
 clearness in execution and the much coveted rapid-
 
 76 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 ity of finger and wrist-movement the student is 
 considered on the best road to a fine style in piano- 
 playing. Thus, it is claimed, nothing is done that 
 could impede the pupil's individual development! 
 as though the natural development of individuality 
 could ever attain genuine artistic importance! 
 
 After years of training and hard labor, what is 
 the actual outcome? That scores of players with 
 more than average ability to build upon have all 
 been developed after the one unvaried pattern; that 
 the difference in their playing is clearly apparent 
 only in the peculiar adaptability and style of execu- 
 tion; that scarcely one is found who possesses a 
 markedly individual style, and that a rare bird 
 indeed is the pianist who is capable of giving at 
 least some abstract of the truth which the character 
 of the composition and the composer's general style 
 plainly indicate. It is easier nowadays to find a 
 pianist who excels in a Liszt rhapsodic than one 
 who can render a composition of Mozart or the 
 earlier Beethoven with the required unaffected sin- 
 cerity; and it is not the production of far removed 
 years which our generation finds difficult of attain- 
 ment art and its true children retain their youth, 
 at least in the spirit, in spite of the flight of time 
 even modern compositions of valuable musical char- 
 acter yet modest pianistic aspirations, as the less 
 difficult works of Schumann and others fail to get 
 more than a superficial artificial reading. 
 
 All the meaningless phrases which serve as road- 
 stones in the student's educational course, from the
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 77 
 
 barren waste of countless studies to the ostentatious 
 finery of Liszt's rhapsodies (worthy evidence, never- 
 theless, of the performer's prowess!) further the 
 natural development, and after years of toil and 
 labor the student commands a marked mechanical 
 proficiency, while even the rudimentary details in 
 musical technic are still in an embryonic state. 
 This deplorably unequal admixture of two impor- 
 tant factors, which should each in full-grown strength 
 support and sustain the other as fit helpmates in the 
 artistic purpose, causes sooner or later a self-assert- 
 iveness in musical characteristics which is more dis- 
 gusting than the grossest ignorance. 
 
 An artist whose facility in architectonic drawing 
 is of an acknowledged superiority could just as soon 
 claim equal consideration in portrait-painting with 
 one of the masters in that branch of art as the pian- 
 ist who is great in the use of his instrument, com- 
 manding all the finish and grace of an individual 
 style, can compare himself to the pianist whose 
 power lies in the truth of his reproduction, however 
 limited the latter's versatility. Straight and curved 
 lines, the well adjusted proportions and a reposeful 
 perspective in architectonic drawing may form a 
 highly artistic product in that genre the portrayer 
 requires the thorough artistic knowledge and com- 
 mand of color-effect and, above all, that higher 
 artistic quality, the trusty expression which, a result of 
 comparative analysis, is finally caught on the wings 
 of inspiration. 
 
 As in ordinary life progress can only be made by
 
 78 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 the individual, in any direction, on the strength of 
 observation, so in art the student advances on the 
 basis of former acquisitions. The pianist must take 
 pattern after other pianists in the cunning of his 
 craft his artistic ideal he can only find in the com- 
 poser's art, i. e., in the full measure of all the artistic 
 properties of standard compositions. To fully rec- 
 ognize the import of all the details which make up 
 the life-giving, characteristic qualities of a composi- 
 tion, the student must not only acquire a thorough 
 knowledge of the rudimentary elements of musical 
 technic (particularly those of more indeterminate 
 quantity, as the various gradations of tone and the 
 modifications of speed), he must command them 
 with good ability, learn to properly grade them in 
 their effect and apply them correctly in reproduc- 
 tion. A continued intercourse with the musical 
 qualities of works of standard merit will serve to 
 strengthen the student's artistic purpose, will in time 
 develop his individuality in an artistic manner, and 
 subsequently enable the pianist to give a more satis- 
 factory abstract of the composer's consummate art 
 should he even f lil to give a reading which is hon- 
 est and truthful to the last letter. 
 
 The composer's ideal in the full measure of well- 
 balanced artistic qualifications must be the final 
 purpose of the performer; and to make genuine prog- 
 ress toward an artistic realization of this object, 
 the student must learn from the outset to sacrifice 
 his own natural inclination to the master's thought, 
 his veracity must strive to become equal to the mas-
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 79 
 
 ter's truth, his honesty to the composer's sincerity 
 until, always closely observant of the characteristic 
 musical qualities of the work, he finds in true devo- 
 tion to the art and guileless self-abnegation the key 
 to the meaning which enhances the artistic value 
 and is ever a source of the purest enjoyment. 
 
 That it is possible to give truly characteristic read- 
 ings to the master-works of piano literature has been 
 sufficiently demonstrated by a number of pianists. 
 The names of such artists as Liszt, Mendelssohn, 
 Clara Schumann, Reinecke and Rubinstein, have a 
 better sound in the musical world, not because these 
 coryphees of reproductive art have greater tech- 
 nical facility or greater intensity of feeling, nor yet 
 a more pronounced individual style, but because 
 they have employed their superior individual gifts 
 in a thoroughly unselfish and unartificial manner in 
 the higher service of musical art, and the truthful 
 reproduction of the composer's ideal has given their 
 readings the plenary power of genuine artistic con- 
 victions. This spirit of resignation acknowledging 
 the higher claim of the composer's creative art in a 
 sort of ideal copyright does not exclude artistic in- 
 dividuality, or warmth of expression in reproduc- 
 tion; the intellectual and emotional qualities which, 
 subject to a more or less refined taste and judgment, 
 are usually employed with individual freedom, are 
 thus made subservient to the purer characteristic 
 essence of the work of art, regulated according to 
 more mature and refined artistic principles and ele- 
 vated to a higher and wider sphere.
 
 8o THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 That character in musical art and more es- 
 pecially in piano music, which in the larger number 
 and greater variety of its master-works can easily 
 claim superiority is a decidedly more valuable ar- 
 tistic faculty than the performances of pianists gen- 
 erally warrant and that an implicitly correct reading 
 in piano music will materially improve the more 
 refined artistic qualities in reproduction is undenia- 
 ble. An able conductor who, personally unham- 
 pered by the requirements of executive skill, 
 supervises and enforces the correct reading and 
 execution, is likely to give a decidedly more char- 
 acteristic reading to a symphony than the large 
 majority of pianists give to a sonata, though in 
 point of individual charm and conventional grace 
 the latter may gain over the large body of the or- 
 chestra. 
 
 The greater the pianist's ability, the stronger his 
 individual faculties, the more does he often seem to 
 seek completer power of expression in the changed 
 and even mutilated artistic properties of a compo- 
 sition. While in works of less marked musical 
 merit serving pre-eminently as expositions of pian- 
 istic skill a large margin may be conceded to the 
 performer, all unwarranted liberties fail utterly to 
 improve the inner value in works of a higher order, 
 appear as frivolous license in art, and lack the power 
 of convincing truth in their effect on the hearer. 
 The more artistic individuality finds the source and 
 measure of expression in the composer's art, the 
 more varied, rich and impressive will be the power
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 81 
 
 of inner life. Herein lies the secret of Rubinstein's 
 undisputed artistic superiority that, despite his pow- 
 erful individuality, the composer's art shapes the 
 manner or his reading; that, though he neither plays 
 Bach and Beethoven dry-as-dust, nor the visionary 
 Schumann like the erratic Chopin, the character of 
 the composition and the composer's style find gen- 
 erally an unselfish consideration. 
 
 Though the musical qualifications of a composi- 
 tion are clearly and unmistakably defined by the 
 author, the particular grade and shade will neces- 
 sarily vary in different players an increased speed 
 may even serve in an allegro or presto, and an 
 adagio may cause one player to linger more than 
 another; special restrictions for unvaried, typical 
 gradations in piano and forte, crescendo or dimin- 
 uendo, ritardando or accelerando could never be 
 thought of such tinge of individuality, which is 
 perfectly natural, will never affect the character of 
 the work as long as the artistic qualifications of the 
 composition remain unchanged in their relations to 
 each other. 
 
 The individual gifts of the pianist, his intellect- 
 ual ability, the life-current of his emotions, his 
 physical power and his skill will at all times deter- 
 mine the artistic potentiality, but an adequate resig- 
 nation in the higher authority of the composer's 
 creative art will more fully reflect the truth and 
 beauty of the composer's ideal and will clearly 
 demonstrate the weakness of thoughtless presump-
 
 82 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 tion which changes the characteristic traits of a 
 composition to suit individual taste and liking. 
 
 Is it right that Schumann's Des Abends molto 
 affettuoso, so full of romantic dreaminess and art- 
 less sentiment should serve to show some pianist's 
 speed and finish of execution, that another should 
 deliberately substitute a forte for a piano or turn an 
 appassionato con forza into a delicate pianissimo, 
 another (carelessly or intentionally) change the 
 rhythm, perhaps even mutilate the meter? What if 
 a pianist who plays the opening phrases of Liszt's 
 E Major Polonaise with full tone and commanding 
 rhythm, suddenly changes to a dull mezzoforte in 
 the grand climax at the end of the first part, though 
 the richer harmonious construction and high- 
 spirited rhythm call for increased power and greater 
 insistence; yet, even if he does not feel the need of 
 more unrelenting energy in action, Liszt marked 
 the passage rinforzando. Does it not appear as 
 though indefatigable practice of the difficult passage 
 had deprived the artist's conception of some valua- 
 ble spark of life? 
 
 Are the performers alone to blame for this if a 
 reading which changes and mutilates the well- 
 balanced and clearly defined artistic proportions of 
 a work is often hailed with enthusiasm by so-called 
 musicians as a new departure in art? Truly an 
 easy and welcome opportunity for some small 
 lights to make evident their fondness for " new 
 ideas " and to manifest their belief in the progress- 
 iveness of music as an art. Some venturesome
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 83 
 
 critics even assert that every performer has a right 
 to do as he pleases in the details of a composition 
 and that in this manner only, freed from slavish 
 dependence on the composer, musical genius can 
 manifest its artistic individuality! 
 
 The public, whether high-toned or low-bred, has 
 no artistic musical knowledge; the large class of 
 music-lovers and amateurs easily forms an opinion 
 of the player's executive powers and, if it approves 
 of the artist's good taste, delights in a gentle way in 
 the usual platitudes, while with limited exceptions 
 the host of musical critics, often recruited from 
 the ranks of amateurs, is equally unable to say 
 exactly in what proportion the reading stands to 
 the details of the composer's work and its character. 
 Such knowledge is, and always mast be, vested in 
 the practical musician who has made a detailed 
 study of the work in question, while amateurs and a 
 certain class of critics will base their opinion gen- 
 erally on a quality of taste which, though often 
 very refined, is purely individual. 
 
 A minority of musical connoisseurs, constantly 
 increasing for years past, has come to acknowledge 
 that in Beethoven the sum total only of all the 
 details (and Beethoven has been able to outline 
 some very striking peculiarities in his works) will 
 give a true representation of the sublime character; 
 the distinction of being a Beethoven-player is, there- 
 fore, conferred only on the strength of an adequate 
 reading of the master's works in all their character- 
 istic properties. The later masters, more especially
 
 84 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 Chopin and Schumann, have developed a concise- 
 ness in the details of musical notation, which is even 
 superior to Beethoven's, and has since become thor- 
 oughly scientific. In enforcing the strict observa- 
 tion of all the details the composers, late and early 
 ones, do not claim an artistic privilege but the ideal 
 birthright of their children in art. 
 
 If it can not be denied that light and shade in 
 musical art are the outgrowth of artistic formation, 
 that they are part and parcel of the meaning and 
 effect of a musical sentence, why should the pianist 
 who copies the composer's notes, rhythms, har- 
 mony and melody stop short of including the 
 dynamics and agogics of the composer's notation, in 
 short every detail as far as he is able, asserting his 
 own artistic individuality in the special mode and 
 manner only of a perfectly truthful rendition. True, 
 the pianist is not a copyist, but in his reading and 
 reproduction of a musical work he can not disregard 
 the laws of musical art nor rise superior to them on 
 a claim of pianistic excellence; and if the artistic 
 merit of a composition is due to the unifying inner 
 principle which gives all the details their higher 
 qualification, a marked change in these same details 
 to suit individual fancy will at all times deteriorate 
 the musical value of the performance. 
 
 Two of the most prominent pianists of the pres- 
 ent day may be quoted as striking examples: the 
 one perfected in the most ambitious display of an 
 individual style, the other resplendent in the ideal 
 representation of an artistic beauty as conceived by
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 85 
 
 the composer. From a pianistic standpoint the 
 great Chopin player is the superior in the lightning 
 speed, finish of execution and graceful elegance, 
 admirable and even incomparable wherever the 
 latent power of higher artistic formation is not 
 indispensable in reproduction, wherever ideal beauty 
 does not hold immutable relations to an ideal truth, 
 as in all the lighter forms of the dance and etude; 
 yet in all the glory of his artistic powers, how seldom 
 does he rise to the higher requirements of those 
 works where the effect of light and shade grows out 
 of the affluence of artistic shapeliness, where an 
 ideal truth enhances the value of ideal beauty! Is 
 it because he fails in power or delicacy, in grace or 
 warmth of expression? All these are his in full 
 measure what he lacks in physical strength he 
 fully makes up in the wonderful gradations of his 
 touch but, thoroughly capricious in everything, he 
 puts forth all the selfishness of his nature in vain- 
 glorious presumption, conferring, as it must appear 
 to the initiated, an honorable distinction on the 
 author Chopin by " ameliorating" his compositions! 
 Let us turn to the other in the rapidity of exe- 
 cution scarcely in the front rank of living pianists, 
 yet superior in the versatility of his craft fairly 
 enthralling his hearers in more than the average of 
 his readings through the power and truth of his con- 
 victions, equa-lly great in large and small efforts, 
 often manifesting a ready trustiness in reproduction 
 unheard of since Rubinstein, he is sometimes more, 
 sometimes less successful, but never fails when
 
 86 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 guided by the light of that truth which never fades 
 although forever varied in the author's vision of 
 ideal beauty. 
 
 The musical public is carried away by the wealth 
 of expression, by the ever increasing power of per- 
 suasion in his very touch, by the constantly changing 
 adaptability of his execution; the critical world 
 emphasizes his richly endowed temperament, his 
 admirable disposition, finds the source and strength 
 of his art in the singing quality of his touch, in the 
 unequaled versatility of his craft, in his Protean 
 artistic nature and in all the eulogies and encomiums 
 never fails to throw some new light on the astonish- 
 ing quality and merit of an art which seems in very 
 truth at times almost infinite. 
 
 An artist of his type is to be judged only by the 
 power of creative art which has led him to the 
 full measure of all his excellent artistic qualifica- 
 tions through his devotion to the composer's crea- 
 tive power. Whenever he strives faithfully to repro- 
 duce the composer's ideal out of the fullness of 
 original artistic conception, giving unreservedly the 
 sum total of all the properties which qualify the 
 higher artistic merit, he carries conviction with him 
 into the hearts of his listeners and, though the par- 
 ticular quality of effect is unmistakably individual, 
 the ideal character of the work in all its truth and 
 beauty gives his reading the honorable worthiness 
 and superior power. 
 
