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About
the Book
Pianism consists of 9 chapters encompassing 121 pages of
invaluable information for the serious piano student or teacher.
Table of Contents
- Tone Production
- Pedaling
- Technique
- Melody
and Harmony
- Salient
Interpretational Expressions
- Exercises
- Rudiments of Learning and Performing
- Pedagogy
- Pianistic Analysis
A
Short Excerpt from Chapter 5,
"Salient Interpretational Expressions"
Rests
Rests plays a very important role both rhythmically and melodically, yet one has a tendency to count the rests too fast, faster than the regular notes. They should be felt with an accent, especially when they fall on the beats, to ensure the duration. In general, the note(s) preceding the rest should be released exactly on the rest to make it rhythmically clear. Beethoven uses rests in a unique way at the end of his pieces. Often he writes an extra measure with a rest and sometimes even a fermata over it. In these cases, there should be no retard on the last chords since that will spoil the intended momentum of the rhythmic vitality and the sense of "going on."
Dotted Rhythm
"Long note long, short note short."
For a lively effect, hold the dotted note a little longer than its duration, making the following short note shorter. Only a subtle touch of this makes a big difference in the rhythm.
Dotted Rhythm in Slow Melodic Line.
"Long
note long enough and short note also long enough" applies to a dotted
rhythm in melodic passages. Make sure to sing the short note with
care. They are often casually skipped over.
Chopin is quite meticulous in indicating dotted rhythms in two ways. When written as a dotted eighth and sixteenth, they should be played legato in time, but an eighth followed by a sixteenth rest and a sixteenth note should be played with more exaggeration, bouncing up on the rest, delaying the last sixteenth to make the rhythm lighter and sharper.
Orchestral Conception
There are numerous passages in the piano music which sound very much like the orchestra, especially in Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and Brahms. For instance most of Beethoven's sonatas and variations need to be orchestrated in our minds. In thinking orchestrally, the coloring will become clearer and the dynamics more three-dimensional as solo melody versus tutti. In choosing a particular solo instrument, not only the color becomes more definite but the expression and inflection are more evident, whereas the tutti demands sonority as well as rhythmic precision.
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