Piano Mastery | Page 8

be used
for velocity playing. I use quite the reverse where I wish beautiful,
singing, tone quality. The young pupil, at the beginning, must of course
learn to raise fingers and make precise movements; when greater
proficiency is reached, many modifications of touch are used. That the
best results are not more often obtained in piano teaching and study, is
as much the fault of the teacher as the pupil. The latter is usually
willing to be shown and anxious to learn. It is for the teacher to
correctly diagnose the case and administer the most efficient remedy.
[Illustration: To Miss Harriett Brower with the kindest of
remembrances, Sigismond Stojowski New York, April 1913]
NATURAL TECHNIC
"There is a certain amount of what I might call 'natural technic'
possessed by every one--some one point which is easy for him. It Is
often the trill. It has frequently come under my notice that players with
little facility in other ways, can make a good trill. Some singers have
this gift; Mme. Melba is one who never had to study a trill, for she was
born with a nightingale in her throat. I knew a young man in London

who was evidently born with an aptitude for octaves. He had wonderful
wrists, and could make countless repetitions of the octave without the
least fatigue. He never had to practise octaves, they came to him
naturally.
"The teacher's work is both corrective and constructive. He must see
what is wrong and be able to correct it. Like a physician, he should find
the weak and deficient parts and build them up. He should have some
remedy at his command that will fit the needs of each pupil.
"I give very few études, and those I administer in homeopathic doses. It
is not necessary to play through a mass of études to become a good
pianist. Much of the necessary technic may be learned from the pieces
themselves, though scales and arpeggios must form part of the daily
routine.
KEEPING UP A REPERTOIRE
"In keeping a large number of pieces in mind, I may say that the pianist
who does much teaching is in a sense taught by his pupils. I have many
advanced pupils, and in teaching their repertoire I keep up my own. Of
course after a while one grows a little weary of hearing the same pieces
rendered by students; the most beautiful no longer seem fresh. My own
compositions are generally exceptions, as I do not often teach those. To
the thoughtful teacher, the constant hearing of his repertoire by students
shows him the difficulties that younger players have to encounter, and
helps him devise means to aid them to conquer these obstacles. At the
same time there is this disadvantage: the pianist cannot fail to
remember the places at which such and such a student had trouble,
forgot or stumbled. This has happened to me at various times. In my
recitals I would be playing ahead, quite unconscious that anything
untoward could occur--wholly absorbed in my work; when, at a certain
point, the recollection would flash over me--this is where such or such
a pupil stumbled. The remembrance is sometimes so vivid that I am at
some effort to keep my mental balance and proceed with smoothness
and certainty.
"Yes, I go over my pieces mentally, especially if I am playing an
entirely new program which I have never played before; otherwise I do
not need to do so much of it.
FILLING IN A PASSAGE
"You suggest that a composer may fill in or make up a passage, should

he forget a portion of the piece when playing in public. True; but
improvising on a well-known work is rather a dangerous thing to do in
order to improve a bad case. Apropos of this, I am reminded of an
incident which occurred at one of my European recitals. It was a wholly
new program which I was to give at Vevay. I had been staying with
Paderewski, and went from Morges to Vevay, to give the recital. In my
room at the hotel I was mentally reviewing the program, when in a
Mendelssohn Fugue, I found I had forgotten a small portion. I could
remember what went before and what came after, but this particular
passage had seemingly gone. I went down to the little parlor and tried
the fugue on the piano, but could not remember the portion in question.
I hastened back to my room and constructed a bridge which should
connect the two parts. When the time came to play the fugue at the
recital, it all went smoothly till I was well over the weak spot, which, it
seems, I really played as Mendelssohn wrote it. As I neared the last
page, the question suddenly occurred