DANIEL GRIMWOOD
A 'Digirectory' of the "Méthode des Méthodes pour le piano"
by Ignaz Moscheles and François-Joseph Fétis
My current research project at the University of York comprises the Méthode des Méthodes de Moscheles et Fétis. Published in 1840 this method of piano playing examines all extant thoughts on matters of keyboard performance, technique and education, deriving from not just one source but from an extensive and cosmopolitan community of early nineteenth century professional pianists and their forebears. The title page of the English edition of the first part of the Méthodes speaks of a breathtaking ambition: to provide a complete system of piano playing whilst analysing, comparing, and contrasting all of the major methods of piano playing up to that date, with musical contributions from the most famous and influential pianists of the day. This is a huge conception fully in keeping with the forceful and prolific Fétis. The input of Moscheles, a proponent of all that was new and progressive in piano playing—and a friend of (or influence on) the next generation of composer-pianists, such as Chopin, Liszt and Schumann adds credibility and lustre to the endeavour; a happy combination of contemporary scholarship and its practical application. Its value lies in the collegiate emphasis on a community of pianists, and the extraordinarily high artistic standard of the musical contributions.
The Méthode des Méthodes comprises 3 sections; Principes de musique, exercices élémentaires et études progressives, and Etudes de perfectionnement. The first, with a preface by Fétis dated November 1, 1840, deals with matters of music theory; the second is a "cradle to grave" guide to the piano starting with purpose-written duets for the beginner to play with their teacher and progressing rapidly to Etudes and pieces of advanced difficulty via reams of finger drills; the third section comprises the 18 or 20 (depending on the edition) Études de Perfectionnement commissioned from many of the most famous pianists of the day.
These videos are intended as a point of access to the practical aspects of the Méthode, and I will continue to update and add to these over the coming year. All were recorded on The University of York 1856 Erard, which has been tuned unequally to Bach-Lehman. In the beginner duets, I tried to duet with myself using a visual metronome—I seem to be incapable of playing in time with myself with the not wholly inappropriate result that I sound like a beginner trying to keep pace with their teacher!
Welcome to the Exercices Élémentaire
An informal guided tour round the musical gallery...
The music...
Theme and Variations 1. A footnote states that Moscheles composed this specifically for this Méthode. The secondo part is to be played by the teacher and primo by the pupil. Moscheles gives fingerings for the tune to be played by both left and right hands The theme could plausibly comprise a first piano lesson with ensemble playing emphasised from the onset. The student learns how to use all 5 fingers, with both repeated and consecutive notes, and the interval of a third. the teacher's accompaniment offers passive learning; the student learns that there are two crotchets to a minim, and the feel of the I-V-I chord progressions. Var. 1 introduces slow trills. The student learns a mark of expression - ben sostenuto. A canonic entry from the accompaniment builds a foundation stone for the beginner to understand polyphony. Var. 2 introduces syncopation. The teacher offers passive learning with the introduction of semiquavers. The accompaniment is more nimble and harmonically adventurous than Var. 1, so the student can learn the feel of a more rapid harmonic rhythm. Dynamic expressive markings are introduced with a hairpin swell. Var. 3 intruduces quavers, with the teacher's stride bass giving the student a firm rhythmic framework to play against. The student learns their first dynamic mark; f. Var.4 the student learns another mark of expression; cantabile. The student encounters dotted notes with a trochaic rhythm joined by the teacher's right hand, against a rocking left hand accompaniment with semiquavers. Var. 5 teaches two new expression marks; leggiero and più mosso. The student learns to execute two articulations and the meaning of staccato dots. Through playing alongside the teacher's accompaniment the student can experience the feel of playing with brilliance and speed. Little though these variations may be, they are rich with information for the beginner and tell us a little about what Moscheles, who was an affectionate father to musical children, prioritised in teaching the young. By the end of studying this piece, the student has learnt to play Cantabile and Sostenuto with dynamic range, the germs of an understanding of harmony, polyphony, rhythm, articulation all within the constraints of the five-finger position.