 Human nature will always cause more or less 
 serious shortcomings in the performances of the
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 87 
 
 best artists, so that an ideal perfection will never 
 be attained; but, if it is unavoidable to reckon with 
 many deficiencies in even the most artistic readings, 
 it is the more desirable that in artistic training 
 no concessions should be made to the natural drift 
 of the student's fancy; that, on the contrary, the 
 higher ideal character in music is called into requisi- 
 tion continually to strengthen and elevate the artistic 
 purpose. 
 
 There seems to be an opinion that the pianist of 
 to-day has to adapt himself to such numbers and 
 varieties of composers and compositions that it is 
 not surprising that as a class they fail to give char- 
 acteristic readings, and that for that same reason the 
 number of successful interpreters is very limited, that 
 few players succeed in giving adequate performances 
 to any one composer, and that hardly one is found 
 who can fully accommodate his artistic faculties 
 to more than one of the masters. Though it is true 
 that with every new decade the demands on the 
 pianist's musical qualifications are becoming of a 
 higher order, there is no doubt that the artist's pow- 
 ers increase in the same degree as he devotes him- 
 self unselfishly to find the author's true ideal in the 
 outlines of the work, giving an interpretation faith- 
 ful and loyal in the smallest details and, according 
 to his artistic potentiality, truly characteristic. 
 
 Character in art represents the unifying principle 
 which gives every detail of a work the full con- 
 sciousness of artistic qualification; character in 
 reproduction is an established fact always potent,
 
 88 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 always latent, while musical talent in the individual 
 may at one time be strong, at another weak; char- 
 acter possesses intellectual and emotional qualifica- 
 tions which are pure and true, while these qualities 
 in the individual may be tarnished by selfish motives. 
 Character is a power which in the end will vanquish 
 the best talent, for, while the bounds of talent are 
 the sometimes narrow limits of an artistic indi- 
 viduality, there is no end to the growth of character 
 as there is no end of learning in art.
 
 OUTLINE OF PIANO LITERATURE. 
 
 IN the development of piano music, the nature of the 
 instrument, the quality of its tone and its tech- 
 nical facilities have at all times had a predominating 
 influence, and, closely connected with gradual im- 
 provements in the mechanical construction and the 
 growth of technical resources, a style of composition 
 has, in course of time, been matured which is pecul- 
 iarly adapted to the piano. Though the tone of 
 the instrument is naturally short and metallic, and 
 its chief characteristic the diminuendo, so that even 
 with the use of the pedal the sound can be but 
 slightly and imperfectly sustained, the possibilities 
 offered for full harmonies, the rich ornamentation 
 in melody, the great variety and superior brilliancy 
 in passages and a wide range for contrasting effects 
 gave it early a firm hold in the estimation of mu- 
 sicians and amateurs. 
 
 The old clavichord of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries had originally twenty-two keys, to which, in 
 about 1500, chromatic tones were added. The in- 
 strument named clavecin, harpsichord, virginal, clav- 
 icymbal, etc., was subsequently enlarged to four 
 octaves forty-nine keys and near the eighteenth 
 
 89
 
 9O THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 century separate strings were introduced for each 
 key. Constant and far-reaching improvements con- 
 tinued to increase its practical usefulness so that, as 
 a means for musical reproduction independent of 
 assistance, it soon gained a decided preponderance 
 over all other instruments. 
 
 Few of the great masters of musical art, from the 
 earliest times to the present day, have failed to con- 
 tribute their share to make piano literature the most 
 extensive, most versatile and precious. Material 
 difference or marked improvement may not be 
 clearly apparent in some works of the same period, 
 yet something new will be found now and then, a 
 small germ which bides its day of exuberant growth 
 until the spirit of the times causes man's superior 
 effort to assert his powers; and genius assimilates 
 and perfects what has been prepared by years of 
 toil and labor. 
 
 Instrumental music shows at first a marked re- 
 semblance to vocal music; and piano literature in its 
 early development is virtually of the same type as 
 organ music, finding its highest exponents in J. S. 
 Bach and G. F. Haendel. Ph. Em. Bach leaves this 
 severe style and marks the beginning of a new era 
 in piano music by melodious forms and passages 
 which are more adapted to the piano. This mode 
 of writing, distinctly different from the serene and 
 unconventional style of organ music followed by 
 Haydn and Mozart, is matured by dementi and 
 Beethoven. The latter in his later works opens the 
 third epoch of piano music which finds its culminat-
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. QI 
 
 ing point in Schumann and Chopin, and this last 
 again stands on the threshold of the fourth and last 
 period, introducing a distinctly national element in 
 instrumental music. 
 
 Vocal music had attained considerable merit in 
 the service of the church as early as the fifteenth 
 century, and under the Italian masters it acquired a 
 style of exceptional grandeur and beauty. Instru- 
 mental music received, naturally, but slight atten- 
 tion; only the organ, closely connected with church 
 service, claimed some consideration as the accom- 
 panying instrument, and the first attempts in organ 
 music probably consisted in an exact reproduction 
 of vocal parts, ornamented according to the whim 
 and ability of the player. These ornaments devel- 
 oped into typical figures (trills, scale-like passages 
 and arpeggios), and were brought into some con- 
 nection with the melody and harmony, so that about 
 1600 A. D. organ compositions, as systematically 
 arranged works, took definite form. 
 
 Music as a factor in home life had probably sug- 
 gested the idea of rendering the melody in vocal 
 compositions viva voce, while the other parts were 
 given to an accompanying instrument; and when the 
 first efforts for a musical drama were made about 
 this time, monody, the great innovation in musical 
 composition, as the outgrowth and embodiment of 
 individual expression was received with no small 
 favor by the interested world. Greater independ- 
 ence and adaptability in the accompaniment were 
 the immediate consequences, and the introduction
 
 92 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 to the musical plays, the toccata, marks the begin- 
 ning of secular instrumental music. 
 
 Folk song and ballads, the first evidence of mu- 
 sical life, are the products of strong emotions and 
 natural artistic instincts; music as an art is based on 
 the songs and dances of the people, and musical art 
 gains in value and importance the more it leaves the 
 beaten path without losing connection with the 
 natural element. The dances and variations on pop- 
 ular melodies for the clavichord and virginal, though 
 less severe than the organ compositions, follow the 
 same style in the reproduction of several equally 
 important parts as in vocal music; and though by 
 imitation, by embellishments in melody, and figura- 
 tion in scales and arpeggios, elements are intro- 
 duced more typically instrumental, the strict adher- 
 ence to an equal deduction of the several parts can 
 easily be traced. 
 
 The early masters show little individual differ- 
 ence in their writings; their forms evince a certain 
 stiffness in the material, the evidence of hard men- 
 tal labor, which disappears only when technic, by 
 force of habit, acquires sufficient routine. As the 
 serene dignity which characterized church composi- 
 tions (and for which the organ was the proper in- 
 strument) was more and more abandoned in secular 
 music, the clavecin, and later on the pianoforte, 
 offered greater possibilities for a display in various 
 manners of touch, and obtained a versatility of ex- 
 pression to which the organ could never attain. ( 
 tain forms of expression were speedily developed
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 93 
 
 and held some influence for a time, to make room 
 again for others; and, within these changing idioms, 
 individual ideas and feelings found utterance and 
 created characteristic works of more or less artistic 
 merit. 
 
 William Byrde (1546-1623), John Bull (1563- 
 1628) and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) in England 
 are among the first noted composers for the clavi- 
 chord. Girolamo Frescobaldi ( 1 588-1654) and Mich- 
 ael Angelo Rossi (1600-1660) in Italy; Joh. Jacob 
 Frohberger (1635-1695) and Johann Kuhnau (1667- 
 1712) in Germany; Henry Dumont (1610-1684) and 
 Jacques Champion (1620-1670) in France, were in 
 high repute both as composers and performers. 
 Their compositions were published sometimes as 
 " opera de cantare ed sonare," more often, however, as 
 u per organo e cembalo;" and the composer's reputa- 
 tion was due mainly to his ability as an organist and his 
 efforts and success in choral works. England's mu- 
 sicians had long enjoyed a high proficiency in vocal 
 music. As the high literary and artistic standard 
 of Queen Elizabeth's time had great influence on the 
 social and private enjoyments of polite society, the 
 number of good performers on the virginal in those 
 days accounts partly for the greater efforts and ear- 
 lier success of the English composers. 
 
 The necessity of contrasting effects in instru- 
 mental music found early recognition among the com- 
 posers for the clavier. For greater variety in 
 movement, the smaller pieces in dance form were 
 joined together in the suite and partita, and though
 
 94 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 the succession of pieces was not always the same, a 
 distinct change in the character of the successive 
 numbers formed the basis for this arrangement. A 
 richer display in ornaments and passages continued 
 to give these compositions a style more and more 
 instrumental, but the inner character of the works 
 was still markedly akin to vocal music. The dances 
 appeared somewhat idealized, but had no connection 
 with each other and a number of movements in the 
 same key did not offer the marked characteristics of 
 a change in tonality; yet pieces of the simplest con- 
 struction offered at times beautiful melodious effects 
 combined with real sentiment. 
 
 The rondeau, a form of construction in poetry 
 which repeated a phrase of complex meaning at the 
 end of each separate division, was introduced into 
 vocal music in early times, and imitated in instru- 
 mental music in the latter part of the seventeenth 
 i66&- P i73s! century. Francois Couperin (1668-1733) gave this 
 form a more definite instrumental character. A 
 short theme of melodious form, generally eight 
 measures, which he designated as " rondeau," is fol- 
 lowed by one or more "couplets" of a livelier char- 
 acter, so that after each couplet the rondeau recurs; 
 the couplets are generally richer in harmony and 
 passages. Couperin is the first who develops in his 
 compositions a character somewhat adapted to the 
 clavecin, and even where, like his contemporaries, 
 he cultivates the dance, his harmonrcs are arranged 
 more suitably to the peculiar tone and range of the 
 instrument; his passages show a superior subtleness,
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 95 
 
 the embellishments of his melodies appear as the 
 outgrowth of feeling more than casual ornaments 
 and are employed, especially in the reprises, with 
 greater effect. The marked originality of his works, 
 as compared to others of his time, and his style of 
 playing, which appealed to his hearers by a soulful 
 expression and refined taste, insured him a high 
 reputation in his lifetime even outside of his own 
 country. 
 
 J. Ph. Rameau (1683-1764), in the originality of 
 invention and novelty of style, proves himself the 
 peer of Couperin, while greater rhythmic variety and 
 a richer display in harmony and modulation gave 
 him at times moments of greater energy. 
 
 Johann Kuhnan is said to be the first composer 
 of a sonata for the clavichord. His compositions 
 are remarkable for their romantic spirit, and as ideal 
 tone pictures are important in the development of 
 musical expression. The sonata, as a work in differ- 
 ent parts, accomplished variety much in the manner 
 of the suite by an interchange of slow and lively 
 movements; the succession of these, however, was 
 arbitrary as in the suite. Sonatas were written in 
 one, two or three movements, and often served fora 
 greater display of technical facility. Little distinc- 
 tion was at times made between suite, partita or 
 sonata, and either of them was often specified as a 
 "sonata di camera" yet the suite was supposed to con- 
 tain a series of dances (while the partita admitted 
 pieces of a better character), and the sonata to hold
 
 96 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 movements only of more universal tendency and 
 expression. 
 
 The contrasts effected in the different parts of 
 one movement in the rondeau gave little organic 
 connection save in the regular repetition of the round 
 after each couplet. The motette, a style of vocal 
 composition in two or three parts, had as early as 
 the fifteenth century offered a contrast by present- 
 ing its several parts in a peculiar manner; sometimes 
 with the same cantus firmus for all the parts, while 
 the counterpoint changed character in each division 
 and so accomplished a better connection, giving at 
 the same time opportunity for individual expression. 
 Scarlatti Domenico Scarlatti (1683-1757) began in his sonata 
 1683-1757. movements to contrast the different parts after the 
 manner of the motette, not only in outward appear- 
 ance, but in their inner nature. The first part of the 
 movement presented in an animated flow a. dialectic 
 exposition of the theme in the keynote or tonica, 
 which was followed by a more expressive theme of 
 cantabile character in the dominant; the themes or 
 their motives were then worked together, and the 
 whole movement closed with a more or less free 
 repetition of the first part. Thus the movement 
 gained not only greater consistency in the co-relation 
 and cohesion of the parts, but also greater variety of 
 expression. Scarlatti's compositions, even more 
 than Couperin's or Rameau's, show a marked prog- 
 ress; the instrumental style gains more distinction; 
 polyphonic treatment begins to make room for a 
 development in two parts; the treble gains in
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 97 
 
 importance over the bass, and the technical display 
 is, in some peculiarities, of lasting merit so that even 
 at the present day the difficulties introduced in 
 Scarlatti's works, seemingly in playful humor, are 
 considered important in the pianist's education. 
 
 The fame of writers for the clavier contemporary 
 with Couperin, Rameau and Scarlatti such as John 
 Blow (1648-1708) and Henry Purcell (1658-1695) in 
 England; Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710), Francesco 
 Geminiani (1680-1762), Francesco Durante (1684- 
 1755), Nicolo Porpora (1685-1767) and Domenico 
 Zipoli (1685-17 ) in Italy; Giovanni Battista Lully 
 (1633-1687) and Jean Baptiste Loeillet (1660-1728) 
 in France, and Johann Caspar von Kerl (1625-1690), 
 Gottlieb Muffat (1650-1700), Johann Matheson (1681- 
 1722) and Christoph Wagenseil (1688-1779) in Ger- 
 many rests mainly on their efforts in other direc- 
 tions. Their compositions for the clavecin evince 
 more or less pronounced individuality of expression, 
 and offer an interesting study of the musical spirit 
 of the times, while, written in the established forms, 
 they present no particular feature of importance in 
 the progress of piano music. 
 
 As the greatest representative of this first period 
 of piano music appears Johann Sebastian Bach 
 (1685-1750). Born in Eisenach as the descendant 
 of a family of musicians of great ability and fame, 
 he was at an early age left to support himself. A 
 beautiful voice, remarkable proficiency as performer 
 on the organ and clavichord and general musical 
 adaptability served him in good stead. The artistic
 
 98 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 inclinations of the ten generations that seemed cen- 
 tered in his person were developed during a quiet 
 student life, great power of observation and never- 
 tiring energy serving him as teachers. Violinist in 
 Weimar, he becomes, after a few months, organist in 
 Arnstadt; four years later he is in the same capacity 
 in Miilhausen, and, 1708, court organist in Weimar. 
 Here he remained for nine years, and it was in these 
 years that his organ playing made him famous over 
 all his contemporaries; he became concert master in 
 1714, and conducted for a time the church and cham- 
 ber concerts. Removed to Coethen, 1717, as court 
 conductor he made himself intimately acquainted 
 with the instrumental compositions of the different 
 schools, and is said to have here written the first 
 part of his Well Tempered Clavecin. Seventeen 
 hundred and twenty-three, elected cantor of the 
 Thomas school in Leipzig as the successor of Jo- 
 hann Kuhnau, he soon became the center of musical 
 life, and gained an all-powerful influence in the 
 musical affairs of Leipzig, which he retained until 
 his death, 1750. 
 
