Best of all he
was a true artist, always ready to demonstrate his art for the benefit
of the pupil, always encouraging, always inspiring.
VITAL POINTS IN PIANO PLAYING
COMPOSITE PRINCIPLES DEDUCED FROM TALKS WITH EMINENT PIANISTS AND
TEACHERS
SECTION I
How things are done, how others do them, and the reasons for the doing
of them in one way and not in another, used to occupy my thoughts back
as far as I can remember. As a child I was fond of watching any one
doing fine needlework or beautiful embroidery, and tried to imitate what
I saw, going into minutest details. This fondness for exactness and
detail, when, applied to piano study, led me to question many things; to
wonder why I was told to do thus and so, when other people seemed to do
other ways; in fact I began to discover that every one who played the
piano played it in a different fashion. Why was there not one way?
One memorable night I was taken to hear Anton Rubinstein. What a
marvelous instrument the piano was, to be sure, when its keys were
moved by a touch that was at one moment all fire and flame, and the next
smooth as velvet or soft and light as thistle-down. What had my home
piano in common with this wonder? Why did all the efforts at piano
playing I had hitherto listened to sink into oblivion when I heard this
master? What was the reason of it all?
More artists of the piano came within my vision, Mehlig, Joseffy, Mason,
and others.
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