Moscheles Theme and Variations 2. This is an opportunity to teach the student about majors and relative minors, this being in A minor following on from the 1st exercise in C major. The 1st exercise is in common time and this one in 2/4. This can be an introduction to subdivision. In exercise 1 the student has observed their teacher playing semiquavers but in this exercise gets to play them. The theme is in crotchets and minims, Var. 1 in quavers and minims, Var. 2 in semiquavers and minims, Var. 4 in all of these note values with the addition of syncopations and varied marks of expression. From the accompaniment, the student can learn what suspensions are and how they feel. This is another example of passive learning.
Another Theme and Variations by Moscheles, back in C major where we started. In Variation 1 triplets are introduced as is the trill in Variation 2 between all adjacent fingers. The student learns a few more words - Moderato, Animato, and a few expression marks; sfz, ten. and ritard. This set has a more sophisticated sense of chamber music about it - there are charming exchanges of musical units between the two players, for example the triplet commentary in the second part in Variation 1. The hymn-like theme could conceivably double as a lesson in harmony.
Leçons pour la réunion des deux mains No. 1 from the Méthode des Méthodes of Moscheles and Fétis.
This is designed so that the student learns to play both hands in similar motion. The duet part for the teacher will make sure the student counts the beats of the bar correctly. As passive learning the student will also familiarise themself with increasingly rapid note values and learn how many quicker notes fit into longer notes. The alternation of the teacher playing both above and below the student will help develop a sense of keyboard proprioception.
Leçons pour la réunion des deux mains No. 2. Exactly the same principles apply as above. This exercise is a little more complex and requires the student to play more asymmetrical patterns and the teacher's part is more harmonically adventurous and sprouts extra voices toward the end.
Composed expressly for the Méthode des Méthodes of Moscheles and Fétis. This March is written for the pupil to play primo and the teacher secondo. It is supremely inventive with a considerable harmonic resourcefulness which all but mask the fact the student plays entirely within the limitations of 5-finger position. The student will by now have learnt a wide variety of articulations, expressive markings and dynamics. Whilst playing this, they can observe their teacher playing a few passages in double notes, which will be covered by the student in the exercises a few pages later in the volume. This is real music in every sense, with huge melodic and rhythmic character and splashes of Czech harmonic colour from the sharpened 4th in the Dorian #4 Mode.
The same Rondino as above, played with my student Katie Laing. Katie is a very advanced pianist, and this was for sight-reading exercise and pleasure!
All of the previous pieces are for the pupil to play in duet with the teacher. This allows a large degree of passive learning as the pupil observes their teacher playing more complex passages whilst being able to see the sheet music.
In these elementary pieces the student 'flies solo' for the first time. The first piece - Allegretto - is another set of variations. It covers some previous ground but with the new difficulty that the 2 hands must fulfil their repective roles independently. As before, it starts with longer note values, getting quicker with each variation. Although written entirely in 5 finger position, the pupil must jump the hands up an octave, and there are some fiddly semiquaver passages in staggered motion.The jaunty little Allegro vivace introduces staccatos and off-beat accents affording the pupil to play music of real character.
Moscheles Morceau 3 dans l'éntendue des six touches - Allegro moderato; Morceau 4 dans l'éntendue des sept touches - Allegretto; Morceau 5 dans l'éntendue d'une octave - Moderato, from the Méthode des Méthodes of Moscheles and Fétis.
These little character pieces progressively teach the student to cover more keys with the five fingers.
The first covers 6 keys, the second 7, the third the octave. this applies to both hands. In the first two, the left hand provides an accompaniment which covers the same stretch as the melody in the right hand. In the third both hands take on a more equal role. From this point the student learns that the left hand will most often take the role of harmony and accompaniment and the right hand the role of melody. The first two pieces are waltzes, both in common triple time, the first in crotchets, the second in quavers. In the first the student learns to read in one flat, in the second in one sharp. The third piece is a forthright March covering the octave in both hands, in which the student learns to read in two sharps. It is intended as an introduction to arpeggios and Moscheles directs the student to practise both hands separately before joining them. It tells us something of Moscheles's attitude that the arpeggio will be introduced in the context of a character-piece rather than as an exercise.
