Rational principles of piano technique

Author: (French) Cortot
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-12-01
Features: Any instrumental practice contains two elements: one is the psychological element, which enhances people's interest, imagination, understanding, and emotional tone—in a word, style. The other is the physiological element, which improves finger dexterity and the specific relaxation of muscles and nerves required for playing. In developing the psychological element, personality and interest play a crucial role, as they produce different results in the sensations and emotions evoked by music. Education, at most, can only enrich general cultural attainment and inspire students' imagination and analytical ability. Therefore, there is no superior or inferior educational system, only the varying quality of teachers.
Moreover, the vast array of exercise types often inspires students' enthusiasm, as they eagerly hope to gain mastery over the keyboard mechanism through them. In reality, such an overwhelming variety of exercises makes it difficult for students to choose. Thus, the author does not wish to add new complex factors or contradictory theories to this book, further complicating the already multifaceted monster of piano technique; instead, the author seeks to simplify the issue and tell people that this monster is entirely conquerable.
In recent years, teaching instrumental music has made very encouraging progress. Methods of practicing technical difficulties reasonably have replaced the old-fashioned mechanical repetition of long, challenging passages, and some basic principles have been derived from this. The author divides technical difficulties into five categories, each analyzed in a separate chapter. This means that people can avoid pursuing technical proficiency on the confusing and endless path of endlessly overcoming technical challenges.