 Bach was a man of deep religious sentiment and 
 quiet dignity of manner, his nature full of life and 
 passion; his character had a certain sternness, the 
 evidence of a fixed purpose and firm determination, 
 and his works show a powerful emotion, which is 
 held in check only by the severity of form. An 
 extraordinary combination of superior intellectual 
 powers and depth of feeling, with a strongly pro- 
 nounced and powerful individuality, enabled him to
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 99 
 
 absorb the most various forms and idioms of other 
 composers and remodel them in his own original 
 manner. The clearness of his intellect is plainly 
 manifest in the correctness and purity of his style, 
 and the energetic constancy which enables him to 
 attain the end he has in view. A long line of 
 successful pupils prove that he not only possessed 
 the patience and endurance necessary in a help- 
 ful instructor, but the unselfish resignation which 
 makes use of superior knowledge in the service 
 of the untutored and weaker intellect; many of his 
 best piano compositions seem to have been written 
 for the express purpose of assisting his pupils, 
 though this intention is only clearly discernible In 
 his little preludes and inventions. 
 
 Strange and solitary appears Bach alongside of 
 the musicians and composers of his time, but com- 
 pared with the writers of the preceding period, his 
 art seems the natural development of the earlier 
 efforts. His superiority over his predecessors is to 
 be found mainly in the universality of his genius, in 
 virtue of which he appears to combine in himself a 
 higher musical potentiality of his time. A composer 
 of the highest merit; unsurpassed as organist and 
 pianist; a violinist of superior technical knowledge; 
 a loving and helpful teacher to those who under- 
 stood and appreciated him; inventor of new instru- 
 ments, he was the first to temper the tuning of the 
 clavecin so that it could be played in any key, and 
 he introduced a finger technic which is the founda- 
 tion of piano playing of all later times, and with
 
 IOO THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 slight modifications the law even for the present 
 day. 
 
 Bach's name is connected inseparably with the 
 fugue, and, though fugue-writing is by no means his 
 highest and foremost merit, it is undeniable that in 
 the instrumental fugue he has reached the culminat- 
 ing point. Fugue as well as canon is based on imi- 
 tation, and, while the imitation in the canon is purely 
 melodic, that of the fugue is governed by harmonic 
 laws. Fugues have been written before Bach (in 
 fact it may be said of the organists of northern 
 Germany about the beginning of the i8th century 
 that to write a piece of music was to write a fugue, 
 and in point of technical ability and thorough knowl- 
 edge of the nature of instrumental music some of 
 these organ fugues have hardly been surpassed even 
 by Bach); but inasmuch as his harmonic construc- 
 tion is based upon the strict exposition of a definite 
 number of voices, each of which has the greatest 
 freedom of motion, he has perfected the form and 
 matured the instrumental character. 
 
 In the preludes and fugues of the Well Tempered 
 Clavecin (in two parts, each of 24 preludes and 
 fugues, in all the major and minor keys) Bach con- 
 trasts a free style with the severe form and, though 
 the preludes seem to bring mostly light motives in 
 playful or thoughtful mood, a well defined ide'a gov- 
 erns the easy flow. The possibility of playing on the 
 clavecin in all the keys is mainly due to Bach's gen- 
 ius, and this work the Well Tempered Clavecin- 
 seems to have been written for instructive purposes,
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. 101 
 
 though its contents are musically of the highest 
 value and some of the preludes and fugues belong to 
 the most exquisite products of musical art. Bach's 
 fame as a fugue-writer rests more on this work than 
 on his larger and more important preludes and 
 fugues for the organ, a large number of which have 
 been transcribed for the piano. 
 
 The inventions, pieces of the smallest form, are 
 in their way the most curious exposition of the 
 great man's art. Composed, no doubt, with the 
 same intention which caused so many authors of 
 later days to write piano studies (of little or no 
 artistic and musical merit), they are new and orig- 
 inal and without parallel even in Bach's w r orks, con- 
 structed on thoroughly artistic principles, concise 
 and clear as crystal, and born in the spirit of a warm- 
 hearted musician. The three-part inventions are of 
 higher artistic merit, and range in difficulty with 
 some of the fugues of the Well Tempered Clavecin. 
 
 Bach composed six French suites (so called on 
 account of their smaller form, which was like that of 
 the suites of French composers), and six English 
 suites of much more imposing form, and six partitas. 
 After the manner of the times, many of the pieces 
 in these works were written in imitatory and even 
 fugato style, but the clavier character appears well 
 pronounced; pieces of droll humor or deep senti- 
 ment, full of innocent pleasure or tender abandon, 
 playful mcod or ecstatic joy, give an ever varied 
 change of expression. The sonatas present but little 
 difference from the suites, except inasmuch as the
 
 102 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 movements are of a more severe character, often 
 written in fugato style; a trace of the later art form 
 of the sonata as in Scarlatti does not appear, but 
 Bach's sonatas are certainly the highest type of 
 the old form and the six sonatas for piano and violin 
 are undoubtedly of great value. In the concertos 
 Bach avails himself fully of the opportunity of con- 
 trasting tutti and solo and shows a remarkable im- 
 provement in the clavier style and an occasional 
 beauty of sound; written for an immediate effect 
 their musical value is not as lasting as that of his 
 other works, save in the concertos for two or three 
 claviers. 
 
 The Italian concerto has a most beautiful adagio, 
 a melody full of infinite tenderness and pathos, 
 floating and soaring over the simple accompaniment; 
 the chromatique fantasie and fugue contrasts un- 
 limited artistic freedom in form and expression with 
 the severest restrictions; the thirty variations bring 
 in the forms of canons a series of tone combinations 
 founded on the same bass, which in variety, in grace- 
 ful design as well as in the exuberance of spirit and 
 depth of sentiment are unsurpassed, and his Musical 
 Offering and the Art of the Fugue, as specimens of 
 his mastery of form and learning, are truly monu- 
 mental. 
 
 As there is no known art form of his time which 
 Bach has not made fully his own and given to art 
 filled with the fire of his genius, it must be conceded 
 that Bach is a universal composer, original in every 
 branch of composition; and, if the objective measure
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 103 
 
 for artistic greatness is commensurate to the power 
 of artistic formation, Bach is the greatest of com- 
 posers. 
 
 Bach's companion figure in music is George 
 Frederic Haendel (1685-1757). Born in Halle of a 
 family of trades-people, his strongly pronounced 
 musical talent grew in spite of opposition and ad- 
 verse circumstances. Organist in Halle in 1702, he 
 removed 1703 to Hamburg, where in time he enjoyed 
 the friendship of Teleman and Matheson, and be- 
 came closely connected with German opera. A 
 famous organist and cembalist, he met Dom. Scar- 
 latti on his visit to Italy (1707-1710), and returning 
 to Germany became court conductor at Hanover; 
 settled in England 1712, where he remained until his 
 death, 1757. 
 
 Haendel was a man of the world, full of his own 
 artistic importance and respectability, passionate 
 and impulsive, tenacious of purpose and of liberal 
 views. As a man of the world he knew how to deal 
 with the public and to take public taste into consid- 
 eration, and his oratorios, written for the people, 
 show in melodious form often a remarkable affinity 
 to the tender pathos or rousing spirit of popular 
 songs; they never fail in their immediate effect on 
 the hearer, through the poetic expression or dramatic 
 character. In his choral works, which establish his 
 position in the front rank of composers, he is, in 
 polyphonic treatment, equal to Bach, save where he 
 sacrifices the severe form to dramatic effect. 
 
 Haendel's compositions for organ and clavier,
 
 
 
 104 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 though of limited extent arid importance as com- 
 pared with his operas and oratorios, form a very 
 valuable addition to musical literature. His compo- 
 sitions for the clavecin comprise a series of suites, 
 six fugues, and a number of smaller works, together 
 with ensemble music. The suites, equal to Bach's 
 best works in this line, differ from those of .the latter 
 in that a large portion of the movements bring ex- 
 positions of original musical ideas rather than the 
 idealized dance, and that even the fugue is not de- 
 barred; this gives Haendel's suites greater variety 
 of form and a more universal tendency. The smaller 
 compositions include a number of lessons, capriccios, 
 fantasies, chaconnes and variations, written appar- 
 ently in his capacity as teacher; they are valuable as 
 studies in Haendel's style and technic. 
 
 Haendel's powerful artistic individuality had an 
 astonishing effect on musical matters in his day, and 
 it may be safely said that Haendel, to a great degree, 
 governed England's subsequent musical develop- 
 ment. His influence on music and its progress as an 
 art, however, is by no means equal to Bach's, and in 
 piano literature he belongs to the great tone masters 
 in virtue of great clearness of form and power of 
 thought, rather than depth and expression. 
 
 Many composers continue to interest themselves 
 in piano and chamber music, and more or less suc- 
 cessful attempts are made to find a proper style of 
 writing suitable to the clavier. There are the sons 
 of J. S. Bach: Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784), 
 Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788), Johann Chr. Friedrich
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 10$ 
 
 (1732-1795), and Job. Christian (1735-1782); and his 
 pupils, Joh. Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780), Fried. Wilh. 
 Marpurg (1718-1795), Christoph Nichelman (1717- 
 1762), and Joh. Ph. Kirnberger (1721-1783); there is, 
 in England, Thos. Aug. Arne (1710-1778); in Italy, 
 Giov. Bat. Martini (1706-1784), Pietro Locatelli 
 (1693-1764), Dom. Paradisi (1712-1795), Bald. Ga- 
 luppi (1703-1785); in France, Schobert (1720-1768); 
 and in Germany, John Ernst Eberlin (1710-1776), 
 Joh. A. Rolle (1718-1785), Leopold Mozart (1719- 
 1787) and Georg Benda (1721-1795). Their compo- 
 sitions have considerable individual merit, showing 
 grace and beauty in form and expression; and, the 
 more the writers appreciate the technic of the 
 clavier, the nearer they come to the peculiar style. 
 More and more the polyphonic style of writing dis- 
 appears, except in the severe form, but a develop- 
 ment in two parts seems to succeed. 
 
 Leopold Mozart is more fortunate in the man- 
 agement of the facilities of the clavier, but Ph. Em. 
 Bach seems to have finally established the fact that 
 piano music does not find its true essence in the de- 
 velopment of different voices, that treble and bass 
 are a peculiarity of the wide range of the clavier, 
 and that the true nature of piano music lies in the 
 greater or lesser fullness and splendor of treatment 
 unlimited by a definite number of parts. 
 
 Ph. Em. Bach's compositions for the clavecin, a 
 large number of concertos, sonatas and other works 
 among them so called characteristic pieces with 
 high sounding titles are pleasing and effective.
 
 io6 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 The peculiar clavecin style, which does not depend 
 on a definite number of parts but has recourse to all 
 manner of treatment at will, shows itsell best in his 
 sonata movements; these movements themselves arc 
 less interesting since they lack a contrasting second 
 theme. His adagios, however, are full of a certain 
 refinement in taste and expression. With Ph. Em. 
 Bach, the sonata begins to take a leading part in 
 the forms of composition for the clavier; the sub- 
 ordination of all the parts to one melodious princi- 
 pal voice becomes more apparent; the modulations 
 into other keys are freer and more daring; enhar- 
 monic relations begin to play an important part, 
 and sudden and marked transitions in dynamics, 
 from forte to piano, often give a facetiousness to his 
 expositions which are in marked contrast to the 
 solid and serene humor of his father. 
 
 The principles of pianoforte style introduced in 
 the sonatas of Ph. Em. Bach mark the beginning of 
 a new era in piano literature. The innovations, dar- 
 ing and reckless as they must have appeared to the 
 scions of the old school, and striking as they are in 
 comparison to the severe style of organ composi- 
 tions of the time, are beginning to show now and 
 then in the works of contemporary writers for the 
 clavier, who have worked energetically, though not 
 with equal success, in the same direction. The great 
 composers of the second period, Haydn, Mozart and 
 Beethoven, are fully occupied with the further de- 
 velopment of this typical style, while the efforts to 
 formulate the ideas first applied to the sonata move-
 
 THE PIANIST S ART. ID/ 
 
 ment by Scarlatti bring about finally the perfected 
 great art form, the sonata. 
 
 Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) received a thorough 
 practical education in music as one of the choristers 
 of St. Stephens at Vienna. Engaged as accompanist 
 to one of Porpora's pupils in 1751, he became at- 
 tached to the distinguished singing master and com- 
 poser as " famulus " and remained with him until 
 1754, and, having great facility in acquisition, picked 
 up much of the master's method of composition. 
 His first symphony was produced in 1760, and as 
 orchestra conductor to Prince Esterhazy (1761-1790) 
 he composed a long line of similar works for orches- 
 tra and ensemble. Two visits to England brought 
 him many honors and pecuniary benefit. 
 
 Haydn, who seems to have been but an indiffer- 
 ent piano player, began to compose at a time when 
 the clavecin was still a very imperfect instrument, 
 and when Ph. Em. Bach was beginning to become 
 famous, while toward the end of his long career as 
 a composer the piano had arrived at a comparatively 
 high grade of perfection, and piano technic and 
 piano music had developed in an astonishing man- 
 ner. It is a matter of small surprise, therefore, that 
 some of his sonatas show a sort of primitive style, 
 while others are of considerable value and impor- 
 tance; and, since there is no successive opus number, 
 it may be taken for granted that the better works 
 are of later date. 
 
 Haydn, who is honored with the distinction of 
 being the "father of modern instrumental music,"
 
 io8 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 has, during a long lifetime chiefly devoted to or- 
 chestra and ensemble works, composed some thirty 
 sonatas for the piano alone. These sonatas show a 
 marked improvement over those of Ph. Em. Bach, 
 inasmuch as Haydn gives each movement a rounder 
 form ; the motives are carried out with greater con- 
 sequence, the different parts of the movements are 
 clearer defined, the second theme which is wanting 
 in the sonatas of Ph. Em. Bach and in Haydn's very 
 probably due to his early relation to Porpora and 
 his consequent intimate acquaintance with the Ital- 
 ian method of composition is well developed, 
 claims considerable attention and gives the move- 
 ment some dramatic force and musical importance. 
 On the other hand, the number of movements and 
 their co-relation and import are still arbitrary; some 
 sonatas have two, others three movements, as though 
 without pressing reasons one or the other move- 
 ment had been left out. The different movements 
 are not always of the same artistic and musical merit, 
 and few are the sonatas in which the movements 
 appear somewhat evenly graded according to their 
 inner value and to their effect. 
 
