This little book, written at the height of his career by Josef Lhevinne,
the inward poet of the piano, is a clear statement of principles based
on his lifelong experience in performance and teaching. Lhevinne was,
with Rachmaninoff, Schnabel, and Hoffman, one of the great modern
masters, and was the first artist invited to teach at the newly formed
Julliard Graduate School of Music.
Technique, through essential, must be subordinate to musical
understanding. Complete knowledge of scales, apprehended not
mechanically but musically; understanding of the uses of rests and
silence, which Mozart considered the greatest effect in music; a feeling
for rhythm and training of the ear; these are the basic elements of a
thorough grounding in musicianship and are accordingly emphasized in the
opening chapters.
The heart of the book is devoted to the attainment of a beautiful tone.
Anyone who has heard Lhevinne play or has listened to one of his
recordings will know how great were his achievements in that area. The
secret lay, at least in part, in the technique he called the arm
floating in air, and in the use of the wrists as natural shock
absorbers. The achievement of varieties of tone, of the singing, ringing
tone, of brilliancy, of delicacy, and of power are all explained in
terms of a careful analysis of the ways in which the fingers, hand,
wrist, arm, and indeed the whole body function in striking the keys.
There are further remarks about how to get a clear staccato and an
unblurred legato, about the dangers of undue emphasis on memorization
and the need for variety in practicing, and special comments on the use
of the pedal, which should be employed with as much precision as the
keys.
Throughout, specific musical examples are presented as illustrations.
The author draws not only upon his own experiences and methods, but upon
the examples of Anton Rubenstein and of his teacher, Safonoff, for this
remarkably lucid and concise formulation of basic principles.
