Playing the Piano for Pleasure: The Classic Guide to Improving Skills Through Practice and Discipline by Charles Cooke

Author:Charles Cooke [Cooke, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2011-07-01T03:00:00+00:00

“Color means everything to the pianist” (Carreño).

Tempo rubato and pedaling are difficult subjects to discuss usefully in a book. As to the former, once you have grasped a piece's rhythmic structure accurately—play flexibly. As one comes forward from Bach through Beethoven to Chopin, flexibility in playing should increase. Be aware of bar lines as marking off the rhythmic segments of a composition: “leaning” almost imperceptibly on the first beat of measures is often of value: it keeps the rhythmic flow going and gives you freedom for flexibility within the remaining beats In the measure. But beware of making a general rule of this. When the phrases of a piece do not conform In shape, or fractions of their shape, to the piece's bar lines, this rule must be modified; sometimes abolished.

As to pedaling, listening to your own playing will tell you more than any printed words can.

Surely you are convinced by now that repetition practice can be, and should be, endlessly and Increasingly interesting work: from the mechanical side as you memorize; from the spiritual side as you ripen your interpretation. The processes aren't separate, but intimately related: you will never play a composition through slowly, for purposes of memorizing, without also getting interpretative ideas; just as surely, you will never play It through up to tempo without strengthening your memory.

Be critical of your interpretative ideas as they develop. Don't ever adopt one unless you are sure it is sound. Then if a new idea comes along which, on careful thought, seems superior, make the substitution. What should be your criterion? Your own musical taste. Within the limits of fidelity to the letter and spirit of the composer's intentions, your interpretation should be plastic—susceptible to the Influences of your mood, the conditions under which you are playing, and the mood of your listeners. If you have no listeners, that creates a mood of its own.

Every time you play a piece you move one step further In the long process which Moriz Rosenthal calls “getting a piece into your fingers and into your heart and nailing it down in your brain.”

I want to conclude this section on “Interpretation” with the words of the Master of Master Pianists, Franz Liszt:

“The pianist is not a mason who, chisel in hand, faithfully and conscientiously cuts his stone after the design of the architect. He is not a passive tool that reproduces feeling and thought without adding himself. Musical works are in reality only the tragic and touching mise en scène for feelings ; the pianist is called upon to let these speak, weep, sing, sigh. He creates in this way like the composer himself. He breathes life into the music's body, infuses it with gracefulness, charm, and fire.”

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