THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PIANO PLAYING.

Being the opinions expressed by many of the foremost French musicians and musical educators of the day on the necessity for good foundation work in piano playing.
By Fannie Edgar Thomas.

FRENCH educational authorities have long recognized the fact that the piano is the best possible instrument in existence for laying the foundations of a sound musical education. In the national system of musical education in France, whatever instrument may be adopted by the student on which to specialize afterwards, piano study is essential to begin with. Drum players, cymbal players, violinists, flutists, composers, critics, all must study the piano before proceeding to specialize on their chosen instruments. This does not mean, of course, that it is necessary to be a pianist of the very first grade. It means that before it is possible to be a good all around musician, a knowledge of the piano, and of piano literature is essential. One is surprised at the number of pianists in France who do not consider themselves pianists at all. In, the natural course of musical events they have studied the instrument and are acquainted with its music and its idiom. Almost all can play their own and others' accompaniments, and nearly all are sight readers. Pugno, a professor of the pianoforte at the Paris Conservatoire, and an artist of international reputation, has said of the pianoforte that it is the only means of obtaining "that fundamental education in music without which there can be no truly successful specialization on other instruments."

The reason the piano is held in such high esteem is that the elementary studies necessary for even an indifferent pianist form the best possible groundwork upon which a musical education may be based. The knowledge of clefs, notes, scales, rhythm, etc., essential in all music study, can best be learned by the pianist, and knowledge so gained can be applied to other branches of study with the utmost success.

MOSZKOWSKI ON THE NEED OF FUNDAMENTAL STUDY.

Few pianists and teachers in Paris have as large a following as M. Moszkowski. and his views have great weight, lie holds it to be the bounden duty of every piano teacher not only to say that fundamentals should be thoroughly grasped, but to insist on it when teaching, and to see that all pupils are fully instructed in elementary musical essentials right from the very start. He has been heard to say that fundamentals should have been mastered and gotten out of the way before a pupil presents himself to a teacher to study composition, or the higher branches of the musical art. This does not mean that the pupil's efforts at individual thought should be crushed during the elementary study. It means that the musical knowledge of the pupil should be of a kind that can be taken for granted, so that in the more advanced stages his teacher may rely on the pupil's ability to understand the instructions given without being impeded by ignorance of the elementary principles of the art. Without this knowledge, Moszkowski declares that the would be artist must one day surely fail.

Paul Vidal. an eminent French composer, and a winner of the famous Prix de Rome, which entitles the winner to four years' study in Italy and Germany, has called attention to the habit many teachers have of complaining about pupils who come to them with a "lack of previous instruction." They do not attempt to teach these fundamentals themselves—they only scold about it not having been done, and arc mainly successful in discouraging and irritating pupils who look to them for information and guidance. As one of these unfortunate pupils remarked: "Where is this other teacher of whom everybody speaks, and why do 1 not go to him first?" Many teachers act as though first instruction in elementary work is a thing which can be lightly put aside in favor of more "interesting" work.

Rubinstein quoted Fenelon. the great French philosopher and educator, as saying that "Ignorance of fundamentals is made a sort of total depravity always to be expected, and to be overcome only by some mysterious form of vicarious atonement, or not at all." It is to be hoped that the time will come when all artist teachers will resolutely decline to give advanced instruction to pupils not prepared to receive it as, indeed, many of the foremost teachers already do. The fear of losing pupils to other less exacting teachers is, of course, the principal reason which makes piano teachers unwilling to insist upon necessary essentials.

DETAIL IN PIANOPLAYING.

One of the guiding principles of the French school of art of all k.nds lies in the careful attention to finished detail and accuracy which is insisted on by all teachers of the distinctly French school. As regards pianoforte playing, the chief advocates of careful detail work include such eminent authorities as Alexandre Guilmant, the organist; Diemar, the pianist: Vincent d'Indy, the composer; Berthe Marx, Riss-Arbau, and others. Both by precept and example these authorities insist on a careful, accurate knowledge of detail, and an exact observance of all points of technic.

An American critic, whose pride in being "original'' evidently exceeded his desire to be informative and helpful, recently remarked: "Oh, bother your detail—this examining of fine points of needles to find which is the smallest. Give me the red blood of general effect, the thump and glow that shakes hills and veins—red blood, without straining, you know—and you may have the result of all your microscopic examinations." This sort of writing is extremely misleading to young students, who are already too prone to negligence, and to uncouth efforts to play with "feeling" and absolutely without that clean cut mastery of effect which is the distinguishing mark of the trained musician.

Lamoureux, the French conductor, the Late Edouarde Colonne, Chevillard, and Guilmant have all insisted at various times on the necessity of clearness and intellectual grasp in the highest form of musical art, and have pointed, with pardonable pride, to the exquisite finish and detail which underlies the real dramatic force of the French school of piano playing. M. Guilmant has often been heard to complain of the amount of "combing" which has to be undertaken with all foreigners before starting them on their way towards broad general effects. The general disregard for careful detail work as a foundation for broad effects is one of the greatest obstacles which they have to overcome when studying in France.

The greatest artists insist, without restriction, that success in piano playing is based upon finished detail, and that one of the principal points of value in studying the instrument is that it compels culture in this direction. Great art is essentially always "finished" art, no matter in what country it is found. No greater mistake could be made than to imagine anything to the contrary. While the quality of temperament must vary with the race always, the necessity for detailed finish must never be underrated. In recent years this fact is coming to be appreciated in the United States, and American students of music are already beginning to show in this matter, as in most others, that they can be attentive to detail and appreciative of the liner points of artistic inspiration. The best is to be hoped for the future, if this attitude is steadily fostered by our music teachers and critics.