 The melodies are more euphonious and accom- 
 panied at random; two, three, or more parts, some- 
 times in strictly independent development, change 
 from measure to measure; a given number of voices 
 is nowhere carried out, full harmonies in close posi- 
 tion or wide range change with rhythmic or har- 
 monic figuration, and as the musical essence adapts 
 itself more to the peculiar character of the instru-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. IQg 
 
 ment it gains in expressive power. Though Haydn's 
 ideas are neither of great weight musically nor in 
 expressive quality of great depth and variety, their 
 character, unaffected and of a childlike simplicity, is 
 of a youthful, vigorous spirit which is enhanced by 
 a graceful musical exposition and a genial contrast 
 in the themes. 
 
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), born in w. A. Mozart 
 Salzburg, the son of one of the ablest musicians of 
 his time, gave early proof of the most extraordinary 
 gifts, which were developed with loving care. The 
 little genius became known to the musical world in 
 an extended concert tour (1762-1766) and created 
 the greatest enthusiasm everywhere. A prolific com- 
 poser, he published his first sonatas in Paris, 1765, 
 and at the age of twenty had written over two hun- 
 dred compositions, including operas, masses, sym- 
 phonies, quartettes, sonatas and concertos. 
 
 Mozart, undoubtedly one of the most gifted of 
 our great composers, was of a genial tenderness and 
 nobility of feeling which not only prevailed in his 
 character, but is the dominating essence of his works. 
 Admired and all but spoiled by enthusiastic lovers 
 of art when a precocious child, his matured genius 
 failed to receive the ready recognition, and in the 
 bitter fight for existence this loving disposition and 
 loftiness of character appear to have been the safe- 
 guard of his artistic self. A never failing beauty of 
 sound which seems to penetrate all his harmonious 
 combinations, a refinement in musical characteris-
 
 I IO THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 tics and a superior power of formation lend a charm 
 to his works which is ever fresh and entrancing. 
 
 Among his operas, symphonies and quartettes 
 are master works of musical art, works of perennial 
 beauty. Piano literature claims a large number of 
 sonatas, concertos, variations, ensemble and smaller 
 works of indisputable merit. One of the greatest 
 pianists of his time, he was much more qualified to 
 promote the new clavier style than his contempo- 
 rary and friend, Haydn. The grace and elegant ease 
 of his playing is manifest in the brilliant figures in 
 his concertos, which show a rich and varied develop- 
 ment of technic. A refined musical idea prevails in 
 all his works, and as the noble, heart-winning melo- 
 dies gain in importance, the passages become more 
 subordinate, so as to better carry the ideas and to 
 impart their spirit to them. As the piano gains in 
 volume of tone, the melody gains in breadth, the em- 
 bellishments are scarcer and less given to manner- 
 ism; greater clearness and distinction in melody 
 and passages make the construction more interest- 
 ing, and as the different parts assume more definite 
 relation to each other, their meaning is better de- 
 fined. 
 
 The sonatas are not always of the same perfect type 
 Some of them may have been written for pupils, and 
 the sonatas of later date are certainly maturer than 
 the earlier ones. The number (three) of movements 
 is uniform in the sonatas and concertos. In the con- 
 struction nathing is indistinct or doubtful; each part 
 has its fixed place and is properly carried out, though
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. Ill 
 
 capable of greater development. The first move- 
 ment is more elaborate; the second in form of the 
 " lied," and the last mostly the rondo. As the can- 
 tilene in the middle movement begins to spread 
 itself more, the two other movements assume a 
 more decidedly lively character. In the concertos a 
 general musical idea establishes organic connection 
 between the piano and orchestra, the technical dis- 
 play, more varied and brilliant, seems to carry out 
 the musical spirit without predominating. 
 
 ' A number of smaller compositions, the gigue, the 
 rondos in A minor and F major, and the fantasies in 
 C minor and C major (with fugue) are of great 
 artistic beauty, and in poetical sentiment, originality 
 of invention and beauty of form, true children of 
 Mozart's genius; as they have retained a certain 
 freshness, even in outward style, they may be found 
 occasionally on the artist's repertoire. The sonatas 
 and concertos, though full of beauty, have been 
 superseded by more elaborate works of the same 
 order, but offer a variety of matter to the student 
 which is of the very highest value. 
 
 Mozart's great rival at the piano, Muzio dementi M. Clements 
 (1752-1832), the greatest piano virtuoso of his time, 1752 ~ 
 superior in execution and finish, but lacking much of 
 Mozart's genial nobility and grace of expression, is 
 as a composer of sonatas much more prolific than 
 the latter. In his hundred sonatas there is no mate- 
 rial change in the form, but the improvement in the 
 clavier style is very marked, and dementi's influence 
 on the further development of piano music is much
 
 112 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 greater even than Mozart's. A thoroughly systema- 
 tized fingering and wider position of the hand en- 
 abled dementi to play chords and passages which 
 had not been attempted before; greater independ- 
 ence in finger and wrist movement made it easy for 
 him to play thirds, sixths and octaves with great 
 smoothness and rapidity. His sonatas have beauty 
 of form and elegance of style and are pleasing and 
 effective, yet they often make the impression of 
 elegant studies, since he uses them for the display 
 of his new and brilliant passages. His allegro move- 
 ments at least are based on some prominent piano 
 figure, and even the melodious parts serve more as 
 an offset to the passages than as expositions of a 
 musical idea. This gives Clementi's sonatas some- 
 thing dry and pedantic; and even in his adagios, 
 which are at times of remarkable breadth and artistic 
 conception, he never rises to the power of truly 
 poetic expression. 
 
 Of infinitely greater value than the sonatas is his 
 " Gradus ad Parnassum," a collection of etudes which 
 has no equal in piano literature, and almost rivals in 
 importance Bach's " Well Tempered Clavecin." 
 The experience of a long and very successful career 
 as a virtuoso and teacher enabled him to give to the 
 pianistic world a work which has outlived all the 
 periods of improved piano technic, and is even to-day 
 altogether indispensable to the student. 
 
 Mozart's beauty of form and refinement in musical 
 characteristics, and Clementi's achievements in the 
 technical development of the clavier style were the
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 113 
 
 legacies left to the master spirit whose position in 
 musical art and pid.no literature is the most exalted 
 and indisputable. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770- 
 1827) not only materially increased the rich variety 
 of dementi's style, he enlarged and perfected the 
 sonata and gave instrumental music the dramatic 
 force, the pathetic and passionate inner power of 
 expression which make it truly the language of 
 emotion. 
 
 Born in Bonn, December, 1770, where his grand- 
 father was court conductor (176 1-1773) and his father 
 a tenor singer and violinist, he inherited strong 
 musical inclinations, and at an early age developed 
 an easy musical appreciation and technical facility. 
 A steady, systematic education seems not to have 
 been allotted to him, yet under the tuition of several 
 more or less worthy instructors he acquired good 
 facility in piano and violin playing and composition, 
 so that he was appointed assistant court organist in 
 1783. A visit to Vienna in 1787, which brought him 
 in contact with Mozart, was of short duration, but in 
 1792 he made his home there to study with Haydn, 
 and later with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. In 
 1795 he published three piano trios which seem to 
 have been projected already in Bonn and three 
 sonatas, Op. I and 2. These works made him at 
 once the foremost of living composers in these 
 genres, and his superiority <^er similar works of 
 Haydn and Mozart was plainly manifest in the 
 greater pregnancy of his ideas, greater freedom and 
 refinement in artistic formation and an original style 
 
 8
 
 I 14 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 in the treatment of the instrument. Each successive 
 year brought new and more important works, which 
 received marked notice glowing praise and highest 
 admiration on the one hand, severe criticism and 
 direct opposition on the other. Beginning about 
 1798, his hearing became affected, and in spite of 
 every effort the evil continued to grow, so that in 
 course of time he was reduced to total deafness, 
 about 1815. Excluded from the world of sound, he 
 continued to produce works of increasing grandeur 
 and beauty until his death, March, 1827. 
 
 There is no composer whose works, from first to 
 last, show such marked and steady advance, each 
 far surpassing all similar works of other composers, 
 and only outclassed by his own later efforts in the 
 same direction. With each new work he seems to 
 gain new power, and more and more surprisingly 
 his artistic individuality continues to unfold itself. 
 In his earlier compositions he manifests a perfect 
 harmony in form and material, so that melodious 
 beauty and the meaning and expression are con- 
 gruent. He shows a well pronounced individual- 
 ity, great depth of feeling and a complete mastery 
 of all that is required to bring it out properly; yet 
 with all these strong and original points he finds his 
 example in Mozart, as is clearly seen in his manner 
 and construction. Particularly striking and far in 
 advance of Mozart, so as to seem even in this period 
 of homage to the latter's genius, totally new and 
 original in every way, are the beautiful, large-hearted
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 115 
 
 and dramatic adagios, which, in their touching ex- 
 pressiveness, attain almost "speaking" quality. 
 
 More and more his marked, strong and exuberant 
 individuality claims prior consideration, and with 
 his third symphony, the "Eroica," arrives a notice- 
 able change; the forms are considerably wider, the 
 ideas gain greater breadth and are saturated with 
 expression, and the treatment is of greater freedom 
 and variety. Not only the striking .beauty and sim- 
 plicity of the melodies and the full assurance of 
 perfect form are to be admired, but the power of in- 
 vention, the subtleness of musical characteristic and 
 a conciseness in the motives, which admits of a sur- 
 prising thematic construction; the musical impulse 
 is deeper and more lasting, and the imagination 
 richer and more daring. 
 
 With the increasing difficulty in hearing the 
 left ear still retained a- semblance of life, so that 
 loud and distinct speaking had some effect Bee- 
 thoven begins to disregard the taste and liking of 
 the public; more and more he appears to lose con- 
 nection with the world; his inner life seems to be 
 more active, and the strong current of feeling gains 
 in power the more it is withdrawn from outside in- 
 fluence. His ideas seem to be more inspired and 
 replete with feeling "from the heart, and may it 
 touch the heart" in the power and truth of ex- 
 pression they are more touching than those even of 
 the second period, and as though he wished in the 
 sunset of his life to send a friendly greeting to his 
 great compeer. Bach, he cultivates the polyphone
 
 n6 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 and fugue style. To give full and direct expression 
 to his ideas he manifests greater severity and labor 
 in writing, and in increasing subjectivity gives birth 
 to the most beautiful thoughts and an interesting 
 thematic work. The mastery of form is still fresh 
 and appears at times to have grown even stronger 
 than in his period of plastic grace and strength, but 
 the form is less translucent than formerly, and neither 
 form nor idea will unveil its beauty at first sight 
 to the student. Like a prophet, he is far in advance 
 of his time and ever new wonders of the art are re- 
 vealed to those that persistently seek the inner es- 
 sence under the always promising but slowly yield- 
 ing outer shell. 
 
 The improved technic of dementi broadens the 
 style of Haydn and Mozart; the piano passages 
 become richer and more varied; dementi's wider 
 positions and richer chords, with their full and sat- 
 urated sound, reflect in Beethoven the full import of 
 the inner character; in the thematic work the ideas 
 are brought into ever new connection and juxtapo- 
 sition, so that in increasing intensity they give a 
 more complete significance of expression. Thought 
 and feeling are equally strong and refined, and while 
 the artistic idea is everywhere in harmony with a 
 perfect form, the pregnancy of the idea becomes 
 more and more the moving essence, thematic work 
 gains in refinement, the contours of the different 
 parts and periods are less pronounced than formerly, 
 and the reading becomes more a matter of study. 
 Every one of his works is a new revelation; there is
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. II/ 
 
 no mannerism of any kind, and what can be said of 
 one of his compositions does not fit the other. This 
 incomparable versatility gives Beethoven something 
 sphinx-like, is the prime cause of his all surpassing 
 universality, and makes him the adored of the 
 admirers of perfect form, as well as of those who 
 worship absolute individual freedom in the artist. 
 Beethoven has the most refined and exacting sense 
 of form; wherever in the sensitiveness for unity of 
 character in the whole work and the themes and 
 motives in detail he can not make use of the same 
 pattern, he manifests his extraordinary power of 
 artistic formation in finding the right and fitting 
 outer form for a characteristic idea. Thus the so- 
 natas are not only products of a most unfathomable 
 nature and artistic imagination, but veritable patterns 
 of select form. 
 
 The power of feeling in its development depends 
 on the consciousness and activity of thought, and 
 music, as the reflex of an emotional life, necessitates 
 an intimate connection of thought and feeling. 
 Musical thought in Beethoven may be said to have 
 its source in emotional life itself, and, completely 
 confined to emotion, it brings in artistic conception 
 the minute changes of feeling and expression. 
 Where thought and feeling in mental training and 
 free imagination are congruent in artistic conception, 
 musical characteristic will be the most perfect; the 
 more varied the emotions and the more they are 
 carried out to a complete exhaustion of feeling, the 
 greater the versatility of character.
 
 n8 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 This power of thought continually engenders 
 new material fitting to the character of the work, the 
 themes and motives in their higher pregnancy re- 
 quire greater scope in elaborate exposition for which 
 the fundamental character of the work light or 
 graceful, proud or daring, of joyous expression, 
 jocose humor or boisterous merriment, tranquil pen- 
 siveness or serene tenderness gives the conditions. 
 To find room for the new material Beethoven cre- 
 ated the characteristic episodes to his principal 
 periods, which, far from obstructing the importance 
 of the latter, help to carry and elevate them as he 
 knows how to subordinate without losing rare mu- 
 sical beauty even for less important parts. Thus 
 the more elaborate part Durchfuehrungs-satz is 
 worked up most effectively in counterpoint and 
 modulation so as to be frequently the culminating 
 point of the whole work. The different movements 
 are extended by one or more additions codas 
 which give the expression a more complete and 
 consummate development, and in this particular 
 Beethoven's greater maturity of artistic instinct is 
 most manifest over his predecessors. The scherzo, 
 which he adds to the sonata as a fourth movement, 
 gives him occasion to spread his burly humor; yet 
 even here he varies the character by always carrying 
 out a different idea from the fantastically serene 
 to the most extravagant. Artistic individuality has 
 perfect freedom even in the number and character 
 of the movements; everywhere the idea is in perfect 
 harmony with the form, so that even his sonatas in
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. iig 
 
 two movements are, by way of contrast, perfect 
 types of this genre. 
 
 As was customary with popular composers, and 
 intended, perhaps, as a concession to the large class 
 of amateurs, Beethoven has written a number of 
 variations in the light and graceful style, and in time 
 he developed this form with all the energy of his 
 genial nature. The variation is well fitted for a 
 slow sonata movement whose tendency is always 
 more or less plastic repose and where purely indi- 
 vidual feeling frequently finds expression in the lied 
 or aria. Beethoven's variations develop the express- 
 ive quality of the aria in all its various phases, 
 and, by continued mental examination, the feeling 
 becomes clearer defined, more idealized, and obtains 
 greater power and insistence. The thirty-three vari- 
 ations, on a valse of Diabelli, are the most stupend- 
 ous; the manner in which the composer reconceives 
 the musical and artistic possibilities of the theme 
 (in itself of inferior merit) in ever new form, ideal- 
 izes and changes the expression at every step, shows 
 almost every contingency of refined musical 
 thought and artistic formation, and makes this 
 work, the last for the piano, one of unique and soli- 
 tary grandeur. 
 
