masters of the keyboardby konrad wolff;performance practices in classic piano musicby sandra p....

Masters of the Keyboard by Konrad Wolff; Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music bySandra P. Rosenblum; Geschichte der Klaviermusik by Peter HollfelderReview by: Kenneth DrakeNotes, Second Series, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Dec., 1991), pp. 518-521Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/942064 .

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NOTES, December 1991 NOTES, December 1991 NOTES, December 1991

only eight of the seventy members of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers). I also miss mention of important American teachers and players after Ivan Galamian and Isaac Stern, and of Euro- pean players such as Anna-Sophie Mutter, Viktoria Mullova, and Nigel Kennedy. I am especially sorry that there is so little reference to jazz playing or repertory, and to works (of any style) from the 1980s.

Yet on the whole, this is a well-produced volume that will be of great use to many musicians. It should certainly be in every string player's library.

M. ALEXANDRA EDDY Sweet Briar College

The Trumpet. By Edward Tarr. Translated by S. E. Plank and Edward Tarr. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1988. [221 p. ISBN 0-931340-13-6. $29.95.]

The Trumpet is an immediately informa- tive and interestingly written text con- cerned with the history of the trumpet, in- cluding to a limited extent its modern family. Its modest 221 pages will enlighten readers about the relationship and function of the trumpet in its historical development, with respect to social orders, man- ufacturers, acoustical qualities, and tradi- tional roles. Those who seek more than a historical perspective will find perfunctory, if not superficial, discussions and may be disappointed in the lack of information on performance practice, performance literature, or pedagogical insight, especially per- taining to the modern era of the trumpet.

The author's writing skill, coupled with his enthusiasm for the subject, enhance the prose, penetrating even the translation. Tarr is highly regarded as a leader among early instrument performers, with not only outstanding performance and pedagogical skills, but also historical insight as to the development and documentation of his instrument. He points out that this volume might serve as a point of departure for future scholarly work or doctoral disser- tations; for the book is not itself an in- depth or all-encompassing scholarly accom- plishment. Though touching on the role of women in the trumpet world, for example, it omits full discussion of outstanding fe-













male performers. Further, though Tarr has been a member and benefactor of the International Trumpet Guild, readers will find nothing about the Guild's activities in the modern world.

While the trumpet is the subject of a growing literature, very little of it can compete in the area of enlightened historical discussion. The contribution of a second volume that would concentrate on the modern period would certainly be welcome.

CHARLES J. GORHAM

Indiana University

Masters of the Keyboard. Enlarged ed. By Konrad Wolff. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. [320 p. ISBN 0-253-36458-2. $35.00.]

Performance Practices in Classic Pi- ano Music. By Sandra P. Rosenblum. (Music Scholarship and Performance.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. [xxviii, 516 p. ISBN 0- 253-34314-3. $49.50.]

Geschichte der Klaviermusik. By Pe- ter Hollfelder. Wilhelmshaven: Flo- rian Noetzel Verlag, 1989. [2 vols. ISBN 3-7959-0435-8 (v.1), 3-7959- 0436-6 (v.2). DM196.00.]

Readers who are fussy about such things may object to references to Bach's keyboard works as "piano music." Others may question the dictum that Bach should al- ways be played "exactly as written," as Kon- rad Wolff maintains in his discussion of double-dotting. Such details aside, Masters of the Keyboard reflects the accumulation of a lifetime of reading, thinking, playing, and teaching. Would that we were all equally thoughtful, well-read musicians. Wolff's in- sistence upon understanding the language of music places Masters of the Keyboard in the same intellectual family with Walter Georgii's Klaviermusik (4th ed., Ziirich: At- lantis, 1950). Writing such as this resists a casual reading. Each idea and its support- ing examples must be thoroughly compre- hended and either assimilated into one's previously held concepts or rejected. Like Brahms, a composer the author describes



CHARLES J. GORHAM

Indiana University







CHARLES J. GORHAM

Indiana University





518 518 518



Book Reviews

as "a German professor" whose enthusiasm for musicology springs from "artistic cre- ativity, not from a dry scholarly mind" (p. 257), Wolff writes as a teacher who inter- prets the score as the direct communication of the composer's wishes.

Seven composers are so treated: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms. When playing Bach, Wolff advises the performer "to find out in what way [the piece] is exceptional" (p. 11). An unusual feature of the C-minor Fugue from Book II of the Wohltemperiertes Clavier, for example, is that all four voices appear simultaneously only near the end with the entry of the bass in augmentation. The exceptional may be found in the type of melodic writing, the direction of the voice line, the presence of rests, or what Wolff calls "proportions of length"-the way in which Bach regarded a composi- tional form as a space to be occupied by "an orderly distribution of measures" or sections (pp. 17-18). Bach's "three tools of organization" in this orderly occupation of space include the reuse of motivic cells, melodic variation, and the insertion of varied or new material into a work already com- pleted.

