The First Principles Of Pianoforte Playing

A complete playing tutorial for self learners or school use.

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	KEY TREATMENT ; MUSCULAR ASPECT.                   59 keys in a depressed condition, as required for Legato and Tenuto, and it gives us besides the same information as does the Surface-resting. b) : This second form of Resting should outbalance the key with no more weight than will just suffice to overcome the fric­tion and inertia of the Key and String. This Resting, unaided, is competent to produce soft sounds ; and it forms the sole means of obtaining the true, absolute pp. But when greater tone-amounts than pp are desired, an Added-impetus is also here required, just as in the Staccato form of the Resting.1 i): Such " weighed " pp, moreover forms the only simple form of Touch ; since it consists of but one act—that of Resting. j) : All other forms of touch are compound, for these require the co-operation of the Added-impetus with the Resting. k): The muscular-difference between Staccato and Tenuto consists therefore in the difference of level at which the Resting is accomplished. Such difference in level depends upon the slight difference in the Weight continuously resting upon the key-board. The heavier form of the Resting compels the fingers to continue working against their keys, beyond the completion of each indi­vidual act of tone-production; while the lighter form permits them to rebound with the key. I): Legato consists of a sequence of complete Tenuti. The Resting is here transferred from finger to finger ;—the transfer­ence being in this case effected from the bottom of a depressed key, to the surface of the key whose deflection we intend to start; whereas in Staccato, the transference is effected entirely at the surface-level of the key-board. m) : As all forms of Staccato, Tenuto and Legato (except abso­lute pp) require the Added-impetus to form the tone, we must be careful that Energy, thus applied for tone-production, is promptly and completely ceased when sound is reached. 1 It is permissible to induce slight increments of tone beyond pp bv means of slight increases in the transferred or *• passed-on" Resting-weight. This for instance is appropriate in many of the gentle, but swiftly swirling arabesque* or cadenzi of Chopin and Liszt.