The First Principles of Pianoforte Playing

Tobias Matthay

Description

“The First Principles of Pianoforte Playing” is a vintage guide to playing the piano. Originally designed as an introductory text intended for use in secondary schools, it presents the most elementary principles in a way that can be understood by the beginner. This volume is highly recommended for those with a practical interest in playing pianoforte or piano. Contents include: “Directions and Definitions for Learners”, “General Directions”, “Summary – Reminder of Main Points”, “Extract from 'The Act of Touch”, “The Act of Playing”, “On Rhythm”, “Piano Talent”, “As to Self Consciousness and Nervousness”, 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.

Sujets

• Techniques musicales
• Music
• Instruction
• Study
• Techniques

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 06 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528766661
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF
PIANOFORTE PLAYING
BEING AN EXTRACT FROM THE AUTHOR S
THE ACT OF TOUCH
DESIGNED FOR SCHOOL USE, AND INCLUDING TWO NEW CHAPTERS
DIRECTIONS FOR LEARNERS
AND
ADVICE TO TEACHERS
BY
TOBIAS MATTHAY
Copyright 2017 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay was born on 19th February 1858, in Clapham, Surrey, England. He was an English pianist, teacher and composer.
Matthay s parents originally came from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised British subjects. He studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music (London) under Sir William Sterndale Bennett and Arthur Sullivan, and piano with William Dorrell and Walter Macfarren. Matthay served as a sub-professor there from 1876 to 1880, and became an assistant professor of pianoforte in 1880, before being promoted to professor in 1884.
Alongside Frederick Corder and John Blackwood McEwen (both composers and music teachers), he founded the Society of British Composers in 1905. This organisation was established with the aim of protecting the interests of British composers and to provide publication, promotion and performance opportunities. It was disbanded thirteen years later, in 1918. Matthay remained at the Royal Academy of Music until 1925, when he was forced to resign because McEwen - his former student who was then the Academy s Principal - publicly attacked his teaching.
In 1903, after over a decade of observation, analysis, and experimentation, Matthay published The Act of Touch , an encyclopaedic volume that influenced piano pedagogy throughout the English-speaking world. So many students were soon in quest of his insights that two years later he opened the Tobias Matthay Pianoforte School, first in Oxford Street, then in 1909 relocating to Wimpole Street, where it remained for the next thirty years. He soon became known for his teaching principles that stressed proper piano touch and analysis of arm movements. He wrote several additional books on piano technique that brought him international recognition, and in 1912 he published Musical Interpretation , a widely read book that analyzed the principles of effective musicianship.
Many of Matthay s pupils went on to define a school of twentieth century English pianism, including York Bowen, Myra Hess, Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany, Eunice Norton, Lytle Powell, Irene Scharrer, Lilias Mackinnon, Guy Jonson, Vivian Langrish and Harriet Cohen. He was also the teacher of Canadian pianist Harry Dean, English composer Arnold Bax and English conductor Ernest Read.
In his private life, Matthay married Jessie (n e Kennedy) in 1893, the sister of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (the Scottish singer, composer and arranger). She sadly died in 1937.
Tobias Matthay died at his country home, High Marley, near Haslemere, on 15th December 1945. He was eighty-seven years old.
PREFACE.
T HIS little work is issued to render the teachings of The Act of Touch better available for the School-room and Classroom, and as a Text-book for Examinations. It is intended as an Introduction to the subject.
The supreme importance of early training in this subject-the mechanism of playing-need not be further dilated upon here, since it has been proved that Agility itself, and all those contrasts of Tone and Duration which enable us musically to express ourselves through the Pianoforte, depend immediately on the proper fulfilment of the laws of Touch, the polemics of which have been amply dealt with in The Act of Touch.
This Introduction consists of the promised Extract from the original work, from which I have drawn the Preface and a selection from its Recapitulatories and Summaries. To these selections I have added two new and important Chapters: Advice to Teachers and Self-teachers , and Directions and Definitions for Learners . This last Chapter roughly covers the whole ground. It is intended for those beginning the study of Touch, and I have endeavoured to couch it in language simple enough to fit it even for children.