It is perhaps surprising to see the study of double notes introduced so early in the Méthode as most students today would approach this technique further on. In exercise no. 1 the first exposure to this technique is with one static finger and the others moving up and down in slow trills. following these two introductory bars the whole of exercises one is played in similar motion. The next section introduces thirds alternating with single notes and careful placing of accents to strengthen the weaker 3rd and 4th finger thirds. I am reminded of Adolph von Henselt's advice to execute accents with the "finger only, not the arm.... (that enemy of a good delivery on the pianoforte), to develop the strength of the fingers, and to make them independent of the arm." in the next section thirds are played in crotchets and then in quavers; in the final section, in quavers and then in crotchets.
Exercise 2 is played almost entirely in contrary motion. more advanced patterns and an acceleration through triplets to semiquavers are included.
Exercise 3 is very beautiful - a one-line intermezzo. This is an exercise in thirds where the 2nd finger crosses over the thumb, and also in more extended chord combinations.
This is the final Exercice Élémentaire. A graceful character piece, this little Waltz and Trio uses the techniques from the previous exercises in thirds to generate a musically engaging little concert piece. The Waltz opens with chromatic trills in thirds in the right hand, followed by the same in the left hand. The music becomes more elaborate and culminates in a tricky "passo dopo". To contrast the Waltz with its swaying regular meter, the Trio accents the 3rd and 4th bars. Chromatic scales in thirds are introduced (only in the right hand). As with the Waltz the music intinsifies and culminates in a passo dopo. It is interesting to note that the fingering offered by Moscheles is now obsolete amongst modern pianists. The text of the Méthode includes a fingering from Chopin (Op. 25/6) as "a complete and important deviation from the preciding principles, but much less easy. It resembles to some degree the methode recommended by Hummel in his method. It requires the thumb to be employed on two notes in succession, and is wanting in order and symmetry." Although perhaps wanting in order and symmetry, it is nonetheless the standard way to finger chromatic thirds today!
Welcome to the Études Progressives
Etude Progressive in E-flat major. A footnote states that Moscheles composed this specifically for this MéthodeThis short Etude—the first of the Etudes Progressives—marks a significant leap in difficulty from the Exercices Élémentaires. It is prefaced with a public health warning that it should only be attempted by those whose hands have grown to full maturity. The primary difficulties are rapid expansion and contraction of the right hand with the inner fingers playing in awkward positions; both hands playing figurations that extend beyond the octave; in the final 3 lines a degree of 'mega-virtuosity' is required while both hands multitask with the right leaping across the keyboard. The radiant final cadence offers insight into how nineteenth-century pianists may have embellished final chords. This is a small piece with big feelings. The progression E-flat major (Majestueux, puissant—Gevaert) - G-flat major (Sombre—Gevaert) - E-flat minor (Anxiety of the soul's deepest distress—Gathy) finishing in E-flat major suggests an emotional narrative. The 1856 Erard at University of York is tuned to Bach-Lehmann highlighting differences between tonalities.
Etude dans le Style Lié
This short and tender piece is an exercise in legato. Moscheles was known to deplore overuse of the sustain pedal and he goes to considerable pains to provide fingerings which enable - just about - a strict finger legato; bar 6 even providing an example of double finger substitution. On York University's 1856 Erard, the deliverately inefficient damping system means gaps in resonance matter less than on a modern piano. I practised the piece exactly as written and only later added the pedal for reasons of resonance rather than legato.
Czerny Etude de la Velocite Op. 299 No. 22. This is one of the works included that was not composed expressly for the Méthode. The deliriously fast metronome mark of minim = 96 is impossible for me to achieve on this piano (Erard 1856 at University of York), though it might work on an earlier Viennese piano that has been perfectly set-up. This is an Etude in rapid repeated notes with finger changes 4-3-2-1, first in the right hand, then the left, then both together, then a figuration including an octave leap in the Coda. Whilst the Etudes de Perfectionnement contain no such passages, this is a fairly common technical feature of nineteenth-century piano music.
Moscheles Morceau Espressif pour l'Etude de la Cadence. Composed expressly for the Etudes Progressives in the Méthode des Méthodes of Moscheles e Fétis, this expressive little concert piece stands alongside a very rapid exercise in turns by Moscheles's countryman, Carl Czerny and demonstrates how the device can be used lyrically, the message being that the technical challenge must be fully ingrained in order for it to be employed effortlessly in performance.