Most thought-provoking with respect to Haydn is Wolff's contention that, even though all three genres are constructed with the same exacting discipline of form and unity, the piano sonatas cannot be understood through the symphonies and quartets. The difference, Wolff explains, is that the works for larger ensembles are in general objective and "audience-con- scious," while the piano sonatas are sub- jective and private, like musical diaries in which Haydn did not need to follow a con- sistent beat or maintain a continuous flow of the music-hence the many fermatas, pauses, and interruptions. The author at- tributes the neglect of Haydn's piano sonatas in part to this century's interpretive literalism, an antiseptic attitude toward the score that ignores the fact that Haydn's music comes to life only with the "creative col- laboration of performer and composer" (p. 66).

Contrary to interpretations of Mozart as a fragile, rather sweet composer Wolff ar- gues that Mozart "established the definitive configuration of classical music" (p. 77) and, as the enlarger of the keyboard idiom,

must never sound less than life-size com- pared to Haydn and Beethoven. Consider, as the author points out, that Mozart brought to the piano the dramatic and vo- cal sense that made him a successful composer for the stage: orchestral-sounding tremolos (as in the first movement of the D-major Sonata, K. 284), "finger-recita- tives" (as in the development section of the second movement of K. 576), the janissary effects of the "Rondo alla turca," as well as an expanded use of the keyboard (as in the C-minor Fantasia and Sonata). To make Mozart's sense of unity understood (especially the strong motivic relationships), the player must choose the correct tempo and a steady beat. One wishes in this matter that Wolff had given his source for stating that, for Mozart's generation, Allegro maestoso in- dicated a somewhat faster tempo than Al- legro moderato. Finally-to mention two in- teresting details concerning Mozart's melodic writing-the author illustrates the composer's fondness for the fifth scalestep and for the rhythmic pattern J ;'J J .

Wolff identifies characteristics of Beet- hoven's music that sharpen one's image of the composer. Among them are "individ- ualization" of works (there may be thirty- two piano sonatas, but each is unique); the distinct motives that express the essence of each movement at its very beginning; and the "vibrations" that often begin pieces (such as opp. 28 or 53) with a "regular tremor" in the bass and that remain in the listener's mind throughout the movement.

Beethoven's reliance on even, vibration- like reiterations is of great importance in performing, for it transforms playing in strict time from a mechanical accuracy into an interpretive goal. (P. 136.)

What could be clearer? Then there are improvisation-like beginnings that give the listener a sense of witnessing a work's birth, as, for example, the first movements of op. 36, no. 2 and op. 57. Further, Wolff alludes to the importance of the symbolism and poetic ideas behind the music that we play mechanically and to which we listen super- ficially; these powerful elements are often expressed through contrast-of opposing directions of line, of major and minor, and of low and high registers.

Beethoven had Carl Czerny, but Schu- bert had no disciple to compose studies that

519



NOTES, December 1991

would prepare the pianist for the difficul- ties in his music: the repeated chords, the awkward leaps, the melody and accompa- niment in the same hand, and the "scram- bled scales" with an admixture of chromat- icism. In the chapter on Schubert, the most stimulating idea concerns the influence of song composition on solo keyboard writing, which resulted in melody's primacy over harmony and rhythm. For the player, this means actively participating in leading a long-breathed melody to its close; for the listener of Schubert's time, it meant a new aesthetic, the extension of formal groups to the point that length became an end in itself. Although Schubert himself was prob- ably unaware that he was setting a new direction, Wolff shows how this new aesthetic of length extended to Wagner, Bruckner, and Tolstoi.

Only by totally surrendering to the spirit of these works of art could the beholder hope to receive what their creators had wanted to give, renouncing automatic intellectual comprehension in favor of "let- ting go." (P. 176.)

Unity as a concept was giving way to the notion of form as an evolutionary process. The melodic extension, the "spinning forth of a song melody until it generates addi- tional motion, sound, and intensity" results in "an 'unnoticeable' (unmerklich) accelera- tion" (p. 179). Consequently, we are told, the tempo markings for the G-major So- nata, op. 78, and the B-flat, op. posth., which seem comparatively slow, in fact apply only to the beginning of the movement.