 The concertos present an equally marked devel- 
 opment in form and idea. The first shows much of 
 Mozart's instrumental style, but the grace and beauty 
 of form and originality of invention is as markedly 
 Beethoven's. The second is written much in the 
 same manner, lacking, however, some of the sweet
 
 I2O THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 grace and winning tenderness of the first. The third 
 in C minor is of much larger mold yet, save for the 
 grand adagio, still in Mozart's spirit. The fourth in 
 G and the fifth in E flat are among the most beauti- 
 ful compositions of the second period. The one of 
 idyllic feminine grace and beauty, the other full of 
 manly power, burly humor and in the adagio of 
 romantic reverie. This last in E flat, commonly 
 named the emperor concerto, marks the culminat- 
 ing point in this class of composition which has 
 never been obtained since. 
 
 In ensemble music with piano we have a long 
 line of compositions, duos, trios and a quartette, all 
 of which have their own individual character and 
 beauty; their form is like the sonata for piano 
 alone and all that has been said of the sonatas can 
 fitly be repeated here. It is needless to say that 
 here, as in every other genre, he surpassed all his 
 predecessors, and that in some of them he still 
 stands unrivaled to the present day. 
 
 An ill-regulated education, the absence of loving 
 care on the part of his parents the father was as 
 severe and untrustful as the mother was overindul- 
 gent and incapable laid the foundation to his later 
 unsociable habits and unguarded manner in life. 
 He was genial and of winning personality to his 
 friends, but careless of their good will and affection; 
 witty and humorous, yet always distrustful and in 
 his transactions occasionally not overdelicate; full 
 of his own artistic importance to overbearing, while 
 ruthlessly fault-finding with others.
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 121 
 
 Such was his character in real life; yet if 
 artistic personality is the result of man's thinking 
 and feelihg, the outcome of his inner essence, we 
 have a number of characteristic traits which give a 
 picture of the most refined quality. Capable of 
 idealizing all that moved him and of realizing to 
 such perfection the full measure of truth and beauty, 
 he must have lived an inner life which is truly envi- 
 able. In the beauty of form, the most exacting 
 truthfulness of expression and a discrimination even 
 in the smallest details, there is no one superior to 
 him in the whole history of fine arts and letters. 
 
 The eminently brilliant passages which were a 
 prominent feature in dementi's sonatas made sub- 
 servient to superior musical thought and feeling by 
 Beethoven, so as to form a rich and varied back- 
 ground to musical characteristic were taken up, 
 remodeled and enlarged by a number of excellent 
 pianists and musicians of great fame and ability in 
 their days, whose depth of feeling and power of 
 thought were, however, even less than dementi's 
 equal to the richer display of material. A finished 
 style and well matured expression in playing and 
 good taste and form in writing give as little claim to 
 individual character and the power and beauty of 
 ideal life in music as the observance of the conven- 
 tional rules of good society is a token of man's inner 
 worth and value. The efforts of these men of 
 undeniable talent and great musical respectability, 
 directed mainly to a tasteful display of their pianis- 
 tic ability in beauty of tone, smooth, harmonious
 
 122 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 progressions, pretty melodies and well rounded 
 phrases, lacked not the symmetry of form which 
 could be studied (and if need be copied) in the 
 many beautiful examples, but the corresponding 
 inner essence of thought and feeling. The arrange- 
 ment in proper periods manifests good sense of pro- 
 portion and insures variety, but the inner force 
 which controls this arrangement is not always ap- 
 parent; the phrases are brought in a certain well 
 arranged manner, but the logic, more or less potent, 
 by which each part leads to something that is to 
 follow and by which all the phrases and motives 
 contribute to the general impulse, is wanting, and 
 the connection and relation of parts seems often 
 merely mechanical. Piano music thus lost in beauty 
 of character and expression what it gained in beauty 
 of sound and material display. The greater bulk of' 
 these compositions was written for pupils or, better 
 still, for the market, and although many excellent 
 traits are found in the works of these writers, their 
 importance was a lasting one mostly for their day. 
 Joh. Ludw. Dussek (1761-1812), pupil of Ph. Em. 
 Bach, is a most prolific composer, in whose works 
 expression rises sometimes to passionate outbursts 
 to change again with commonplace phrases and an 
 overcrowded exposition. Aug. Eb. Mueller (1767- 
 1817) and Ludwig Berger (1777-1839) have left 
 many works, and Ignaz Pleyel (1760-1831), who was 
 a very popular composer. Most of the works of 
 these three writers have altogether disappeared. 
 John Bapt. Cramer (1771-1858) and John Field (1782-
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 123 
 
 1837), the- two famous pupils of Clementi, still hold 
 a respectable place in piano literature; the first in a 
 set of etudes of good technical and musical quality, 
 the latter in a number of smaller compositions 
 nocturnes of great beauty of form and elegance of 
 spirit. Pianists of extraordinary ability, they have 
 written many meritorious sonatas, concertos and a 
 variety of other pieces which are now scarcely 
 known to have existed. 
 
 Aug. Alex. Klengel (1784-1852), also a pupil of 
 Clementi, devoted his maturer years to the perfec- 
 tion of a work- -little known, yet of rare merit of 
 canons and fugues, similar to Bach's "Well Tem- 
 pered Clavecin." These (48) canons and fugues are 
 of singular beauty in form and counterpoint, music- 
 ally interesting, and in their (modern) spirit original 
 so that they offer valuable material for a sound 
 development in the polyphone and legato style of 
 playing. Joh. Nep. Hummel ( 1778-1837), a pupil of 
 Mozart, shows in his compositions great clearness, 
 correctness and beauty of form fully adequate to his 
 great fame as a classic player, yet he lacks the inner 
 warmth of feeling and matured thought; the fire of 
 genius is wanting to give his works a valuable mu- 
 sical character,~"and* it is for Fhe beautiful technical 
 display mostly that the concertos and the septette 
 retain their artistic value. 
 
 Of a decidedly higher order are the piano com- 
 positions of C. M. von Weber (1786-1826), whose c. M.von 
 fame in musical art rests on the merit of his operas, iv^-i&k 
 Simplicity and truth of expression with a shade,
 
 124 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 however, of coquettishness give his melodies a 
 very popular character; graceful nobility seems to 
 come to him in the spirit of romantic chivalry, and 
 the brilliancy of his passages is more dazzling and 
 original than any before his time, dementi not ex- 
 cepted. In the pyrotechnical display a melodious 
 element often appears latent, which gives it an ele- 
 gant musical stability, even to picturesqueness, and 
 the vigor and fire not coming and going in fitful 
 starts seem to be sustained with energetic con- 
 stancy. Alongside of Beethoven's incomparably 
 nobler and purer works, these good traits appear to 
 less advantage in his sonatas and concertos; but in 
 the Concertstueck and a number of smaller works 
 he has furnished the prototype of many a refined 
 composition of the later piano virtuosos. 
 
 Classical repose in Beethoven's works of the sec- 
 ond period made room for greater subtleness and 
 refinement of expression in his last period; imagina- 
 tion, " which bodies forth the forms of things un- 
 known," begins to hold a more important part, the 
 idea is pursued almost to the utmost limits of 
 thought and feeling, and though losing sometimes 
 in restful beauty, the composer gains in power of ex- 
 pression and subjectivity. The spirit of romance, 
 which in mysterious forebodings seeks conclusion 
 with the preternatural, whose spritelike aspirations 
 find mystic voices in the whispering winds, murmur- 
 ing waves and rolling thunder, begins to fill musical 
 form. Inciting the feeling and imagination without 
 giving a definite expression to the one or a distinct
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. . 125 
 
 idea to the other, these forms are filled with terror 
 and fear, grief and sorrow, longing and dreaming, 
 joy and gladness; and the indistinct, nebulous and 
 indefinable finds occasion for new revelry in sound. 
 The adagio of Bach'%Italian concerto and his 
 chromatic fantasie are full of romantic spirit. 
 Beethoven, in the first movement of the so-called 
 Moonlight sonata, and more or less in all his slow 
 movements, is given to romantic reverie; but what 
 heretofore appeared occasionally as a greater ex- 
 uberance of feeling bent on more conclusive expres- 
 sion, now rises to greater importance and becomes a 
 prominent characteristic feature in musical art. 
 
 Franz Schubert (1797-1828), the son of a school Fr Schubert 
 teacher in a suburb of Vienna, brings in the genial 1797-1&28- 
 facility of conception, an almost sententious method 
 of expression and an ever increasing conciseness of 
 form lyric individuality of feeling to the most com- 
 plete expression in the "lied," and is alongside of 
 the classic composers, the most pronounced repre- 
 sentative of the romantic school. His earliest com- 
 positions, written when he was barely thirteen years 
 old, are full of preternatural imaginings, and the al- 
 most unparalleled productivity in a short period of 
 seventeen years is hardly more astonishing than the 
 exuberant fantasie and wonderful artistic sensi- 
 tiveness which found for every mood the most plas- 
 tic expression, exhausting the feeling in every shade 
 and detail. 
 
 Schubert's sonatas and the two fantasies are on 
 the average not as perfect in form and fijiish as his
 
 126 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 songs. The incessantly forking imagination and 
 the lyric essence of his artistic nature do not always 
 reach the concentration in the material which is 
 desirable in the larger forms, and the dialectic ex- 
 position of the classic composers is often wanting; 
 the different movements are frequently too long, so 
 that where in the rich power of his fancy he does not 
 find the right limit, the effect of the whole work is 
 considerably weakened. Critical observation and 
 continued detailed examination which insure a well 
 matured balance in the proportions, and thorough 
 musical training in thematic work and counterpoint 
 are not the strong point, yet the details are full of 
 beauty, a sensuous freshness prevails which keeps 
 the player spellbound while the hearer, who is im- 
 pressed by the effect of the entire work, misses the 
 contrast of the themes, their opposition and the con- 
 sequent dramatic impulse in the movement. The 
 blending of joyfully rising, almost excessive vigor 
 with the increased intensity of tenderest emotions, 
 the passages full of heavenly song, the fresh humor 
 and the interesting, sometimes piquant rhythms pass 
 by as so many beautiful images one more enticing 
 than the other, like fairy stories growing out of the 
 very nature of the instrument and in their fullness 
 of saturated sound a very Lethe for individual 
 moods. 
 
 In ensemble music two trios and a quintette 
 with piano Schubert unquestionably ranks higher 
 than in the sonatas for piano alone. The thematic 
 work is not of the vigorous classical type, and. the
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 127 
 
 composer loses himself at times in his "heavenly 
 lengths," but an almost individual impulse seems to 
 be imparted to the different instruments which car- 
 ries the movement along more satisfactorily. 
 
 In his smaller compositions Schubert rises to the 
 full importance of form and expression. The magic 
 spell of an absolute beauty of sound in itself of 
 romantic essence in the refined and original com- 
 binations full of playfully tender, dreamy or happy 
 revelry finds a fitter place in the narrow form. The 
 "Momens musicales" and impromptus are tone 
 pictures of unrivaled beauty, full of character and 
 poetic sentiment and in this form the forerunners of 
 the later "songs without words" and the character- 
 istic pieces. In the valses, Laendler, the polonaises 
 and marches for four hands heretofore scarcely 
 more than popular dance forms he shows such 
 characteristic refinement in melody, such variety of 
 rhythm and withal such healthy sense of enjoy- 
 ment and sweetly alluring, interesting moods that 
 in their greater variety of expression and their 
 higher aims they must now be recognized as typical 
 art forms. 
 
 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), re- Mendelssohn 
 ceived a most careful musical education, and what- 180<J - 1817 - 
 ever could benefit the general development of his 
 rare talents was brought to bear on his susceptible 
 nature. By a remarkable ability as conductor and 
 pianist, by superior refinement in taste and the genial 
 influence of his personality, which he freely and 
 unselfishly used in the service of musical art, he
 
 128 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 gained easily the first place among contemporary 
 musicians. After a prolonged visit to Italy and 
 England he located in Dusseldorf, 1832, became 
 the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts 
 in 1835 an d founded the conservatory in 1843. 
 
 A most detailed and careful musical training, 
 based on the classic principles of Bach, Haendel and 
 Beethoven, gave him a technic in composition, which 
 results in superior clearness and elegance of form. 
 Though he does not introduce an essentially new 
 element in musical art, his extraordinary insight and 
 circumspection develop some of the latent features 
 in an ostensible manner. Weber's operas, with their 
 world of romantic fancy, gave rise to a host of cap- 
 ering, frisking genii in the provokingly romping, 
 frolicsome effervescence of the music to "A Mid- 
 summer Night's Dream" and the scherzos and 
 rondos for piano. New and original, strange and 
 yet so catching and winning is Mendelssohn in this 
 genre, that one almost feels the presence of these 
 beings of elfish lightness and is eager to join them. 
 In his songs without words he attains a genial warmth 
 in melodious form which, though not so expressive 
 and touching as Schubert's, is of great artistic merit 
 and nobility of human sentiment. With all this he 
 develops a peculiarity of style in his piano compo- 
 sitions which, though it appears in ever new and 
 novel form, gives them an outward character which 
 at times almost touches mannerism, and can be 
 traced throughout. 
 
 The songs without words have always been a vade-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. I2Q 
 
 mecum with the better class of amateurs; of his 
 other works for piano solo, the concertos and rondo 
 with orchestra and the ensemble works with piano, 
 it may be sufficient to say that they are manifesta- 
 tions of an amiable individuality, which at a very 
 early age attained a surprising artistic perfection, 
 but does not reach a higher potentiality in the later 
 works. 
 
 Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1788-1849) lacks depth, 
 but his compositions are well finished and pleasing. 
 Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) and Ferdinand Hiller 
 (1811-1881) do not obtain in their compositions a 
 uniform excellence, but Moscheles has studies and 
 concertos of good musical quality, while Hiller, 
 besides concertos and ensemble music, has written 
 very interesting character pieces. The most pro- 
 nounced representative of the light virtuoso type, 
 Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871), a pianist of mar- 
 velous lightness and elegance, developed certain 
 effects in piano playing to the detriment of musical 
 qualities in composition. Though there is a well- 
 bred fluency and equality in his passages, their 
 more or less trivial elegance of manner owed much 
 of its charm to the pretty operatic melodies which 
 are the mainstay of his fantasies. His " Art du 
 Chant" Op. 70, however, offers very desirable mate- 
 rial for study in touch and the use of the pedal, in 
 both of which Thalberg must be considered a great 
 master. 
 
