Frederic Chopin and the Art of the Piano

A JOURNEY THROUGH CHOPIN'S TWENTY-SEVEN ÉTUDES, THE FOUNDATION OF VIRTUOSO PIANO TECHNIQUE, REVEALING HOW THE HAND ACTUALLY WORKS, IN THE CONTEXT OF THE HISTORY OF THE PIANO AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT IN MUSIC

© ALAN KOGOSOWSKI 2005 GENIUS OF THE PIANO - ÉTUDE!

CHOPIN'S ÉTUDES AND THE ART OF THE PIANO

Synopsis

Setting of introduction: Steinway Hall, New York

A walk through the gallery of great pianists of the past 150 years, all of whom have been shaped and inspired by the technique and the musical character of Chopin and his music. Chopin's youth and training, and the over-arching influence of Bach.

Opening up the scope of piano playing from that designed for a chamber-sized 'fortepiano' to that intrinsically conceived for a grand piano with an orchestral spectrum of sound, expanding the scope of playing from a centralized area of the keyboard to a range of six octaves.

Setting of introduction: Steinway factory, Queens, New York

The development of the piano from its invention through the instrument used by Mozart to that of Beethoven, then on to Chopin's piano, and how it influenced the technique which he developed, leading finally to the modern Steinway.

Examining the basic anatomy of the hand and how it works, with the central importance of the thumb and the need to understand how it may be used without tightening and straining the whole hand, the forearm and the carpal tunnel in the wrist.

Setting of introduction: l'Opéra, Paris

The great singers Chopin heard and knew in Paris, the world of opera composers, when opera was king, and the artistic, social, cultural life which he found there. His own tender connection with the world of singing.

The cultivation of 'singing tone', simulating the human voice through manipulation of the sonority and reverberation of notes, imitating the breathing patterns of the voice and the nuances of phrasing, and the basic difference between the extensor and flexor muscles, the small muscles of the fingers which must be used to produce singing tone.

Setting of introduction: Talleyrand Palace, Paris

The ultimate musical friendship - Chopin and Liszt, with an exploration of the origins of Liszt's technique through his teacher Carl Czerny, and the decisive influences on him of Paganini and Chopin. The shadow of Beethoven over the world of music, and the impact of Berlioz..

Flying over the keys with the greatest of ease in daredevil music, which can only be accomplished through close hand positions. It also requires daring, panache and showbiz, which can't be taught. Sorry.

Setting of introduction: Musée de la Vie Romantique - studio of Chopin's friend and neighbour, painter Ary Scheffer

Paris through Chopin's eyes, at the dawn of the modern age, city planning, photography. A very personal characteristic, typically Romantic yet strange and original, paralleled only in literature, by E. T. Hoffmann and Edgar Allen Poe. Another friend, one of similar personal distinction, Mendelssohn.

Tone colouring through calculated degrees of touch and pedaling. The central importance of hand positions in everything from tone colour to making the fingers fly over the keyboard with sureness and confidence.

Setting of introduction: Musée Balzac - Balzac's house, rue Raynouard, Pass

An exploration of the world of writers and poets Chopin knew in Paris, Balzac, Dumas, Hugo, Gautier, Heine, Mickiewicz, and how he was considered more than any other composer to be a musical poet, speaking emotions so clearly as to become a voice for his nation, and for all humanity, in the perennial struggle for freedom from oppression.

The unsung hero, our left hand - our 'Cinderella' hand - and how to help it fulfill its task of supporting the prima donna right hand in everything from wide-spread chordal accompaniments to fast and brilliant scale and arpeggio passages.

Setting of introduction: Lambert mansion, corner of Île Saint-Louis, overlooking the Seine

The ladies in Chopin's life - friends, acquaintances, admirers, students, loves. Part One of the two women who altered the lives of two friends - Marie d'Agoult and George Sand.

Making sounds float out of the piano, through total control of the fingertips, weightlessness of the arms and hands, and perfect symmetry of the hands' movements. Composers who have been inspired by the model of Chopin's Etudes.

Setting of introduction: Nohant, George Sand's country house

Part Two of The two women who altered the lives of two friends. An unusual alliance - intriguing, glamorous, stabilizing, understanding, also mutually exclusive, irritating, joyless, on different tracks, leading towards downward spiral and death of prince.

Optimistic, happy, light and carefree music subtle and refined, delighting in itself, with the need to develop lightness and nonchalance in manner of playing and approach to everything.

Setting of introduction: Gardens of Nohant

The twin poles of Romanticism, the intimate and the grandiose, the inward and the heroic, represented in music by Frederic Chopin and Hector Berlioz, with some crossover by Chopin.

Orchestration with ten fingers, creating on the piano a panoply of colours and nuances, lights and shadows, to parallel the coloristic range of a virtuoso symphony orchestra, and controlling different strands of sound at once.

Setting of introduction: Musée Delacroix - Eugène Delacroix's house, Place Furstenberg, Left Bank

The expansive influence of a devoted friend - Eugène Delacroix, and the psychological dichotomy which Chopin shared with him - Classic versus Romantic, or Romantic AND Classic at the same time.

Focusing all the movements of our fingers, hands and body to create a level of control over the piano similar to that of a Toscanini-style conductor over a Philadelphia-class orchestra.

Setting of introduction: Nôtre Dame de Paris

Trying to draw a picture of Chopin as performer, and Chopin as teacher, from the accounts of his closest friends, and from his students.

Complete mastery, to the point where the piano and pianist are one, and where the piano ceases to be a single instrument but instead an orchestral medium for waves of sound and existential epics, Tolstoyan novels in three minutes.

Setting of introduction: Chopin's last apartment, Place Vendôme

Appreciation by Chopin's peers, pianist/composer/teacher Ignaz Moscheles, critic/musicologist/teacher Joseph Fétis, pianist/composer Leopold Godowsky, and the last word from composer/critic/friend Robert Schumann.

A survey of 150 years of piano pedagogy, with a look at the trends followed by five generations of pianist/teachers. Now we know everything there is to know, so we can sit back and let our fingers do the working.

Read the next excerpt from the book GENIUS OF THE PIANO ÉTUDE! FREDERIC CHOPIN AND THE ART OF THE PIANO:

Excerpt #1: The Etudes ...