Wolff raises two questions concerning Chopin: To what extent is Chopin a French composer and to what extent a Polish one? To what extent was he a composer of music for the piano, and how is his music more than just piano music? In the sense that Chopin was a sophisticated, intellectual composer, he was French, but in the general spirit of his works, he was Polish. Nev- ertheless, the only truly Polish music among his output are the mazurkas, which are closer to the folk idiom. Everything else is "universal." As for why he composed al- most exclusively for the piano (in spite of an absorbing interest in opera), Wolff pro- poses that the limited opportunities for a broader musical training in the country of his birth played a role, as did the realization

that he could gain a reputation sooner as a composer for the keyboard than for the stage. In Wolffs opinion, Chopin reached back to the pre-Classical period for his musical antecedents, as shown by his treatment of embellishments, the chaconne-like open- ings of various works, and his penchant for writing series of works. For Chopin it was as though "Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven had never existed," in spite of his vener- ation of Mozart. It was Chopin's sensitivity to sound, comparable to that of Mozart and Ravel, that shaped his treatment of the piano, a penchant for exploiting the overtone row over which his melodic lines float. Wolff also points to Chopin's peculiar fondness for the pitch c".

In Brahms the author sees the conser- vative who, throughout his life, continued to learn from the past, from the Renais- sance to his own century, particularly from Schubert, Haydn, Bach, and Schumann. The other side of Brahms is the innovator whose experiments with melodic cells, harmony, and meter pointed the way for Schoenberg.

Any complimentary phrase applied to Sandra Rosenblum's Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music must necessarily sound trite, given the scope of her treatment of the subject and the meticulous, exhaustive research upon which the book is based. Her opening chapters discuss the context for the piano music of the period-the instrument, aesthetic attitudes, the actual nota- tion of the score, and contemporary ac- counts of performances of music by the principal composers. Subsequent chapters deal with dynamics and accentuation, use of the pedals, articulation and touch, historical technique and fingering, ornaments, mixed meters and dotted rhythms, tempo, flexibility of rhythm and tempo, and an application of the foregoing to Beethoven's Bagatelle, op. 126, no. 5.

Weighing contemporary evidence is problematic. We cannot ask the dead to explain what they wrote, any more than we can form impressions of performances by attending concerts in 1800. Furthermore, as Rosenblum points out, theory often fol- lows practice by approximately ten years- practice on which there was often no general agreement at the time. On such uncertain ground, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

520



Book Reviews Book Reviews

Perhaps the most important factor in the success of Rosenblum's monumental study is that she began as a thinking pianist and has maintained her playing skills. Conse- quently, she uses period instruments as source materials, so that the reader who is also a performer/interpreter can identify with her conclusions (such as when to apply rhythmic and syncopated pedaling and whether the dampers can be kept raised throughout the first movement of Beetho- ven's "Moonlight" Sonata). She compares harpsichord and clavichord technique to that of the fortepiano:

In my experience, unwarranted use of hand or arm in playing any of the early keyboard instruments produces a heavi- ness that contradicts the natural articu- lative style of the music. (P. 191.)

Her advice about the starting note of the trill in various Beethoven sonatas (pp. 252- 54) likewise rests upon actual music- making, as does the scholarly "master les- son" on the Bagatelle at the close of the book.

A second important factor in the book's success is that Rosenblum gracefully avoids dogma. As she writes, "suggestions or advice sometimes reduce to the use of good judgment and musicality within the frame- work of accepted Classic practices" (p. 71). There is "no single answer ... one can only suggest the possibilities . . . performers should strive to develop the 'good taste' that is so often mentioned in eighteenth- century writing."

If Konrad Wolffs Masters of the Keyboard is primarily useful to the interpreter and Sandra Rosenblum's Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music to both the interpreter and the researcher, Peter Hollfelder's two- volume Geschichte der Klaviermusik stands in comparison as an excellent reference re- source. The encyclopedic listing of composers, many of them obscure, demands a style that is brief and factual, so that instead of an actual history like that of Georgii, the work belongs to the same genre as Maurice Hinson's Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire (2d, rev. ed., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986). From the standpoint of the piano teacher, the latter has a more prac- tical purpose, since it includes, in addition to a list of works, the publisher and an estimation of the difficulty of the piece.

Perhaps the most important factor in the success of Rosenblum's monumental study is that she began as a thinking pianist and has maintained her playing skills. Conse- quently, she uses period instruments as source materials, so that the reader who is also a performer/interpreter can identify with her conclusions (such as when to apply rhythmic and syncopated pedaling and whether the dampers can be kept raised throughout the first movement of Beetho- ven's "Moonlight" Sonata). She compares harpsichord and clavichord technique to that of the fortepiano:

In my experience, unwarranted use of hand or arm in playing any of the early keyboard instruments produces a heavi- ness that contradicts the natural articu- lative style of the music. (P. 191.)

Her advice about the starting note of the trill in various Beethoven sonatas (pp. 252- 54) likewise rests upon actual music- making, as does the scholarly "master les- son" on the Bagatelle at the close of the book.