This is printed directly after Moscheles's Morceau Expressif pour l'Etude de la Cadence and is one of the works included which was not expressly composed for the Méthode des Méthodes. It appears here as Op. 199 no. 1 but was originally published as Op. 299 No. 4. The exceedingly fast metronome mark of minim = 80 is impossible for me to achieve, though I have no doubt somebody somewhere can. What is indisputable is that this cannot be done if there is even the slightest degree of extra tension held in the arm or hand. The shortness of the piece means that it can be played in one impulse, and that is, I think, one of the points of its inclusion. On this page we have the mechanical aspect of the ornament moving up and down the keyboard sequentially, and on its facing page shown above, Moscheles's artistic manifestation of how the device can be used expressively; the implication is that one should be able to play the turn in this extremely rapid tempo in order to employ it effortlessly in a concert piece.
Cramer Exercice Op. 71 no. 12 in D major. It is one of the works included in the Méthode that was not composed expressly for it. This cheerful invention is a study in rising and falling hexachords. The pianist learns to play adjacent notes in a variety of positions and the passing of the fingers over the thumb without extending to a full scale. Cramer was tremendously popular throughout the nineteenth-century and study of his Etudes was not beneath some of the greatest pianists of the day. This piece demonstrates why—Cramer creates a minaiture of real musical interest out of the driest finger exercise.
Moscheles Prelude Op. 72 No. 3. This is one of the pieces in the Méthode that was not expressly composed for it. It follows on from the Cramer exercice in D major ( https://youtu.be/mK0FimKCXhM ) which is a study in rising and falling hexachords. This work is selected to extend into full rapid scales in the right hand across the keyboard. It includes interweaving of the hands and a figuration including broken sixths. We can imagine this is how Moscheles may have sounded improvising and preluding.
Cramer Exercice No. 20. No opus number is given but I will track it down eventually. This busy little Toccata explores a greater variety of technical devices than the previous pieces. The primary focus is on broken thirds, likely intended as preparation for the following Etude in thirds. Rising and falling thirds are explored as well as both chromatic and diatonic. There are also some broken sixths, some scalic passages and various combinations of the aforementioned. The pianist must also exercise trills payed by the right hand while the left plays broken thirds. There is also one bar with fingers crossing over the thumbs of both hands and some fairly treacherous left hand jumps. Given its position before the Etude in thirds we can assume that Moscheles considered it important to practise this next Etude in this manner
This is one of the pieces in the Méthode des Méthodes of Moscheles and Fétis that was not composed expressly for it.This very attractive Etude is carried by the rhythm of the Bohemian Polka, and has a certain swagger. Diatonic scales in thirds in the right hand are exercised, both upwards and downwards and with turns at either end. In ternary form, the recapitulation puts some of the thirds into the left hand, and just before the end there is a treacherous ossia in which the pianist must play a contrary motion scale in thirds - a problem one hardly ever encounters.
Joseph Christoph Kessler Etude in C minor Op. 20 No. 8 This is one of the Etudes included in the Méthode which was not composed expressly for it. The Op. 20 Etudes were dedicated to J. N. Hummel. Kessler was held in high regard by many of his contemporaries and he was the dedicatee of Chopin's Preludes. Octaves are mentioned repeatedly in the text section of the Méthode with two technical approaches espoused; with a loose wrist or with a stiffened wrist. Both Liszt and Moscheles favoured the stiffened wrist. It seem that 1840, the year of the Méthode's publication, was a time of transformation in terms of use of the heavier arm muscles in piano playing. With either a loose or a stiffened wrist, this neatly composed two-part invention is strenuous in the extreme. The Etudes de Perfectionnement, which make up the final volume of the Méthode possess no gigantic octave passages, though there are a few Etudes—those by Benedict and Thalberg—where a decent octave technique is essential. In this piece, bravura octaves of all kinds are exercised; arpeggios and broken arpeggios, scales and broken scales, double octaves, staggered octaves. Playing on the University of York's 1856 Erard, I have been exploring both approaches of the wrist, the stiffened wrist is more accurate, the loose wrist is less likely to crash. You may be able to guess which approach I am using in each section if you listen carefully!
Baermann's Body
Daniel is currently working alongside Dr Emily Worthington and exploring 19C performance practice and the the piano works of the pianist/composer Carl Baermann Jnr, son of the great 19C clarinettist Carl Baermann.
