Commentaries on the Teaching of Pianoforte Technique - A Supplement to "The Act of Touch" and "First Principles"

Tobias Matthay

• Publisher: White Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781528766876
• Topic: Medien & darstellende Kunst
• Subtopic: Musiktheorie & Musikverständnis

"Commentaries on the Teaching of Pianoforte Technique" is a 1910 guide to playing the piano by Tobias Matthay. Written as a supplement to Matthay's definitive books "The Act of Touch" and "First Principles", it contains further information on some of the more detailed areas and complicated techniques. This volume is highly recommended for those who have read Matthay's previous works and will be of utility to intermediate players and students. "Contents include: The Principle of Forearm Rotation", "Arm-vibration, etc.", "On Pianissimo Playing", "The Merging of the Three Species of Touch-Instruction", "The use of Bad Touch-forms", "The Artificial Legato-element", "The Distinction between Fore Arm and Whole Arm Weight and Movement", etc. Tobias Augustus Matthay (1858 – 1945) was an English pianist, composer, and teacher. He was taught composition while at the Royal Academy of Music by Arthur Sullivan and Sir William Sterndale Bennett, and he was instructed in the piano by William Dorrell and Walter Macfarren. Other notable works by this author include: "The Act Of Touch In All Its Diversity: An Analysis And Synthesis Of Pianoforte Tone Production" (1903), "The First Principles of Pianoforte Playing (1905)" and "Relaxation Studies" (1908). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

SOME

COMMENTARIES

ON THE TEACHING OF

PIANOFORTE TECHNIQUE

NOTE I

THE PRINCIPLE OF FOREARM ROTATION

This matter is often so badly misunderstood, in spite of all I have said, that I feel some additional directions are here most desirable. Splendid pioneer workers¹ have published books in Germany since the publication of my “Act of Touch” in 1903, but even these are quite vague and in fact mis-instructive as to the function and process of the rotary-exertions of the forearm, or lower-arm, and although they prove themselves sufficiently alive to the enormous importance of this function, the true facts of the case have not been understood.

They, in fact, make so grave a blunder as to teach that the forearm rotation is to be employed to “roll” the continuously resting and fully released Weight of the whole arm from finger to finger! Nothing more misleading and harmful could well be conceived. Like so many others, they have only gone by “the look of the thing,” and have quite failed to grasp that these same rotary exertions can quite well be applied without in the least showing any movement in consequence of such rotary application of force. Also, they seem quite to have failed to realize that the very first and most vital law of all technique is, that each tone must be produced as a distinct and separate muscular act (except in the solitary and rare case of “passing-on” touch) if there is to be any ease as regards Agility, or any accuracy musically. To “pass-on” or “roll” Weight (beyond pp power) from key to key, as they suggest, would indeed have the same evil influence as persistent practice (and bad practice) on the organ, or on click-instruments, or on entirely dumb keyboards. Instead of our being prompted to learn most carefully to adjust each and every touch-action to the precise requirements of each note, musically and physically, and learning to guide each key-descent with a musical purpose, instead of all this, it is certain we should acquire carelessness as regards tone-variation, an unmusical dead-level way of progressing over the keyboard, accompanied by a poor tone; and we should besides be wearing down the key-adjustments of our Piano, just as any mechanical “Piano-player” does, owing to its not relaxing the full force of its “fingers” until each note duration has been fully fulfilled.

The fact of the matter is, that while there is not necessarily a change in the rotary exertion from note to note, it is quite certain that every note we play does depend on an accurately adjusted rotary action (or exertion) of the forearm; it depends as much on this element as it does on the other three elements of Touch—Finger-exertion, Hand-exertion, and release of Arm-weight. There cannot be any good technique without constant care in respect of these rotary adjustments, just as there cannot be any good playing without constant alert attention to key-resistance before and during descent. In fact, insistence upon the laws of Rotation will probably correct without further trouble many of the worst faults one meets with—in the way of rigid elbow, down-pushes from the shoulder, etc., since these faults become almost impossible if we insist on freely executing constant reversals of the rotary actions and inactions. Even a beginner should never be allowed to proceed without clearly understanding the function of this rotary-adjustment, and how it applies to every finger he uses; and it is far more easy for him to learn it then, than later on, when wrong notions have been formed which are then difficult to eradicate.¹ Clearly it is impossible merely to bring the hand into its playing position (palm downwards) without the intervention of this very same rotary-action on the part of the forearm; for the natural position of our hand and arm at rest is with the thumb-side of the hand turned upwards. We are therefore compelled to exert the forearm rotarily, to bring our thumb upon the keys, and to render our hand-position “level.” The exertion used is indeed a very slight one, and as we are so accustomed to it, it easily passes unnoticed, as also does the fact, that so long as we keep our hand in that position (palm downwards) so long also we must continue a slight rotary exertion towards the thumb—unless we support the hand on the keyboard by our little finger, etc. The often-supposed “weakness” of the little finger and fourth finger also vanishes (as I have before insisted upon) as soon as we learn to relax the rotary exertion towards the thumb which turns our hand into its level position preparatory to playing, and learn to replace that rotary exertion (towards the thumb) by one towards the little finger, when we wish to use that finger.

