http://scriabin.com/etude/ en-us Copyright 2012 Tue, 01 Feb 1938 14:26:48 -0500 An Interview Secured Exclusively for the Etude With the Famous Virtuoso VLADIMIR DE PACHMANN Who at the Age of Seventy-five Has Remolded His Entire Repertoire According to New Principles Which He Claims Are of Paramount Importance http://scriabin.com/etude/1923/12/should-piano-playing-undergo-a-radical-reform---vladimir-de-pachmann-de-pachmann.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1923/12/should-piano-playing-undergo-a-radical-reform---vladimir-de-pachmann-de-pachmann.html Interviews I have repeatedly had students come for instruction who have after great effort prepared one, two, or at the most three show pieces, even pieces as far advanced as the Tschaikowsky or the Liszt Con­certo, who barely knew what key they were playing in. As for understanding the modulations and their bearing upon the interpretations of such com­plicated and difficult master works, they have been blissfully ignorant. http://scriabin.com/etude/1923/11/basic-principles-in-pianoforteplayingsecured-exclusively.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1923/11/basic-principles-in-pianoforteplayingsecured-exclusively.html Interviews These valued opinions were sent in response to the following questions: Would I Want my Son or my Daughter to Make Music a Career? Would I Take Up Music if I were Beginning my Work Again? http://scriabin.com/etude/1922/01/would-i-take-up-music-again.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1922/01/would-i-take-up-music-again.html Interviews Young pianists nowadays are fond of placing some of [Bach's] big works on their programs. Well and good; if they play the notes with clearness and precision and give a general idea of the form of the compositions. When I see these programs I say--if the player is young--no, he has not lived, he has not the life experience to play such things. When one is twenty one cannot fathom the mysteries of Bach. Neither at thirty. At forty one begins to understand; at forty-five, yes, at forty-five, one should have arrived at years of experience--of life. But, lest these words should discourage young students and players who like to play Bach's music, I hasten to say that I encourage them to study much and deeply into the works of this great master, for this study will bear rich fruit one day, when experience has prepared the soil and fertilized it. http://scriabin.com/etude/1923/08/alexander-siloti---leaves-from-a-virtuosos-note-book.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1923/08/alexander-siloti---leaves-from-a-virtuosos-note-book.html Interviews It is not necessary for me to advise America as to the matter of musical ideals. There are horrible perver­sions in all parts of the world. One of the greatest abuses I have observed since my visit to this country has been the deliberate pilfering of the great musical masters of the past to make some popular tune. If there must be prohibition, why not make a law to prevent such desecration. The other night I heard in a hotel in Pittsburgh the lovely Blue Danube Waltz of Johann Strauss murdered in some popular tune in which it appeared in four quarter time. I am told that this is not only common but that popular publishers in keeping with the banditry of the times are making a continual practice of it. The bad effect upon the art and upon the student of the art is that it belittles the need for creating original melodies. When it is so easy to steal, why produce? http://scriabin.com/etude/1922/01/dr-richard-strauss---new-paths-and-visions-in-musical-progress.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1922/01/dr-richard-strauss---new-paths-and-visions-in-musical-progress.html Composers When a melody ascends it generally gathers intensity or force. When it descends it diminishes in force, tending toward relaxation. This principle is observed almost universally by sensitive artists. Take the Busoni edition of Bach's Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues, for instance, and note how the great interpreter has indicated that the phrases gain in intensity as the pitch ascends. http://scriabin.com/etude/1925/08/modern-ideas-in-pianoforte-technic---e-robert-schmitz.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1925/08/modern-ideas-in-pianoforte-technic---e-robert-schmitz.html Pianists Music often produces instant improvements in behavior. On one of my regular visits to the Woman's Work House, on Blackwell's Island, the jail for New York City, I happened to come in just after a serious outbreak among the hardened type of women prisoners incarcerated there. I was advised for safety's sake not to go near them. The bitter fate of the guards who had tried to reduce the wrath of these furious ladies caused this warning. Eager to give music the acid test, I regarded this as an opportunity and faced the group. http://scriabin.com/etude/1925/09/how-music-is-saving-thousands-from-permanent-mental-breakdown---willem-van-de-wall.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1925/09/how-music-is-saving-thousands-from-permanent-mental-breakdown---willem-van-de-wall.html Interviews Four hours a day of practice is good measure. Over- practicing is just as bad as under-practicing. It should be the younger student's aim and desire to get done with technic as soon as possible. There is no short cut. One cannot go around or under the mountain. One must climb straight over it. Therefore in the earlier lessons more attention must be given to technic than in the later lessons when a really masterly technic has been developed. The trouble is that most students seem to look upon it the other way. http://scriabin.com/etude/1924/03/josef-lhevinne---basic-principles-in-pianoforte-playing.