 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) born in Zwickau, 
 the son of a publisher and bookseller from whom he 
 9
 
 I3O THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 inherited great love for the belles Icttres and art. 
 In connection with other studies, musical education 
 was carried on leisurely and, though remarkable 
 talent was noticeable, little effort seems to have been 
 made to insure an early and careful development. 
 Literature of the romantic school and particularly 
 Jean Paul (the master in all tender effusions, of an 
 exuberance of feeling which continually alternates in 
 tears of joy and sorrow, fantastically playing with 
 romantic shadows without the power of artistic 
 shapeliness) are his daily food; and even after he 
 attends the university, ostensibly to study law, he 
 "works much in private; i. e., at the piano and writes 
 Jean Pauliades." Thus he spends his years at the 
 universities in Leipzig and Heidelberg practicing at 
 the piano all the morning and "enjoying musical 
 evenings with his friends," whom he often astonishes 
 by his powers of improvisation. Finally, in 1830, he 
 takes up music in earnest, studies with Friedrich 
 Wieck in Leipzig but with such energy and withal 
 such impatience and imprudence that in the course 
 of the year his right hand becomes affected and the 
 fourth finger, in spite of medical treatment, remains 
 lame. Debarred from the pursuit of mechanical work, 
 he begins 1831 to study composition with Heinrich 
 Dorn, and again labors with constant energy, though 
 without system, probably in consequence of the 
 high pressure of artistic impetuosity. 
 
 His early literary inclinations and the desire to 
 exert his influence for the improvement of musical 
 matters (which had become sadly deteriorated as an
 
 THE PIANISTS ART 13! 
 
 art in the fashionable display of the small virtuosos, 
 and seemed almost overcrowded by the worthless 
 jingle of such writers as Herzand Huenten) induced 
 him in 1834 to begin a "New Journal for Music." 
 Schumann's tersely written aphorisms, the novelty of 
 his style and the poetical coloring of his articles 
 soon made themselves felt. And in thus forcing 
 himself out of a dreamy visionary vegetation into 
 the midst of musical life, he gained many an impulse 
 for his artistic self, which lurks in most of his ear- 
 lier compositions. 
 
 The Davidsbuendler, a fictitious society of Schu- 
 mann's invention which included the co-workers of 
 his paper and many musicians, perhaps personally 
 unknown to him but valued by him for their thor- 
 oughly upright musical qualities, was of great power 
 both in his literary efforts and in his compositions. 
 How closely interwoven his work is in both direc- 
 tions, and how clearly individual both the literary 
 and musical effusions are, is proved by the wholly 
 imaginary representation of Schumann's artistic 
 individuality in either of them by the three char- 
 acters, Florestan, Eusebius and Master Raro; the 
 irrepressible, rash and headlong Florestan; Euse- 
 bius, tender, susceptible and dreaming, and that per- 
 sonification of his own maturerself which was to be, 
 Master Raro, to whose superior judgment all dis- 
 putes on artistic merit were submitted. 
 
 Hand in hand with this literary work Schumann 
 enjoys the most vigorous period of composition. 
 Rapturous juvenile moods, humorous and merry quibs
 
 132 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 and an often ecstatic depth of sentiment pass by 
 with unimpaired freshness, and his many-sided ideal 
 life gains a force of dramatic impulse which claims 
 attention and forces the player to individual thought 
 and consideration. With almost second sight he 
 enters the remotest depth of feeling to find the tcn- 
 derest, luscious expression. He composes only for 
 the piano, and these works are so "claviermaessig" 
 in their conception that he seems to have almost 
 drawn them from the instrument; his mode of treat- 
 ment is perfectly new and original in the quasi 
 orchestral polyphony, in the use of the pedal and 
 wide harmonies; the indiscriminate use of both hands 
 for every purpose in crossing and interlocking or in 
 melody or accompaniment, give him a great variety 
 of new effects. His technic is markedly different 
 from others, and the difficulties that are found are 
 hardly of a merely mechanical kind, since they are 
 the very embodiment of the musical idea. The 
 smaller forms of the lied or dance carry his ideas 
 most delightfully, and many of these musical tid- 
 bits are joined into larger forms; the variety which 
 he develops and the marked characteristics prove 
 ever and anon his creative power. The sudden 
 impulse of a spontaneous outburst gives them a 
 bewitching freshness and causefulness which seem 
 always incidental. 
 
 Large and well developed melodies arc scarce in 
 these early works, but the logic of the ideas is con- 
 clusive and unyielding, and the very conciseness of 
 the melodic form causes a superabundance of frag-
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 133 
 
 mentary phrases full of life and meaning, thus giv- 
 ing a spring-like pressing and budding to" the idea 
 which in its very essence and make-up is full -of 
 romantic spirit. A soulful, enraptured feeling and a 
 fantastic, dreamy spirit are mated to a healthy, vig- 
 orous artlessness and sincerity of purpose, which 
 often insures a markedly popular character; playful 
 humor is constantly alive and gives the artistic indi- 
 viduality greater power and freedom of expression. 
 Harmony, rhythm and melody are one and all true 
 types of Schumann's character. Polyphonic writing 
 appears frequently; the counterpoint is mostly of the 
 budding, presentient kind, so that harmony becomes 
 in truth a moving essence. Rhythmical formation 
 sometimes modeled after the more refined of the 
 Greek meters adds its charm and produces many 
 novel effects, yet lacks the clearness and force of 
 the classic composers; the less orderly essence of 
 the syncope and negative accents becomes at times 
 too prominent for greater precision. 
 
 The smaller forms in the Papillons, Davids- 
 buendler, Carnaval, etc., have no organic connec- 
 tion (save in individual moods of the writer or in the 
 incidents of his daily life) but one and all are of the 
 same poetical impulse which rushes onward to the 
 inevitable climax. Many of the superscriptions to 
 the pieces as, " Glueckes Genug," Verrufene Stelle, 
 im Walde, etc., are well calculated to fix the indefi- 
 nite spirit of romantic dreaminess to a distinct idea, 
 though it can hardly be said that the words are 
 necessary to explain the meaning of the music.
 
 134 TEE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 In the Variations Schumann uses the form with 
 greater freedom than had been done heretofore, but 
 with a superior lavishness of feeling and vital energy. 
 The first (op. I) shows some of Moscheles' technic, 
 and the Impromptus (op. 5) are fashioned after the 
 manner of Beethoven's Eroica variations over a fun- 
 damental bass, whilethe Symphonic Etudes in form 
 of variations are on the largest scale, and insure 
 him a place among the foremost composers for the 
 piano; the form is here treated with the most genial 
 audacity, and the technic necessary for the express- 
 ion of the exuberant flow of ideas is reinforced to 
 the utmost limits of true bravura style. That 
 Schumann was not inconsiderate of technical de- 
 velopment is apparent in his version of the Paganini 
 Etudes and the " Toccata." 
 
 The power of shaping his ideas to the require- 
 ments of larger forms seems to grow on him in 
 course of time. He is most lavish in beautiful ideas 
 in his first two sonatas, and considerable improve- 
 ment in the adjustment and congruency of form and 
 idea must be admitted in his third sonata (op. 22) 
 over the two previous ones; still he fails to obtain 
 unity of form at least in the allegro movements. 
 The Fantasie, op. 17, is of these larger works the 
 more unique and satisfactory, carrying out its poetic 
 sentiment in the loosely connected fantastic pictures 
 of the first movement, the triumphant march and 
 the dreamy restfulness of the third movement. 
 
 Upon his marriage to Clara Wieck follows a time 
 of glorious song; with his usual ardor and impetu-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 135 
 
 osity he composes over 100 lieder in the same year, 
 and when he returns to the large form in his first 
 symphony there is an unmistakable clearness of 
 purpose and maturity of power. The impassionate 
 earlier impulse seems somewhat quieter, the work 
 shows greater consistency; feeling, imagination and 
 artistic judgment of the proper form are more evenly 
 balanced, while the perennial bloom and freshness 
 of his earlier days seem at times unabated. The 
 Quintett (op. 44) with piano, in the resplendent 
 originality of invention, beauty of sound, the well 
 balanced proportions, and most of all in the 
 reiterated climax, is one of the master-works of 
 ensemble music; the Quartett (op. 47) is almost 
 equal to it save for the impassioned power of in- 
 spiration; the Trios in D minor and F major are of 
 high merit though hardly to be ranked with the two 
 other works (op. 44 and 47). The Concerto in A 
 minor is undoubtedly one of Schumann's noblest 
 works in its true musical qualities, and in the happy 
 organic connection of piano and orchestra equal to 
 the great concertos of Beethoven. 
 
 Schumann's personal appearance made the im- 
 pression of a healthy, vigorous constitution, but his' 
 nervous system was easily affected, a morbid tension 
 of his feelings became stronger with his years, and 
 the inclination to follow out unhappy moods seemed 
 to grow on him. Dark presentiments filled his 
 mind, and strong emotions would bring on deathly 
 apathy followed by days of deep depression. The 
 power of a naturally strong constitution and youth-
 
 136 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 ful energy would for a time gain the upper hand and 
 restore him to his own self, but every mental over- 
 taxation would scatter the nervous system anew. A 
 habitual shyness, which had kept him under con- 
 tinual restraint in his intercourse with the world at 
 large, may have been aggravated by uninterrupted 
 musing and pondering; unpleasant occurrences of 
 his daily life may have exercised a baneful influence; 
 as it is, his later works often show again the aphor- 
 istic form of the first period, but the fresh vigorous 
 rhythm of yore seems to lack repose, and the former 
 popular vein in melodious form gives way to in- 
 creased moodiness, which often results in a darksome ( 
 passionate coloring. In one of his moments of 
 deepest depression Schumann left his house in 
 Duesseldorf fishermen rescued him from the 
 waters of the Rhine, and with all the symptoms of 
 mental derangement he passed the next two years 
 in a private asylum near Bonn, where he died, in 
 1856. 
 
 Adolph Henselt (1814-1885), one of the great 
 pianists of later times, has written two sets of etudes 
 which are considered by many of the highest value, 
 a concerto of great technical difficulty, ensemble 
 music and character pieces. His works have un- 
 doubtedly considerable influence on the develop- 
 ment of modern piano technic, and his character 
 pieces are, in the originality of style, depth of feel- 
 ing and careful adjustment worthy of high consid- 
 eration. Theodor Doehler (1814-1856), a pianist of 
 elegance and taste, writes pieces in the light genre
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 137 
 
 which are melodious and showy. Alexander Dry- 
 schock (1818-1869), celebrated for a finished execu- 
 tion, has left piano works which are especially cal- 
 culated for brilliant playing. Henry Litolff (1818- 
 1892), highly gifted as pianist and composer, leaves 
 a great number of works of very uneven merit. 
 William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875), friend of 
 Mendelssohn and in his works not unlike the latter, 
 is given more to a gentle sentimentality than manly 
 energy. Niles W. Gade (1817-1891), also largely in- 
 fluenced by Mendelssohn in his style of composition, 
 shows marked individuality of invention and a color- 
 ing in melody and harmony, which gives his works 
 (mostly ensemble) frequently the freshness and 
 fragrance of national character. Stephen Heller 
 (1815-1888) makes in his compositions the impres- 
 sion of a well balanced individuality, and shows in 
 rhythm, melody and harmony poetic essence and 
 romantic spirit. 
 
 One of the most fascinating individualities in 
 musical art appears Frederic Chopin (1809-1849), a 
 native of Poland. Born near Warsaw, where his 
 father, a French gentleman from Nancy (married to a 
 Polish lady), held a professorship at the Lyceum, he 
 was brought up in a refined literary atmosphere, and 
 his musical education was carefully looked after. A 
 prolific power of improvisation and mimicry were 
 noticeable in him in early boyhood and in later years 
 he often made use of the latter for the amusement of 
 his friends. A short concert tour to Vienna (1829) 
 served largely to increase his artistic self-esteem,
 
 138 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 and 1831 he left Warsaw for Paris, where he found 
 his second home. 
 
 Unlike other composers, Chopin gives in his 
 works no trace of any development in style or char- 
 acter; with the exception of some reminiscences of 
 Hummel's technic in the first Rondo, there is no in- 
 fluence of any kind manifest; fully developed, this 
 musical genius enters the artistic world at an age 
 which seems to put even Mendelssohn's early pre- 
 cocity into the shade. When twenty years of age he 
 had played his E minor Concerto on several occa- 
 sions, and in 1830 he played his second Concerto in 
 F minor (op. 21); presumably all the previous works 
 had been finished before that time and, if we con- 
 sider that he had written altogether some 70 works, 
 all of which he perfected and polished most care- 
 fully, we may rightly estimate that he had hardly 
 entered his teens when he wrote the first Rondo. 
 More astonishing than such premature development 
 is the fact that Chopin has hardly written a musical 
 phrase which is not altogether his own, and that 
 everywhere he manifests the most scrupulous nicety 
 in form and idea; only in his last works a notice- 
 able decrease in artistic power is apparent in the 
 lack of clearness and roundness of form. In all his 
 works of whatever nature and form, Chopin is most 
 markedly original; a veritable magician of inimi- 
 table grace and nobility of expression, with a sweet, 
 attractive grace and gentleness of nature, and a mild 
 sadness in his dreamy reverie which is as bewitching
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 139 
 
 as his passionate, forceful and wildly impetuous 
 energy is inspiring. 
 
 Limited in his creative power, though by choice 
 only, to the piano, he appears totally one sided in 
 comparison to the number of great composers whose 
 productions, embracing almost every known variety 
 of art form, firmly establish their claim to musical 
 glory; yet in his narrow sphere he unfolds a truly 
 masterful, rich and exuberant individuality. The 
 wealth and truth of his ideas find utterance in a lan- 
 guage which is subject to the syntactic rules of mu- 
 sical form only in the widest and most universal sense. 
 The symmetry of artistic formation which gives inner 
 connection and co-relation to ideas, so that their 
 affinity becomes clearly apparent, and the grouping 
 of parts, which defines their impulse in the whole 
 work, are often lacking; the whole inner organism is 
 peculiar and extraordinary; harmony, melody and 
 rhythm are of small import as factors in musical con- 
 struction, but, as the master's power wills and occa- 
 sion requires, they give greater insistence to the flow 
 of ideas, which passes by as in a succession of fanci- 
 ful picture-stories. His conception of tonality is 
 often vague and undecided; the different intervals 
 in the harmonies are so circumscribed that the im- 
 port of their tonal character is frequently lost, and a 
 harmonious construction is developed by enharmonic 
 changes and chromatic alterations which are thor- 
 oughly capricious, albeit extremely sensitive. Re- 
 plete with all the siren-like beauty of sound, this 
 fantastic exposition fills the hearer with a languid
 
 I4O THE PIAN'IST'S ART. 
 
 sensibility which, though always latent, never assumes 
 definite shape. Of similar character with his har- 
 monious structure are the melodic and rhythmic 
 forms which it engenders. Melody, with the stately 
 breadth and power of a beautiful cantilene, suddenly 
 assumes the character of a recitative, or continues in 
 wonderfully arabesqued ornaments; rhythm, now 
 moving complacently with quiet composure, brings 
 new expression, and changes character almost from 
 measure to measure. Rhythmical symmetry is thus 
 continually broken in upon, and, while artistic repose 
 is sometimes impaired, the composition gains in 
 strength of coloring and temperament. 
 