The supposed “weakness” of the Index finger, when that is used while the thumb sustains its note, is another of those fallacies occasioned by non-recognition of the function of Forearm rotation-adjustment, or else due to violation of the rule just given as to its application—that the direction of the rotary-exertion must always be from the finger that has played and towards the finger that is to play—so long as the “Resting” is continuous.

The fault is occasioned in this way: to use the thumb, we must exert the forearm rotarily towards it during the act of Tone-production, but instead of at once ceasing all superfluous force both of this rotary exertion and of the corresponding exertion of finger and hand, the fault made is to prolong these exertions beyond the moment of tone-emission, prolonging them at full stress; consequently the Index-finger has no basis for its operation and hence appears “weak.” The correction obviously is to relax all that unnecessary strain, instantly sound is reached (except the slight residue to keep the key down in tenuto or legato), and to reverse the rotary exertion (towards the little finger therefore) and thus to help to “swing” the passage onwards from thumb to Index. But let us go a little further into this matter. It is true that even the most ignorant teachers, anyway of recent times, have recognized the presence of rotary changes, solely however in the form of tilting movements along with the thumb and little-finger, where these happen to “jostle” each other or closely succeed each other; but what has quite passed observation is the fact that rotary exertions (or muscular adjustments) are required practically for every note in every kind of touch, although there need not be the slightest movement, rotarily, to give even the slightest clue to the process enacted.

The truth is that we invariably begin by applying all the rotation muscles—both the sets of forearm-twisting muscles, and that what we have to learn is to apply only the particular set required by each finger under the greatly varying conditions of the sequence of its entry, and that while we must learn to apply rotation in the right direction, we must also learn to eliminate (or delete) all the opposite (contrary) rotary exertions. We must relax those contrary exertions, and we must also “relax” all efforts required to make each tone, no matter from whence derived, always excepting that slight residue which comes under the heading of “the Resting.”

As to the little finger and thumb, it is always clear enough in which direction we must exert the forearm, rotarily, to help them; but the matter is not always so clear as regards the remaining three fingers, since the rotary exertions employed here vary with the order in which these fingers are used during a continuous finger-passage. This, owing to the fact that during a finger-passage, on playing from one finger to another, the last preceding finger acts as a pivot, however lightly it may be rested upon—even when the act of “Resting” is at the surface-level of the keyboard, as in Staccato and in swift passages.

Thus, taking the five-finger exercise as an example, and beginning with the thumb, we shall require a slight rotary exertion to bring the hand into its playing position, with its palm downwards. Now, as the thumb should continue in contact with its key after sounding its note, the next finger in order (the Index) will require help by a rotary exertion towards the little finger side of the hand—and not towards the thumb side of the hand as would be the case were that finger (the Index) used to start a passage—and in which case there would be no “Resting” to be transferred with the thumb as pivot. The next fingers in order, the middle, ring and little fingers will, each one, require rotary help in the same direction as was required for the Index finger—that is, towards the little finger, for they all enter in the same order, with a preceding finger resting on the keyboard on the thumb side, relatively to them. We thus require a repetition of the same little rotary exertion for each of these four fingers—and not a “gradually increasing tilt towards the little finger” as some have misunderstood it. The four-finger progression back to the thumb (to complete the five-finger exercise) is accompanied by four little rotary actions (exertions or jerks, usually without movement) each one given towards the thumb-side of the hand, and applied as the ring finger, middle finger and Index come into play, respectively. Of course if the “five-finger exercise” is more complex, and not merely straight up and down, then the changes in direction of the rotary jerks must also necessarily be correspondingly complex.

In taking a scale or arpeggio, the direction of the rotary exertions are also, similarly, always in sympathy with the order in which the fingers come into play. Confusion m...