Items of interest

 
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The following article first appeared in The Etude, March 1932. Secured expressly for the ETUDE by Florence Leonard.

TECHNIQUE: THE OUTGROWTH OF MUSICAL THOUGHT 

Vladimir Horowitz is one of the outstanding figures in the pianistic world of today. Born October 1, 1904, at Kiev, Russia, at six he had piano lessons from his mother, and later entered the Petrograd Conservatory to become a pupil of Felix Blumenfeld, himself a pupil of Anton Rubinstein. He made concert tours of Russia till 1924 when he left for Berlin and became a favorite throughout musical Europe...

 
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Rubato

by Ignazy Jan Paderewski

Rhythm is the pulse in music. Rhythm marks the beating of its heart, proves its vitality, attests its very existence. Rhythm is order. But this order in music cannot progress with the cosmic regularity of a planet, nor with the automatic uniformity of a clock. It reflects life, organic human life, with all its attributes, therefore it is subject to moods and emotions, to rapture and depression.

There is in music no absolute rate of movement. The tempo, as we usually call it, depends on physiological and physical conditions. It is influenced by interior or exterior temperature, by surroundings, instruments, acoustics.

There is no absolute rhythm. In the course of the dramatic developments of a musical composition, the initial themes change their character, consequently rhythm changes also, and, in conformity with that character, it has to be energetic or languishing, crisp or elastic, steady or capricious. Rhythm is life.

According to a current story, Chopin used to say to his pupils: "Play freely with the right hand, but the left one act as your conductor and keep time."