The Art of Piano Playing by Heinrich Neuhaus & K. A. Leibovitch

Author:Heinrich Neuhaus & K. A. Leibovitch [Neuhaus, Heinrich & Leibovitch, K. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781871082456
Amazon: 1871082455
Publisher: Kahn & Averill
Published: 2016-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

Addendum to Chapter IV

i. On Fingering

When thinking of fingering the first thing that comes to mind is the old Roman adage: quot homines, tot sententiae (so many men, so many minds). 1 But this fatalistic approach does not concern us; some men are nothing to write home about and their minds even less so (see the fingering suggested by some editors). What is important is to establish the supreme principle of an artistically correct fingering; all the rest will follow naturally. I think that in most general terms it can be formulated as follows: that fingering is best which allows the most accurate rendering of the music in question and which corresponds most closely to its meaning. That fingering will also be the most beautiful. By this I mean, that the principle of physical comfort, of the convenience of a particular hand is secondary and subordinate to the first, the main principle. The first principle considers only the convenience, the “arrangement” of the musical meaning which at times not only does not coincide with the physical convenience of the fingers, but may even be contrary to it. Here is an illustrative example from Beethoven’s Thirty-two Variations— the last Variation before the Coda:

1 Actually this translation is not quite right, if only because there are, of course, many more men than minds. It should be: so many men, so many opinions.

It would be much more convenient, physically, to play this scale with the generally accepted fingering:

But I must admit that even I, who have seen a thing or two in my time, have never met a simpleton who would attempt to play this bit with a “convenient” fingering. And the reason is obvious: with the “convenient” fingering it is dreadfully “inconvenient” to render Beethoven’s phrasing (i. e. a definite musical meaning) of a series of two phrased semiquavers whereas with the physically less “convenient” fingers, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3, etc., it is extremely easy to render the phrasing and thus also the meaning. On the other hand, the fingering I have shown in Example 55 would be very good if the whole of this passage came under one slur.

Some may say: you have made things too easy for yourself, giving such an absurd example of “physical convenience”; didn’t you say yourself that you never met anyone who would play it thus? I know thousands of editions and dozens of editors, and you can take it from me that I have come across fingerings almost as absurd as the one I suggested and sometimes, very seldom, it is true—just as absurd as the “convenient” example I invented.

After the first most important principle—finding the most suitable and useful fingering for rendering a given musical content, which will inevitably also be the most justified aesthetically, i. e. the most beautiful—we may take as our second principle the flexibility, “dialecticality”, changeability (“variability”) of the fingering, depending on the spirit, character and pianoforte style of the author concerned. 98 A small example from my personal experience: I

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