Studio News

March, 2008 -- 

Tone Quality - Every Note     Piano Workings     Technique by Listening     Chopin

Welcome to Studio News for March.  Students are settling in to planning and learning performance repertoire for the year, so it seems a good time to explore the importance of listening creatively and carefully to our piano playing.  This ties in closely with our composer, Fryderyk Chopin, a brilliant Polish composer of the Romantic period who wrote almost exclusively for the piano and whose teaching principles are legendary.  What is recalled of Chopin’s teachings leads a current revolution in the idea that piano playing is a beautiful, creative process and the best piano technique is achieved when playing with all our imagination.   "Put all your soul into it, play the way you feel!" (Chopin). 

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The Quality of Every Note 

The best piano playing is an expressive and creative experience that communicates with audiences at a depth that goes beyond language.  A truly awesome performance comes from the heart of the performer and touches the listeners, painting vivid imaginations and stirring the feelings.  All this comes as a result of soothing a huge, mechanical instrument under precisely moving hands.  The way this develops is using all our thoughts to picture the sound we want to create and to listen intently to the quality of every note we play, moving it closer and closer to the sound we desire.  Technique develops foremost by listening.

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Taming the Great Beast

    The piano is an extremely strong, complex instrument.  Playing well requires some understanding of the mechanics of the instrument.

The piano has been evolving since its invention by Cristofori in 1698.  Its parts and functions have been increasingly finely tuned, resulting in greater capability to respond to the finest changes in movement of the keys.  The piano consists of over 12 000 parts, 10 000 of which move.  Most pianos have 230 strings, together creating the weight of pressure of four adult elephants.  Most pianos also have three pedals, which are further able to influence the sound produced. 

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    Since the inner workings of the piano are not usually directly contacted by the performer, the quality of sound produced is entirely dependant upon how the key is pressed and released.  Subtle differences in movement of the keys (e.g. how centred the finger is on the key when it touches; how quickly the key descends; how deeply the key is pressed; how quickly the damper lifts from the strings or reconnects with the strings; how long a key is depressed for; the weight used in the key) cause a virtually inexhaustible range of sound intensity and quality.  The tiniest, indiscernible difference in contact with the keys completely alters the sound, as that movement is magnified through the response of the 12 000 internal piano components.  How the keys are contacted depends entirely on how the hands and fingers are moving – in other words, posture and technique. 

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Harmony between Instrument and Performer

    It is amazing to watch a great performer.  The instrument seems to be stroked so easily, and it sings so beautifully.  In this image, the performer illustrates the vital relationship between instrument and performer – one of harmony rather than struggle.      While technique is fundamental, and must receive conscious attention, the heart of technique is listening with out ears to the sound produced and in our minds for the one we want to hear.  We need to make adjustments to our posture and movements when the two sounds are not the same – but the secret is to first listen to the sound rather than focus on the movement.    

    Listening is the key to playing the piano well.  We need to train our listening skills for the sound quality we want to hear.  We do this by thinking carefully about the pieces we are playing, listening to recordings, experimenting with different movements when we touch the keys, and dwelling on every note as a sound alone and as part of the phrase and piece. 

    We need to determine with our imaginings the picture the music will create, the feelings it will stir.  Should it sound like snowflakes, a dark night, autumn leaves falling, or a storm?  Often the title offers suggestions.  Other hints come from the key the piece is written in and those it passes through, tempo and volume indications, and the nationality and period of the composer.  But, it is up to the pianist to dream of and hold their picture at all times and to help the audience see the picture, too. 

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Fryderyk Chopin  

    Fryderyk Chopin’s birthdate is recorded as March 1, 1810.  He was a Polish composer and virtuoso performer who has been a major influence in piano music since the Romantic period.  His music is passionate, but sincere, and reflects the spirit of his beloved Poland.

    Chopin was born in a village of Warsaw.  He was the third child of a French tutor.  Chopin had the privilege of spending his early years living on the palace grounds, and similarly advantaged settings. 

    His home was a musical environment.  Chopin’s father played violin and flute and his mother played piano.  Chopin loved the sound of music, and began playing melodies as soon as his little fingers could reach the keys.  He had his first lessons for fun, as a toddler, from his big sister, who was 3 years older.  

    Chopin’s first ‘proper’ music lessons began at 6 years of age, from Zwyny.  He learnt very quickly, soon surpassing his teacher.  At 7 he was recognised as a child prodigy, giving public concerts.  At the same age, he wrote his first two siginifcant pieces – a Polonaise in G minor and one in Bb major.  These pieces were as complex as those by the leading composers of the time. 

