For Every Music Lover: A Series of Practical Essays on MusicMoore, Aubertine Woodward
History
For Every Music Lover: A Series of Practical Essays on Music
Moore, Aubertine Woodward
Music -- History and criticism
There is food for thought in the fact that this Prince Charming of the
piano, whose magic touch awakened the Sleeping Beauty of the instrument
of wood and wires, never had a lesson in his life from a mere piano
specialist. Liszt once said Chopin was the only pianist he ever knew
that could play the violin on the piano. If he could do so it was
because he had harkened to the voice of the violin and resolved to show
that the piano, too, could produce thrilling effects. In the same way he
had listened to the human voice, and determined that the song of his own
instrument should be heard. Those who give ear to the piano alone will
never learn the secret of calling forth its supreme eloquence.
We can see and hear this "Raphael of Music" at the piano, so many and so
eloquent have been the descriptions given of his playing. It is easy to
fancy him sweeping the ivory keys with his gossamer touch that enveloped
with ethereal beauty the most unaccustomed of his complicated chromatic
modulations. We can feel his individuality pulsating through every tone
evoked by those individualized fingers of his as they weave measures for
sylphs of dreamland, or summon to warfare heroes of the ideal world. We
are entranced by his luxuriant tone-coloring, induced to a large extent
by his original management of the pedals. We marvel at his softly
whispered, yet ever clearly distinct pianissimo, at the full, round tone
of its relative fortissimo, that was never harsh or noisy, and at all
the exquisitely graded nuances that lay between, with those time
fluctuations expressive of the ebb and flow of his poetic inner being.
No wonder Balzac maintained that if Chopin should but drum on the table
his fingers would evoke subtle-sounding music.
And what an example he has left for teachers. Delicately strung as he
was, he must often have endured tortures from the best of his pupils,
but so thoroughly was he consecrated to his art that he never faltered
in his efforts to lift those who confided in him to the aerial heights
he had found. A vivid picture of his method of teaching is given in the
lectures on "Frederic Chopin's Works and Their Proper Interpretation,"
by the Pole, Jean Kleczynski.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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