 In a thousand different ways he revels in roman- 
 tic visions, and loses himself in lingering languish- 
 ment until sadness and gloom deepened to despond- 
 ency seem to abandon every effort; but when with 
 full assurance of his power he strides along in the 
 splendor of martial rhythm, when positive harmoni- 
 ous construction moves with almost crushing force, 
 as though despair impelled to sterner action, he 
 creates an impression of. heroic strength and calm 
 energy which is truly imposing and overwhelming. 
 
 But his heroism lacks the power of endurance; 
 we miss the crowning triumph; the silvery notes of 
 a lightly fleeting mazurcck whimsically take its 
 place, or darkness and gloom gather anew oppres- 
 sively. Thus in ever changing variety moves the 
 dreamy substance of his poetic spirit now with 
 grave formality, now rapt in ecstatic visions of in- 
 nermost fancy, and in all the grace and splendor,
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 14! 
 
 mirth and humor, pride or defiance, he is shrouded 
 in melancholy sadness as though overshadowed by 
 impending doom. 
 
 This ideal life of Chopin's bright visions and de- 
 lusive fantasms has no touch of nature, no refresh- 
 ing breeze is astir in sunny plains; its very source is 
 the refinement of high-bred society, the grateful fra- 
 grance of the boudoir, the festive array of brilliantly 
 illumined scenes. With the full assurance of inner 
 merit, even in outer appearance, aristocratic ele- 
 gance guides the depth and novelty of feeling, and 
 obtains an expression of such sweet, melodious 
 sound and sonorous dignity, that the qualifications 
 of the instrument seem materially improved. With 
 this increased power of utterance in the beauty and 
 variety of new combinations, a new world of sound 
 seems to arise in the wider chords and arpeggios 
 and the groups of ornaments rising and sinking like 
 cascades of pearls in fermenting foam. 
 
 Chopin's organism was naturally refined, his con- 
 stitution, though wanting in physical strength, not 
 unhealthy, a nervous irritability increased in later 
 years often to gloominess through distress of mind 
 and violent nervous agitation, but his imagination 
 had a healthy glow and his emotion was all-power- 
 ful. What wonder that in such contrast of mental 
 vigor and bodily infirmity his very pa. c sion should 
 be replete with feminine indulgence, his energy void 
 of manly strength, and his very humor veiled in sad- 
 ness. It is certainly a triumph of his artistic poten- 
 tiality, and 'shows the power of his creative genius,
 
 142 THE PIANIST S ART. 
 
 that in this often inartistic weakness of feeling and 
 the sudden extravagance of his moods he finds the 
 fitting form which makes us overlook the cause in 
 the beauty of the work. 
 
 A consequent syntactic exposition of contrast- 
 ing motives is often deficient in Chopin's art; and 
 all the works (the concertos, sonatas and the 
 few ensemble works), where the larger form makes 
 the dramatic impulse of thematic work desirable, 
 are in their inner nature as works of art less satis- 
 factory. In the concertos the inner connection of 
 the piano and orchestra is altogether wanting, and 
 beautiful in its conception and the artistic repose as 
 is the orchestral introduction to the E minor Con- 
 certo, it only opens a series of episodes of wonder- 
 ful poetic depth and refinement for the solo instru- 
 ment, which could as well miss the orchestral back- 
 ground. Even more replete with poetic essence is 
 the second Concerto, in F minor, in the romantic 
 sonority of the first movement and the inspired rev- 
 erie of the Larghetto, while the light, fleeting, ex- 
 tremely graceful Mazurka lacks the force and dash 
 of a fit climax. The sonatas (op. 35 and 58) so- 
 natas in outer appearance are full of the fantastic- 
 ally capricious and impassionatc spirit of the master; 
 with the subtleness of cunning the poetical idea is 
 realized in the sonata in B flat minor, while the so- 
 nata in B minor in passionate coloring of the ma- 
 terial display and great impulse in the last movement 
 is the more effective for concert purposes. 
 
 It is in the smaller forms of the dance, and in the
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 143 
 
 nocturnes especially, that Chopin stands unrivalled 
 in all the beauty of poetic conception and a pictur- 
 esque, fantastic realization of his dreams. He 
 dances with his whole soul, and with him the spirit 
 of his people; in fanciful stories passes the romance 
 of Polish life in all its pristine glory and recent 
 destiny. The delightfully humorous, melancholy 
 and quizzical chit-chat of the mazurkas tells of re- 
 quited affection, secret love, longing desire, tender 
 abandon and lofty passion, and finds no end of sadly 
 sweet enigmas. The valses are full of the spirit of 
 enjoyment, and a merry throng enlivens the festive 
 scenes; but the polonaises disclose all the ancestral 
 pride and innate grace of his ill-starred nation, with 
 a wealth and depth of feeling and expression that 
 seem to speak wild energy and bold defiance in the 
 roll of drums, and the call of trumpets; in the^ 
 measured step of marching hosts and the trot of 
 charging horse; in the clash of arms and the rush 
 of battle; in the passionate lament of tearful wail- 
 ing and the manly sternness of mourning heroes. 
 
 All the power of song, lavishly ornamented with 
 the fantastic bric-a-brac of interwoven fiorituri, 
 scintillating like the silvery rays of a starlit night, 
 bursts forth in the nocturnes like a breath of heav- 
 enly inspiration. The elegant finery of the im- 
 promptus; the bolero, picture of southern passion 
 and languor; the whirlwind of the tarantelle; the 
 breadth and fiery impulse of the fantasie; the idyllic 
 charm of the barcarolle, and that sweetest of all 
 musical fantasms, the berceuse all show the
 
 144 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 subtle refinement of the Polish tone poet, and his 
 ballades and scherzos are striking innovations on 
 the old forms, of great diversity of character and 
 ' dramatic force. 
 
 The preludes, sketches in all the resplendent 
 variety of Chopin's style, admirable miniature por- 
 traits of his ideal character, deserve with the Chopin 
 student a prominent place; and the etudes, full of 
 the most excellent technical and musical material 
 for the thorough and complete mastery of the 
 modern piano, will always insure their composer a 
 place in the front rank of piano literature even 
 with those that fail to recognize the full import of 
 his artistic mission in his other works. 
 
 The central figure in the musical life of the nine- 
 F STi-M86. zt teenth century is Franz Liszt (1811-1886), the 
 greatest master of pianistic art, whose influence in 
 musical matters for a number of decades was the 
 most remarkable, steadily maintained in his per- 
 sonal magnetism, in his phenomenal executive 
 ability, in his essays on musical subjects, in the 
 notable compositions in the various branches of 
 musical art, in the pianoforte transcriptions and the 
 long list of famous pupils, artists and rising com- 
 posers whom he befriended and brought into prom- 
 inent notice for art's sake. 
 
 Liszt was born in Raiding, Hungary. His father, 
 a good amateur and musical enthusiast, developed 
 his talents, so that when nine years old he played a 
 concerto by Ries in Oedenburg. Materially assisted 
 by wealthy admirers of his great promise, he pur-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 145 
 
 sued his studies in Vienna under Czerny and Salieri 
 and, after 1823, in Paris under Reicha and Paer. 
 Various concert tours were finally interrupted by 
 the father's death, in 1827, and for some years he 
 seems to have been occupied with teaching and 
 literary work, eking out a livelihood in Paris. The 
 new social and religious ideas fermenting in the 
 revolutionary elements of the times found in him 
 an enthusiastic supporter; sounder principles, how- 
 ever, prevailed, and in course of time he enjoyed 
 the friendship of such men as Lamartine, Heine, 
 Meyerbeer and Chopin. When Paganini appeared 
 in Paris (1831) in the height of success surpassing 
 all previous virtuoso displays, Liszt's fiery nature, 
 thoroughly roused again, concentrated its efforts to 
 the piano, and within a few years a series of works 
 appeared of the most gigantic pianistic aspirations. 
 Thalberg's success in Paris (1835) again brought 
 Liszt to the front in the concert room, and for a 
 number of years (1837-1849) he scored a series of 
 unheard-of triumphs in almost every country and city 
 of Europe. In the last named year he took up his 
 abode in Weimar, where for twelve successive years 
 he conducted the court concerts and operas, com- 
 posing and teaching. After 1861 he lived partly in 
 Rome, where he took church orders, known there- 
 after as Abbe Liszt, partly in Pesth as director of 
 the Hungarian Musical Academy, and in Weimar, 
 where a large and select circle of friends and pupils 
 surrounded him. 
 
 A great pianist, composer, conductor, teacher, 
 10
 
 146 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 \vriter on musical subjects and promoter of art for 
 art's sake, Liszt was one of the most remarkable 
 men of the times. As pianist he has been styled 
 the matchless, the " only " Liszt in the use of the in- 
 strument which excelled all previous efforts of vir- 
 tuosos in brilliancy and dash of execution, astonish- 
 ing power and qualification of touch and great in- 
 tensity of feeling, but far more so in the truthfully 
 characteristic rendition of the master works of piano 
 literature. As a composer, in his piano works, in his 
 orchestral arrangements and symphonic poems, his 
 songs, the masses and oratorios, he covers every 
 branch, almost, of musical art. As conductor he ele- 
 vated the musical standard at Weimar by many a 
 superior artistic performance of old and new works; 
 as a teacher his influence on nearly all the notable 
 great musicians and artists of the day is undeniable; 
 his essays on musical subjects are of the highest 
 value, and his memory will be dear to all that be- 
 lieve in the progressiveness of music as an art. 
 
 Liszt's piano works are exceedingly numerous 
 and of great variety and may be class! fied as fantasies, 
 studies, transcriptions, arrangements and original 
 works and it admits of small doubt that most of 
 them w r ere finished either before or during the years 
 of his pianistic triumphs and that comparatively few 
 additions to the list of piano works were made in 
 the later years, which were devoted chiefly to or- 
 chestral works, songs, masses and oratorios. Written 
 under the high pressure of youthful enthusiasm and 
 with the express purpose of showing his pianistic
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 147 
 
 ability, these works necessarily vie with similar pro- 
 ductions of the day. The fantasies on operatic airs 
 or classic themes offer slight occasion for the dis- 
 play of individual ideas, yet, in the arrangement 
 and fabric of his own, he manifests his superiority 
 over the more conventional, pattern-like fantasies of 
 Thalberg and others. The Robert and the Don 
 Juan fantasies are the most satisfactory in their mu- 
 sical make-up and especially the latter, a work of 
 the most brilliant display. 
 
 The Paganini studies are proof of the marked 
 impression make by the novelty of style and execu- 
 tion in the dark Southerner's caprices, and show the 
 playful ease with which Liszt enhances the technical 
 difficulties and adapts them to the character of 
 the piano. The systematic development of difficul- 
 ties in execution in his " Etudes d'execution trans- 
 cendentale " evinces a technical mastery and knowl- 
 edge of the possibilities of the instrument that gives 
 his style all the. material advantages of Chopin's 
 aerial facility and grace and Schumann's orchestral 
 polyphony. Yet, while Chopin's etherial wellsprings 
 rise and sink in pearly showers with a genuine art- 
 lessness, void of method in their genial spontaneity, 
 Liszt's pyrotechnical display takes a well arranged 
 and systematically developed flight and his orche - 
 tral polyphony lacks Schumann's harmonic and 
 rhythmical fermentation. 
 
 The complete mastery of the piano, the consum- 
 mate knowledge of all its possibilities and the mas- 
 ter's discriminating powers as illustrated in his
 
 148 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 transcriptions of a host of beautiful songs must be 
 admired in the truth and simplicity of their repro- 
 duction. The arrangement of a number qf overtures, 
 organ fugues and fantasies of Bach for concert pur- 
 poses, and the symphonies of Beethoven make a 
 valuable addition to piano literature. In his original 
 works some written for display and very effec- 
 tive: the two concertos, the polonaises, tarantellas, 
 legendes, nocturnes and the galop chromatique 
 others reflecting more strongly the qualities of his 
 inner life: the Consolations, Harmonies, Annees de 
 Pelerinage and a sonata in B minor Liszt does not 
 obtain a uniform artistic and musical merit; the 
 works are full of a certain material magnetism in 
 their sonorous quality, of a make-up that is often 
 sober and unimpassioned, yet where the laborious 
 effort of compiling for artificial effect is unobtrusive, 
 a noble ideal life engenders occasionally passages 
 of transcendental beauty. 
 
 In his fifteen Hungarian rhapsodies to which 
 seven more were added later of more indifferent 
 quality Liszt, following the precedent of Chopin 
 National introduced an element distinctly national in rhythm > 
 Element. anc j me l o dy, an element which was destined to be- 
 come a prominent feature in the further develop- 
 ment of instrumental music. Sarabande, allcmande, 
 gavotte, gigue and other dances, utilized in early 
 days in the suite, w r ere in name and movement of 
 national origin, being respectively Spanish, German, 
 French and English dance measures. Idealized in 
 the suites they became to an extent individualized
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. I4Q 
 
 by the various composers as the valses and laendler 
 were, in virtue of greater expre:sive quality in 
 melody and rhythm, elevated by Schubert to an ar- 
 tistic standard and endowed with his own youthful 
 individuality. 
 
 Under different climatic influences, unequal 
 conditions of existence and unequal fortunes, the 
 various nations assumed a different tenor of thought 
 and feeling strongly pronounced in their domestic 
 habits and social customs, which developed marked 
 characteristic traits in their folk songs and dances. 
 The melodies of the southern people, living under a 
 serene sky, with scanty care of existence, show the 
 marked enjoyment of a sensuous beauty of sound; 
 the northern nations, surrounded by darker prospects, 
 toiling from day to day, always hopeful, yet scarcely 
 sure of the morrow, sing in grave and somber 
 strains, sadly longing and touching evert their har- 
 monious essence shows an instinctive drifting into 
 the more plaintive minor mode. Whatever strongly 
 moves the heart bursts forth in song spontaneously, 
 with no other rule and order than what natural 
 instinct suggests; and folk songs are the almost 
 unintentional outgrowth of human feelings which 
 seek expression where language begins to fail. 
 As the nations by commercial and political inter- 
 course acquire some degree of culture and improve- 
 ment, their instincts become more refined and by a 
 certain discipline in mental training even artistic; 
 and their songs, though still developed instinctively, 
 reflect their improved taste.
 
 150 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 The free reproduction of an ideal beauty in music 
 as an art is accomplished according to strict artistic 
 rules, and requires a certain degree of symmetry 
 and perfection in the work which fashions, forms 
 and co-ordinates the material. The material may 
 reflect a certain character, may represent to the 
 imagination the various phases and aspects of life 
 as it left its impress on the different people, and as 
 it appears in their national songs and dances. 
 These more or less natural and inartistic melodies, 
 with their quaint rhythm and distinctive harmonies, 
 in themselves, in musical art somewhat heteroge- 
 neous elements, must be refined and purified to be- 
 come proper constituents and components in a work 
 of art, and the more this material, in the process of 
 preparation, loses the outer peculiarities and the 
 more it reflects the inner character of the national 
 idiom, the more valuable will it become in musical 
 art. 
 
