Approaches to Piano Plying from Hummel to Liszt

FAIN: FB-13194-77

Thomas L. Fritz
University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68503-2427)

To explore the documentary evidence which pertains to several crucial developments in piano playing which occurred approximately between the performance careers of Hummel, Czerny, and Moscheles and those of Chopin, Liszt, and Thalberg. The first is a change from a technique based mainly on fingers and hand usage to one using arm and torso. The second is the adoption of a new role for legato in piano playing. The third is the amount and kind if license from the printed score these pianists allowed themselves.