Articles
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PIANO TECHNIQUE (II)
Around the end of the 19 th century, the flourishing romantic music and the improvement of the piano greatly challenged the Finger Method. The conflict between music and technique was very outstanding. Many called for change, and did not want to continue along the path of the Finger Method training. They felt dissatisfied and disappointed.
About one hundred years ago, in 1905, a German piano teacher, Rudolf Maria Breithaupt, advocated the Arm-Weight Training Method. It thoroughly broke free from that restricted method and won the approval of many pianists who seek and pursue the mellow and full singing tone, the ability to play the most difficult pieces of the Romantic Era with great ease and without muscle tension causing injuries.
The proposal of the Arm-Weight Method deserves our celebration because it symbolizes a great revolution of piano technique. One would naturally think that using fingers alone (exclusive Finger Method) was backward and the Arm-Weight Method was advanced.
But the emergence of a new thing is not that simple. It is not easy for it to get a firm foothold. History cannot be severed at one blow and make a clean break. The exclusive Finger Method has been used for more than one hundred years. Its complete training system has such extensive influence that it cannot step down from the stage of history all at once. Meantime, the new Arm-Weight Method was in its infancy. It was not possible to establish a clear and convincing system in the beginning. It could only make a break through from the Finger Method in concept and in thinking. To truly establish a complete system takes quite a period of time.
Also, some advocates of Arm-Weight Method could not acquire a correct and historical approach towards the conception of history to treat and handle the old method wisely. Instead, they denounced it entirely, vehemently opposed the essential and necessary training of the fingers. Therefore, within quite some time the training of piano technique lost direction and came to a halt. Some educators tried to find a way out by placing their hope upon psychology and anatomy, the study of muscles, etc. in order to get the best medicine for technical training. Actually, these cannot directly help the training of technique.
Our understanding of the Arm-weight Method is: one cannot only use fingers exclusively to play the piano and isolate them from the arms and the body. We need to have the arms, the body and the mind to participate in playing. We should have the comprehension that the Arm-Weight Method is a scientific method. Originally, using the term “Arm-Weight Method” was directed against the “Pure Finger Method”. If we are unable to comprehend the real meaning of “Arm-Weight Method”, we would advance to the other extreme, which is, to put excess force from the arm and press hard. In this way, playing becomes heavy and clumsy, technique not only cannot improve, injuries may occur! Unfortunately, this incorrect way of playing still exists in our playing today!
We went to some length in retrospect of two hundred years of the history of the development of piano technique. Is that meaningful for the reality of today? We believe it is necessary to discuss some issues again. Whether we evaluate and discuss the present condition of our piano teaching with a clear mind, from a historical and developing point of view; besides being engrossed in teaching, do we accept the responsibility to promote change and reform so as to establish a scientific teaching method, so that our piano teaching and playing will greatly flourish, so that teaching and learning are easy and joyful….. All of which would greatly enhance the musical accomplishment and quality.
It is important and necessary to train the fingers. Looking back in history, two hundred years ago the isolated, pure Finger Method became the mainstream way of piano–playing. And one hundred years ago, when the Arm-Weight Method was advocated, the necessity of finger-training was totally negated and caused the standstill of piano technique. We can say, within these two hundred years, finger-training has been affecting the development of piano technique. It affects the tone quality and the level of playing, especially the capability of fast running speed. For example, many of the runs in Chopin’s pieces are bright, powerful, and fluent and they rise and fall with facility and ease. How good must our finger technique be to be able to execute such beautiful and shiny music! Many piano students of our day can play fast running passages, but, the sound is dull and pale, lacking vitality. This is the influence of the exclusive Finger Method. We also can see other students, who have been playing the piano for many years, but still remain in preliminary technical level. This is the result of the opposition to finger-training. Therefore, to establish a scientific, complete finger-training method has become the responsibility of our piano teachers. This process requires a certain amount of time. We need to accept the lessons learned from history, strive to bring forth new ideas, to probe, to discuss, so as to promote an entire new aspect.
The Arm-Weight Method was proposed one hundred years ago. Since then, the path of piano technical training has not been smooth, but on the foundation of the Arm-Weight Method, a scientific way of playing the piano has finally been realized by many pianists and piano professors. Piano-playing reached the highest level in history. The profound interpretations and brilliant technique of the great pianists provided us with great musical enjoyment. They created the model and the direction of the main stream. It can be said that we are at the peak of the epoch of the development of piano technique. Piano performances, piano competitions, piano lectures…etc. are all very lively. At the meantime, all of these are giving our piano teachers and professors a big challenge. We can only go forward. We must grasp this already very advanced piano teaching method. We should be brave to break free from the existing unscientific and unreasonable teaching method. This is a historical task on our shoulders. We must establish the core theory of the Arm-Weight Method, cultivate its superiority and summarize the principles of the Arm-Weight Method. This will greatly promote, expedite and elevate the quality of our teaching.