 Chopin in his polonaises and mazurkas reflects 
 all the noble pride and elegant grace of his people 
 and shrouds the poetic essence of all his works in a 
 touching, dreamy sadness which seems to be born in 
 the sad fate of the heroic but ill-starred Polish 
 nation. So Schumann in his burly humor, his depth 
 of sentiment, his dreamy reverie and the force and 
 logic of his ideas is as thoroughly German, as Chopin 
 is Polish. The heart-broken lament, the wildly joy- 
 ous shouts of the melodies of the Puszta, the strik- 
 ing rhythmic peculiarities give Liszt's Hungarian 
 rhapsodies a distinctly national coloring (which
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 15! 
 
 can not be traced in his other works) and the brill- 
 iant make-up of the loosely jointed melodies and the 
 dash and force suitable for forensic display make 
 them dear alike to pianists and public. 
 
 The French composers show a genial audacity in 
 rhythmic refinement which frequently verges on the 
 extravagant and loses itself in brilliant common- 
 place phrases lacking alike feeling or sentiments; 
 the works of the later French composers for this 
 reason often make the impression of an ostentatious 
 finery without character, and the composers them- 
 selves are, as a rule, hardly above mediocrity. The 
 piano works of N. H. Reber, C. Stamati, George 
 Mathias, Chas. H. Alkan the last a composer of 
 high aspirations, whose works are very difficult, but 
 have a tawdry character even to eccentricity are 
 but little known. Saint-Saens, the most prominent 
 of the French piano composers, has a very thorough 
 knowledge of and deep admiration for Bach, to 
 which commendable inclination much of the higher 
 musical quality in his works may be attributable; 
 three concertos, several ensemble works, solos and 
 transcriptions from Bach are well known, besides a 
 number of larger works for orchestra, chorus, and 
 several operas. 
 
 The Scandinavian folk songs and dances became 
 known to the musical world in the early part of this 
 century. The Norwegian national airs seem to reflect 
 the grandeur and gloom of rugged mountain scenery 
 with a mysterious depth of sentiment and a strong 
 and vigorous fantasie as befits people who believe in
 
 152 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 manly courage and valiant deeds. Tender emotions 
 are rarer, and in the melodies that speak of longing 
 desire and heartsore affliction there is no affectation 
 of any kind; their strains give vent to a wealth of 
 suffering in a sonorousness which is always veiled in 
 darkness, and requires a pathetic and declamatory 
 rendition. The spring dances have a capricious, 
 fantastic character full of freshly gushing power of 
 life; their rhythms often move with a quick impulse 
 and suddenly arrested motion. The Swedish and 
 Danish melodies are of a softer tone and romantic 
 character; their form often shows great artistic re- 
 finement. 
 
 This powerful new element has been introduced 
 in musical art and can be traced in the compositions 
 of N. W. Gade, L. Norman, E. Hartman, Ed. Neu- 
 pert, Halfdan Kjerulf ( 1818-1870) and Edvard Grieg 
 (1843-). The compositions of the last two have a 
 very pronounced Norse character; Grieg's piano 
 works more widely known, are a concerto, sonata, 
 ensemble and smaller works. 
 
 A neo-Russian school of composers, much influ- 
 enced by the German models, has taken up the spirit 
 of the Slavonic folk-songs and dances and has thus 
 given a powerful impetus to instrumental music. 
 The Russian national airs are exceedingly numerous 
 and very varied in character. The slower airs, in 
 the minor mode, have sometimes remarkable har- 
 monious beauty, are of a somber, melancholy char- 
 acter, very pathetic and of an indescribably touch- 
 ing sentiment which seldom takes on a lighter tinge;
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 153 
 
 those in a major key are generally lively, as though 
 intended for dances, and of a sweet, winning charm. 
 The harmonious melodies of more pronounced mu- 
 sical tendency often end their phrases with character- 
 istic long cadences, show marked dissonances and a 
 shortening of the first and lengthening of the second 
 beat, which causes a sort of halting and dragging in 
 the rhythmical construction. 
 
 These characteristics have more or less success- 
 fully been reproduced in a number of works operas, 
 oratorios, symphonies, etc. This element can also 
 largely be traced in the piano compositions of M. 
 Glinka (1803-1857; small character pieces), Rimsky- 
 Korsakoff (1844 I chamber music and shorter 
 works), Cesar Cui (suite and smaller works), Ana- 
 tole Liadoff (etudes, etc.), Mili Balakirew, (scherzo, 
 fantasie, etc.), Anton Rubinstein (in some of his 
 works) and Peter I. Tschaikowsky (1840 ), who is 
 the most prominent Russian composer of the day, 
 remarkable through his fire, depth of feeling and 
 spontaneity, which is evident in his concertos, so- 
 natas, ensemble works and character pieces. 
 
 The Bohemians (another branch of the Slavonic 
 race which for ages has bsen well reputed for its 
 musical inclinations), have come into prominence 
 more recently. The strains which were sung by the 
 Hussites in their grim wars are of a most vigorous 
 characteristic rhythm, a darkly determined express- 
 ion glowing with ardent zeal, full of manly energy 
 and martial spirit. Their strict morals and deep re- 
 ligious feeling have left their impress on their hymns
 
 154 THE PIANISTS ART. 
 
 which have an inspired expression and great beauty 
 of form; others of their national airs are of infinite 
 tenderness, quaint humor even to joviality. Hans 
 Seeling ( 1828-1862), Fried. Smetana, (1824-1884), Ed. 
 Napravnick, (1839-) are among their better known 
 composers, but Antonin Dvorak (1842-), seems to 
 have brought to life again the indomitable spirit of 
 the old Hussites, so inspired, so full of intensity of 
 feeling and romantic grace are the compositions 
 which reflect largely the old national character even 
 in the piano works the Slavonic dances, ensemble 
 music and concertos. 
 
 German instrumental music has in its early course 
 been largely influenced by France and Italy, but its 
 growth has been a steady and healthy one in its 
 purely artistic tendency up to the present time. 
 With the great hosts of eminent composers the na- 
 tional element never rose to supreme importance in 
 musical art though intheir individuality they manifest 
 a more or less pronounced German spirit, as is evi- 
 dent in the works of Bach, Haendel, Haydn, Mo- 
 zart, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn and 
 Schumann. To the fact that the beauty of an ideal 
 life in its complete expression was their ultimate 
 object in their works of art is due the high artistic 
 perfection that German instrumental music has ac- 
 quired, a perfection which in the well balanced pro- 
 portions of form, thought and feeling give it a true 
 cosmopolitan character. 
 
 Joachim Raff (1822-1882) is one of the promi- 
 nent composers of the romantic school, and has
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 155 
 
 written, besides a number of other important works, 
 compositions for piano, solo and ensemble. His 
 suites and characteristic pieces are brilliant and 
 markedly original; his style is reflective and strong, 
 full of happy harmonious innovations and melodious 
 inflections. He is much given to polyphone writing 
 which not infrequently appears as the outgrowth 
 of a peculiar fancy for scientific combinations and 
 so impresses more readily by its eccentricity than 
 its true poetical essence. Carl Reinecke (1824-) 
 shows a genial and sympathetic spirit in his con- 
 certos and the various solo pieces. His cadenzas to 
 Mozart and Beethoven's concertos give evidence to 
 what extent he has entered into the spirit of the mas- 
 ters; the compositions for children are full of rom- 
 ance and refinement. Robert Volkmann (1815-1883) 
 has valuable ensemble music and smaller works. 
 Theodor Kirchner (1824-) and Woldemar Bargiel 
 (1828-1891) are largely influenced by Schumann's 
 spirit, and while the first shows more musical quality 
 in his smaller works, those of the latter are more 
 pleasing. Refined original sketches writes Alex- 
 ander Winterberger (1834-); Carl Goldmark (1832-) 
 ensemble music. Adolf Jensen (1837-1879) appears 
 musing and tender with a romantic coloring, while 
 Josef Rheinberger (1839-) is eminently a scholarly 
 writer in his chamber music and piano solos. Of 
 later day and brilliant promise are Jean L. Nicode 
 and Moritz Moszkowsky. 
 
 Among the great pianists Anton Rubinstein Rubinstein 
 (1829-) easily ranks first in the general excellence of
 
 156 THE PIANIST'S ART 
 
 a characteristic conception and genial rendition of 
 the master works of piano literature. A superior 
 musical intelligence, an unselfish devotion to the 
 intentions of the composer, great physical power 
 and endurance, a touch that responds to the most 
 sensitive refinement, and an intensity of feeling that 
 acts with the magnetic force of plenary inspiration, 
 give his readings serene repose or dithyrambic im- 
 petus, tender abandon or heroic energy. As a com- 
 poser Rubinstein unquestionably ranks very high, 
 but is more admirable in the smaller forms, where 
 the spontaneity of invention is not hampered by the 
 drudgery of labor. Even in the best of his larger 
 works brilliant but barren reveries are encountered 
 where the fire of inspiration goes begging for lack of 
 mental restriction. His concerto in D minor is the 
 best of his larger compositions for the piano, which 
 include five concertos, sonatas, ensemble works, 
 (some of them very valuable), etudes and smaller 
 pieces; a number of the latter must certainly be 
 counted among the gems of piano literature. Hans 
 G. von Biilow (1830-), a musician of great mental 
 astuteness, pianist of great technical and intellectual 
 faculties and prodigious memory, is one of the first 
 conductors of the day. His compositions show that 
 critical analysis in him is superior to imagination. 
 Jan. Ig. Paderewski and Eugen d' Albert, pianists of 
 exceptional prominence, are composers of great 
 promise; the compositions of the first are more of 
 the pleasing, popular kind, while those of the latter 
 show markedly the scholarly musician.
 
 THE PIANIST'S ART. 157 
 
 In point of uniform excellence, in the originality 
 of invention, the unadorned simplicity and ingenuous- 
 ness of his ideas, the clear, logical development and 
 the evident repose in the consciousness of his men- 
 tal power, in the conciseness of ideal beauty and 
 perfection of form, an emotional life which in its 
 expression is free from excess and always artistic, 
 in his harmonic and rhythmical construction, even 
 in the novelty of his technical treatment of the piano 
 Joh. Brahms (1833-) stands unrivaled among con- 
 temporary composers. 
 
 In his early works three sonatas, a trio, varia- 
 tions, scherzo and ballads Brahms manifests a pro- 
 lific power and romantic exuberance of fantasie in 
 the genial and poetic essence and the novel and 
 original development of his ideas. The pregnancy 
 and beauty of the melodies, the tender abandon, the 
 burly humor, the feeling in all its intensity, the well 
 planned though often daring construction and 
 the playful mastery of piano technic give the im- 
 pression of a remarkable artistic potentiality. There 
 is nothing trivial or commonplace; even where his 
 melodies take on a more popular color, the inven- 
 tion is altogether of an individual character; ideal 
 beauty is his aim everywhere, but the beauty of 
 sound does not always seem to claim primary con- 
 sideration. 
 
 The variations (op. 21, 24, 35, and 23 for four 
 hands) show a daring flight of the ideas, a power of 
 combination in the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic 
 reconstructions of the themes and a mastery in coun-
 
 158 THK I'lAMST's ART 
 
 terpoint which has no equal since Beethoven. The 
 variations on a Hamdel theme (op. 24) belong to 
 the best productions of modern piano music; in 
 those entitled "Studies for the Piano," on a theme of 
 Paganini's (op. 35), it is a trying question to say 
 which is more admirable: the fantastic and withal 
 extremely melodious new formations which the 
 simple theme engenders in the composer's imag- 
 ination or the novelty and the even after Lizst, 
 Chopin and Schumann stupendous technical diffi- 
 culties which carry the aerial flight of capricious 
 ideas. 
 
 In the valses for four hands there is a wealth of 
 melody and a variety of expression of the most win- 
 ning charm, and it is safe to say that whosoever fails 
 to see the wonderful beauty in these little sketches 
 has no ear for music. The Hungarian dances, 
 arranged from Hungarian melodies, speak for them- 
 selves in their well earned popularity, and the later 
 pieces (op. 76, 79) are continually gaining ground 
 with the sincere lovers of good piano music. 
 
 If in his larger works for chorus or orchestra, 
 and his beautiful, characteristic songs, Brahms 
 claims consideration with the great masters, he 
 asserts his powers no less in his ensemble works 
 with piano and the second concerto; in a quintette 
 (op. 34), three quartettes (op. 25, 26, 60), five trios 
 (op. 8, 40, 87, 101 and 109), four sonatas (op. 38, 78, IOO 
 and 108) he develops a melodious beauty, a thematic 
 work, a variety in harmonic and rhythmic construc- 
 tion and a well defined character in each composi-
 
 THE PIANISTS ART. 159 
 
 tion which secure him a place among the first com- 
 posers of chamber and concerted pieces. The mel- 
 odies have rhythmic clearness and distinctness, gen- 
 erally a simple (tonal) harmonic structure, and fre- 
 quently a markedly popular character. In his work 
 Brahms manifests the most complete artistic devel- 
 opment and perfect mastery over the material in the 
 strictest forms. In the "Durchfuehrung" he con- 
 trasts the motives by every artful device of counter- 
 point. His interchange of the major and minor 
 modes is very striking, his modulations into removed 
 keys are effected with ease and appear perfectly 
 natural; the peculiar effects he often produces by 
 harmonic changes for greater intensity of feeling or 
 marked coloring show his masterful use of the har- 
 monic apparatus. The rhythm is most varied; com- 
 binations of different rhythmical figures are a fre- 
 quent occurrence, and striking are the effects pro- 
 duced by latent rhythms in the parts of the differ- 
 ent instruments. 
 
 When individual sentiment in art frequently 
 takes precedence of musical quality; when the 
 ideal beauty and inspiring spontaneity of invention 
 too often lack the sustaining power of artistic for- 
 mation noticeable in the number of indifferent 
 works of better composers and in many brilliant but 
 unprolific episodes in their larger works it is an 
 evidence of remarkable artistic strength in Brahms 
 that his compositions are of an even merit through- 
 out, that they have no inartistic weakness, and, 
 though they may fail to find ready appreciation,
 
 160 THE PIANIST'S ART. 
 
 they are of great persuasive power where their sim- 
 ple beauty fails to convince at once. Brahm's way 
 of thinking and feeling, his mode of expressing 
 what he feels, and his whole artistic personality fail 
 in that sympathetic essence which directly appeals 
 to sentimentality; he never tries to win by mere 
 outer charm, makes no concession to a popular 
 taste, and gives expression in his own unceremonious 
 way to what moves him, but in the unassuming sim- 
 plicity of his great art, in the power of his reasoning, 
 in his high aims and his severe earnestness, he is a 
 composer who compels the admiration of all that 
 take cognizance of his works.
 
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