    Chopin was a very bright child.  He was well liked, and was invited to play with the son of the Grand Duke.  He enjoyed drawing and had a witty sense of humour.  He observed everything, was quite inventive, and had a talent for mimicking.  He was even known for these things as an adult.

    At 15, Chopin was named the best pianist in Poland.  He amazed audiences with his ability to improvise.  He included folk rhythms and melodies that he heard during his family’s visits to the countryside.

    In his late teens, Chopin received his first formal music theory lessons from Elsner, at the regional conservatory.  Seeing Chopin’s natural and creative genius, Elsner taught him about past composers and forms without insisting he follow these rules in his own writing.  Thus, unlike previous famous composers, whose early writing tended to look back to past techniques, Chopin’s writings were totally original.

    Chopin was fairly isolated from the world outside of Poland, including the musical world, until he travelled to Germany in 1828.  He then heard operas and performances from other composers, such as Mendelssohn.  The next year, Chopin performed in Vienna, and was given a very impressive write-up in the papers.  He began receiving tempting invitations to concerts throughout Western Europe.

    In 1830, Chopin was with a friend in Vienna when he heard the news about Polish Uprising against Russian rule.  His friend went back to Poland to fight in the Revolution.  Chopin was left alone.  He moved to Paris to try and make his fame at this centre of popular culture.  He was very home sick, and plunged deeply into composition to tell of his love and hopes for his home country.

    After Russian suppression of the Polish Uprising in 1831, Chopin hid a notebook that he filled with rage.  This inspired writing of his Revolutionary Etude and the Scherzo in B minor.  Chopin chose to stay in Paris and eventually became a French citizen so he would not have to use Russian identification documents.

    While in Paris, Chopin received awed written reviews by influential music journalists and composers.  People were impressed by his originality, of idea and technique.  Schumann described Chopin’s pieces as "the tenderest and most soulful things that may be conceived of in music."  Chopin became famous.  He was able to reduce his performance schedule and earn good money through composition and teaching.  It became a fashionable point of boasting, people claiming they had received a lesson from Chopin.

    Chopin composed extensively.  He wrote mostly for solo piano, also writing for ensemble and voice – but always with a piano part.  The pianoforte was undergoing great development just before Chopin’s time.  He saw much potential for the new instrument as virtually a whole orchestra in itself.  Partly due to this, his music is very demanding, with expressive and technical depth.

    He invented or altered many forms of music, including the ballade, sonata, waltz, nocturne, etude, impromptu and prelude.  Many of his waltzes were written in Paris because waltzes were the pop music of the time.  Although his waltzes are very famous, and most were ‘hits’, Chopin was never very satisfied with this music.  He wanted to play and compose music that meant something, that came from his soul rather than to meet demands of popularity.  Chopin’s greatest self-expression possibly lies in his mazurkas and polonaises – both are forms of folk dance and are powerful in Polish spirit. 

    In 1848, the French Revolution caused discomfort in Paris.  Chopin moved to London for a year, assisted by Queen Victoria.  However, his life-long struggle with tuberculosis led to his health quickly failing.  He returned to Paris, unable to perform anymore.  He died in 1849.  Some of his friends later travelled from Poland with a jar of earth they scattered on his grave so he would always ‘lie under Polish soil’.

    Chopin’s music is somehow pure and simple - often rhythmically very sensitive, with a fragile sounding melody supported by a strong harmony (often in counterpoint).  It is both Classical and Romantic.  He used a lot of half –step (chromatic) progressions and ornamentation, but never in a showy way.  He used the model of the human voice – believing the piano should also sing. 

    Although many of his works have become recognised and named, such as Revolutionary Etude, Minute Waltz, Funeral March Sonata, Military Polonaise, Raindrop Prelude, Chopin never gave names to his pieces.  He strictly used genre and number only – e.g. Etude opus 25, number 7.  He believed that the heart of music is deeper than language.  Certainly his music is known and loved by people everywhere.  Arthur Rubinstein, a Polish-American virtuoso pianst of the early 1900s, said,

Chopin was a genius of universal appeal. His music conquers the most diverse audiences. When the first notes of Chopin sound through the concert hall there is a happy sigh of recognition. All over the world men and women know his music. They love it. They are moved by it… It is expressive and personal, but still a pure art. Even in this abstract atomic age, where emotion is not fashionable, Chopin endures. His music is the universal language of human communication. When I play Chopin I know I speak directly to the hearts of people!

Annah Hyrst

Individual Dynamics

Last modified: April 05, 2008