The most interesting and simple idea at the piano keyboard comes, in my opinion, from Tobias Matthay, author of the revolutionary book THE ACT OF TOUCH, written in 1903.
He was a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1876 until 1925, if you're looking for pedigree.
He was a tall, balding fellow that was adored by his pupils, many of Europe's most accomplished musicians such as Myra Hess and Nadia Boulanger.
He looked like your perfect vision of a favorite, kindly uncle.
In fact, they called him Uncle Tobs and he lived in a vast estate in the English countryside.
In his book THE ACT OF TOUCH IN ALL ITS DIVERSITY, and through his closest students with whom I studied, the simplest revelation is that once one strikes a piano key, the active part of the motion is over and done.
All you are doing is holding the key down, which the pedal accomplishes virtually.
Thus no tension is required from the muscles to hold the key down, other than the presence of the finger.
Matthay scorned the idea that differing tones were made by differing "weights" of various strokes.
He was the first to suggest that it was the VELOCITY of the key that determined the sound of the note.
Thus a fast stroke produces a loud sound and slow attack produces a soft tone.
Apparent weight of the hand is irrelevant except to the pianist.
I studied with two students of Uncle Tobs, as he was known.
Denise Lassimonne, a famous French pianist, and Frank Mannheimer, his most prominent American protege.
They both had a mystical, deep knowledge of the piano and were master teachers and psychologists.
Denise used to greet me at the lessons by cupping her ears and murmuring, "I'm ready for the good stuff!" Matthay and his "school" were concerned most with the tone of the piano, and with finding as many appropriate variations and shadings in that sound as possible.
One of his mottos, and the inscription of ACT OF TOUCH is the phrase, "There can be no effect without a cause.
" His studies were devoted to the causes of every sound at the piano.
In that, he was a unique genius.
He stressed also musical thought and design, demanding a thorough knowledge of what you were playing, and how it came to be.
Lucky enough to be at his career heights during the heyday of the piano around 1910, Matthay is still revered as the first man to go deeper into exactly what causes a piano sound the way it does.
He was a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1876 until 1925, if you're looking for pedigree.
He was a tall, balding fellow that was adored by his pupils, many of Europe's most accomplished musicians such as Myra Hess and Nadia Boulanger.
He looked like your perfect vision of a favorite, kindly uncle.
In fact, they called him Uncle Tobs and he lived in a vast estate in the English countryside.
In his book THE ACT OF TOUCH IN ALL ITS DIVERSITY, and through his closest students with whom I studied, the simplest revelation is that once one strikes a piano key, the active part of the motion is over and done.
All you are doing is holding the key down, which the pedal accomplishes virtually.
Thus no tension is required from the muscles to hold the key down, other than the presence of the finger.
Matthay scorned the idea that differing tones were made by differing "weights" of various strokes.
He was the first to suggest that it was the VELOCITY of the key that determined the sound of the note.
Thus a fast stroke produces a loud sound and slow attack produces a soft tone.
Apparent weight of the hand is irrelevant except to the pianist.
I studied with two students of Uncle Tobs, as he was known.
Denise Lassimonne, a famous French pianist, and Frank Mannheimer, his most prominent American protege.
They both had a mystical, deep knowledge of the piano and were master teachers and psychologists.
Denise used to greet me at the lessons by cupping her ears and murmuring, "I'm ready for the good stuff!" Matthay and his "school" were concerned most with the tone of the piano, and with finding as many appropriate variations and shadings in that sound as possible.
One of his mottos, and the inscription of ACT OF TOUCH is the phrase, "There can be no effect without a cause.
" His studies were devoted to the causes of every sound at the piano.
In that, he was a unique genius.
He stressed also musical thought and design, demanding a thorough knowledge of what you were playing, and how it came to be.
Lucky enough to be at his career heights during the heyday of the piano around 1910, Matthay is still revered as the first man to go deeper into exactly what causes a piano sound the way it does.
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