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1924/03/josef-lhevinne---basic-principles-in-pianoforte-playing.html Interviews Too often it occurs that students who hope for a virtuoso career are disappointed; and when they turn to orchestra or ensemble playing they find that their command of rhythm and bowing is not sufficiently well developed. I want all pupils who study my system to be all-around musicians, and therefore have incorporated in my studies exercises to develop command of every rhythm and bowing, even to the rag-time or syncopated rhythms which are so overworked in this country. All parts of the bow should be evenly developed; and students should especially work for control of the bow at the frog. http://scriabin.com/etude/1924/03/otokar-sevcik---the-violin-students-fundamentals.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1924/03/otokar-sevcik---the-violin-students-fundamentals.html Interviews Liszt would also be filled with the keenest pleasure by witnessing another advance in piano playing. I refer to the general adoption of the syncopated pedal, that is, putting down the damper pedal after the note is struck rather than when it is struck. Only in this way can a beautiful cantilena be preserved in melodic passages. Liszt knew of this. However, it was not widely used until the last twenty years. It has made a vast difference in the beauty of piano playing generally; and I consider it the most distinctive differences between the piano playing of forty years ago and of to-day. http://scriabin.com/etude/1924/04/moritz-rosenthal---if-franz-liszt-should-come-back-again.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1924/04/moritz-rosenthal---if-franz-liszt-should-come-back-again.html Interviews Lord Bolingbroke in his essay on the shortness of human life shows how impossible it is for a man to read more than a mere fraction of a great library though he read regularly every day of his life. It is very much the same with music. The resources are so vast, and time is so limited, that there is no opportunity to learn everything. Far better is it for the vocalist to do a little well than do much ineffective. http://scriabin.com/etude/1913/02/an-in.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1913/02/an-in.html Interviews "Rag-time," and by this I refer to the peculiar rhythm and not to the bad music that Americans have come to class under this head, has a peculiar fascination for me. There is nothing objectionable about the unique rhythm, any more than there is anything iniquitous about the gypsy melodies that have made such excellent material for Brahms, Liszt and Sarasate. Perhaps some day some American composer will glorify it in the Scherzo of a Symphony. http://scriabin.com/etude/1913/03/the-art-of-pianoforte-playing-in-russia---an-interview-with-the-distinguished-russian-pianist-josef-.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1913/03/the-art-of-pianoforte-playing-in-russia---an-interview-with-the-distinguished-russian-pianist-josef-.html Interviews People talk about 'using the music of Bach' to accomplish some technical purpose in a perfectly heartbreaking manner. They never seem to think of interpreting Bach, but, rather, make of him a kind of technical elevator by means of which they hope to reach some marvelous musical heights. We even hear of the studies of Chopin being perverted in a similarly vicious manner, but Bach, the master of masters, is the greatest sufferer. http://scriabin.com/etude/1912/03/harold-bauer---artistic-aims-in-pianoforte-playing.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1912/03/harold-bauer---artistic-aims-in-pianoforte-playing.html Interviews The great teacher is an artist who works in men and women. Every pupil is different, and he must be very quick to recognize these differences. He should first of all teach the pupil that there are hundreds of things which no teacher can ever hope to teach. He must make his pupil keenly alert to this. There are hundreds of things about my own playing which are virtually impossible to teach. http://scriabin.com/etude/1911/11/work-the-secret-of-pianistic-success.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1911/11/work-the-secret-of-pianistic-success.html Interviews The mechanical piano will be so perfected that the "performer," by manipulating stops and levers with hands and feet, will be able to give an individual touch, accentuation and color to every single note, as the pianist does now, and the result may be the same, but with greater effects, with the peculiar articulation and rapidity of enunciation of mechanical appliances. The device, until now sought in vain, whereby a "vibrato" can be imparted to any string of the piano, like the vibrato a violinist brings forth, will be invented; the tone will be sustained, increased and diminished at will, as produced now by players of string and of wind instruments. More than that every instrument of the orchestra will be played automatically, and it will be possible for one person to control a combination of them, or possibly all, so that the "virtuoso manipulator" will "play" alone sonatas for piano and violin, quartets for piano and string instruments, concertos for piano and orchestra. http://scriabin.com/etude/1913/01/mile-posts-in-pianistic-progress-by-the-eminent-pianist-teacher-senor-alberto-jonas.html http://scriabin.com/etude/1913/01/mile-posts-in-pianistic-progress-by-the-eminent-pianist-teacher-senor-alberto-jonas.html Interviews