A second important factor in the book's success is that Rosenblum gracefully avoids dogma. As she writes, "suggestions or advice sometimes reduce to the use of good judgment and musicality within the frame- work of accepted Classic practices" (p. 71). There is "no single answer ... one can only suggest the possibilities . . . performers should strive to develop the 'good taste' that is so often mentioned in eighteenth- century writing."

If Konrad Wolffs Masters of the Keyboard is primarily useful to the interpreter and Sandra Rosenblum's Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music to both the interpreter and the researcher, Peter Hollfelder's two- volume Geschichte der Klaviermusik stands in comparison as an excellent reference re- source. The encyclopedic listing of composers, many of them obscure, demands a style that is brief and factual, so that instead of an actual history like that of Georgii, the work belongs to the same genre as Maurice Hinson's Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire (2d, rev. ed., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986). From the standpoint of the piano teacher, the latter has a more prac- tical purpose, since it includes, in addition to a list of works, the publisher and an estimation of the difficulty of the piece.

With due respect to the enormous amount of time-consuming research that was invested in these volumes, one might question whether John Cage deserves a page and a half of biographical material in addition to a listing of his works, when Charles Griffes is accorded a scant half page in toto. Perhaps, also, in the sections devoted to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert should have been accurately listed and treated as Austrians, not as Germans.

KENNETH DRAKE University of Illinois

Schubert's Music for Piano Four- Hands: A Comprehensive Guide to

Performing and Listening to the Dances, Fantasies, Marches, Polo- naises, Sonatas, Variations, Waltzes and Other Duets. By Dallas A. Week-

ley and Nancy Arganbright. White Plains, New York: Pro/Am Music Re- sources, 1990. [x, 152 p. ISBN 0-912483-55-5. $23.50 (pbk.).]

Despite what may seem an overly am- bitious title, this volume does make an important contribution to both the literature of Franz Schubert and that of the piano duet. In their preface, Dallas Weekley and Nancy Arganbright state that their work is intended "for music lovers who are particularly interested in the performance and history of these duets" (p. vii). They then summarize the scope of the book: "We have traced the development of the one-piano, four-hand compositions of Schubert, pre- sented biographical and historical events related to their composition, and analyzed them from the standpoint of performance problems" (p. vii).

Following a brief introduction, they sur- vey Schubert's career in seven chronolog- ically arranged chapters: 1797-1813; 1814-1817; 1818; 1819-1823; 1824; 1825-1827; 1828. Relying heavily on the work of Otto Erich Deutsch (primarily Schubert: Memoirs by His Friends, trans. Ro- samond Ley and John Nowell [London: Adam and Charles Black, 1958] and The Schubert Reader: A Life of Franz Schubert in Letters and Documents, trans. Eric Blom [New York: W. W. Norton, 1951]), Weekley and

With due respect to the enormous amount of time-consuming research that was invested in these volumes, one might question whether John Cage deserves a page and a half of biographical material in addition to a listing of his works, when Charles Griffes is accorded a scant half page in toto. Perhaps, also, in the sections devoted to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert should have been accurately listed and treated as Austrians, not as Germans.

KENNETH DRAKE University of Illinois

Schubert's Music for Piano Four- Hands: A Comprehensive Guide to

Performing and Listening to the Dances, Fantasies, Marches, Polo- naises, Sonatas, Variations, Waltzes and Other Duets. By Dallas A. Week-

ley and Nancy Arganbright. White Plains, New York: Pro/Am Music Re- sources, 1990. [x, 152 p. ISBN 0-912483-55-5. $23.50 (pbk.).]

Despite what may seem an overly am- bitious title, this volume does make an important contribution to both the literature of Franz Schubert and that of the piano duet. In their preface, Dallas Weekley and Nancy Arganbright state that their work is intended "for music lovers who are particularly interested in the performance and history of these duets" (p. vii). They then summarize the scope of the book: "We have traced the development of the one-piano, four-hand compositions of Schubert, pre- sented biographical and historical events related to their composition, and analyzed them from the standpoint of performance problems" (p. vii).

Following a brief introduction, they sur- vey Schubert's career in seven chronolog- ically arranged chapters: 1797-1813; 1814-1817; 1818; 1819-1823; 1824; 1825-1827; 1828. Relying heavily on the work of Otto Erich Deutsch (primarily Schubert: Memoirs by His Friends, trans. Ro- samond Ley and John Nowell [London: Adam and Charles Black, 1958] and The Schubert Reader: A Life of Franz Schubert in Letters and Documents, trans. Eric Blom [New York: W. W. Norton, 1951]), Weekley and

521 521