Its study-accompanied by constant experiment at the keyboard-should be followed by the perusal of the Extract ; taking this in the following order: (1) the final Summary and Conclusion; (2) the Summaries of the four Parts; and (3) the Recapitulatories of the Chapters of each of these Parts.
Constant reference to the Directions for Learners should accompany subsequent Practice.
Students sufficiently earnest and intelligent to desire more detailed information should follow this, by study of the Advice to Teachers, and of The Act of Touch itself; first referring to the Contents of its Chapters, and finally to the text of these.
The flattering reception accorded to the parent work leads me to hope that this, its offspring, may prove even more directly helpful alike to Teacher and Pupil. The promised extra Part, Relaxation -Exercises in Muscular-discrimination, is also in preparation.
The second Edition is a reprint of the first, except that some slight misprints have been corrected, and some additions made to pages 1 , 126 , 129 , etc.
T OBIAS M ATTHAY .
H AMPSTEAD , L ONDON .
CONTENTS
P REFACE
DIRECTIONS AND DEFINITIONS FOR LEARNERS
G ENERAL D IRECTIONS (S UMMARY )
S UMMARY -R EMINDER OF M AIN P OINTS
EXTRACT FROM THE ACT OF TOUCH. *
P ART I:-I NTRODUCTORY .
P REFACE
Summary of Part I: The Act of Playing
N OTE : On Listening
N OTE : On Rhythm
N OTE : Piano-talent
N OTE : As to Self-consciousness and Nervousness
P ART II:-I NSTRUMENTAL A SPECT OF K EY -T REATMENT .
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER VIII: The Instrument
F IG . 1: D IAGRAM OF P IANOFORTE A CTION
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER IX: On Sound
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER X: The String
F IG . 2: P ENDULUM O SCILLATIONS
N OTE : On Pedalling
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XI: The Key
F IG . 3: D IAGRAM I LLUSTRATING K EY -L EVERAGE
F IG . 4: D IAGRAM I LLUSTRATING S UDDEN AND G RADUAL K EY -D EPRESSION
Summary of Part II
P ART III:-M USCULAR A SPECT OF K EY -T REATMENT .
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XIII: The Link Between Key and Muscle
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XIV: On Key-Contact
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XV: The Concepts of Resting and Aaded-Impetus
T ABLE OF THE T WO C ONCEPTS
R ECAPITULATORY OF CHAPTER XVI: The Limbs Employed
F IGS . 6 AND 7: I LLUSTRATION AND D ESCRIPTION OF T HRUSTING AND C LINGING F INGER
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XVII: The Required Actions and In-actions
T ABLE OF R EQUIRED M USCULAR -D ISCRIMINATIONS
F IGS . 8 AND 9: T HE M USCULAR -T ENDENCIES D URING F LAT AND B ENT F INGER -M ETHODS , R ESPECTIVELY
F IG . 11: F AULTY A CTION IN T WO F RONT P HALANGES OF F INGER
N OTE : The Staccatissimo
N OTE : The Nature of Glissando
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XVIII: The Three Chief Muscular T E sts
R ECAPITULATORY OF C HAPTER XIX: The Three Species of Touch-formation
T ABLE S HOWING R ELATIONSHIP B ETWEEN S PECIES OF T OUCH , M OVEMENT, AND THE R ESTING
R ECAPITULATORY (reduced) OF C HAPTER XX: Enumeration and Classification of Touches
T ABLE -F INAL C LASSIFICATION
Summary of Part III
N OTE : Exceptional Forms of Staccato and Legato
N OTE : Incorrect vs . Correct Finger-technique
P ART IV:-O N P OSITION .
P REAMBLE
R ECAPITULATORY OF P ART IV (Position)
Summary of Position
F IG . 16: F AULTY P OSITION OF T HUMB
F IG . 17: I LLUSTRATION OF F LAT -F INGER S TACCATO
F IG . 19: C ORRECT P OSITION OF T HUMB
F IGS . 20 AND 21: I LLUSTRATION OF C ORRECT AND I NCORRECT P OSITION OF A RM
Conclusion: Glossary and Summary of the Main Teachings
Final Summary of Extract
ADVICE TO TEACHERS AND SELF-TEACHERS
S UMMARY OF M AIN P OINTS TO BE I NSISTED U PON WHILST T EACHING
APPENDIX.
L EGATO F IRST, OR S TACCATO ?
* N.B.-The page-references found in this Extract apply to The Act of Touch.
DIRECTIONS AND DEFINITIONS FOR LEARNERS.

SECTION I .
HOW TO TREAT THE KEY:
1. Regard the Pianoforte as consisting of two distinct portions: (I) the instrument itself , which can be made to sound-being the Strings and connected Sounding-board; and (II) the machine , or Tool, by which it is made to sound-being the K EY and its mechanism, ending with the felt-covered hammer.
2. When you move the key down, its other (hammer) end tilts up, 1 like a see-saw, and in rising it gives up to the String any motion which you may have succeeded in imparting to the key while you were moving your end of it down. *
3. The hammer reaches the String when your end of the key is nearly down, and the mechanism allows the hammer to fall back at that very moment. Any motion you wish to give the String through the hammer must therefore be imparted to it before that moment.
4. You can best become aware of that moment by listening for it, for it is the beginning of the sound.
Anything you do to the key after that moment cannot possibly help to make the sound in any way.
5. The strings will however continue sounding (more and more faintly) until you let the key rise, when the descending Damper at once stops the sound.
6. The louder you want a note to be, the more swiftly must you make the key move during its descent.
7. If you want the sound to be beautiful in quality, you mus