Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface: Grigory Kogan: His Life and Times
- Acknowledgments
- Busoni as Pianist
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Busoni's childhood and youth, 1866–88
- Chapter 2 Finland and Moscow, 1889–94
- Chapter 3 Berlin: Busoni's emergence as a great pianist
- Chapter 4 Busoni's technique: Piano orchestration, tone production
- Chapter 5 Busoni's repertoire: An anti-Romantic approach
- Chapter 6 Busoni's interpretation of Beethoven, Liszt, and Chopin
- Chapter 7 Busoni's interpretations. Textural liberties
- Chapter 8 Busoni's interpretations of Bach. Articulation
- Chapter 9 Rhythm and dynamics
- Chapter 10 Busoni's recording of the Liszt's Rigoletto Paraphrase
- Chapter 11 Technical phrasing
- Chapter 12 Technical variants
- Chapter 13 Fingering, pedal
- Chapter 14 Compositions, transcriptions, editions, teaching, writings
- Chapter 15 Busoni's esthetics
- Chapter 16 Busoni's esthetics, continued
- Chapter 17 World War I. Operas
- Chapter 18 Busoni's final years, 1918–24
- Conclusion
- Annotated Discography
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Translator's Bibliography
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Chapter 12 - Technical variants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface: Grigory Kogan: His Life and Times
- Acknowledgments
- Busoni as Pianist
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Busoni's childhood and youth, 1866–88
- Chapter 2 Finland and Moscow, 1889–94
- Chapter 3 Berlin: Busoni's emergence as a great pianist
- Chapter 4 Busoni's technique: Piano orchestration, tone production
- Chapter 5 Busoni's repertoire: An anti-Romantic approach
- Chapter 6 Busoni's interpretation of Beethoven, Liszt, and Chopin
- Chapter 7 Busoni's interpretations. Textural liberties
- Chapter 8 Busoni's interpretations of Bach. Articulation
- Chapter 9 Rhythm and dynamics
- Chapter 10 Busoni's recording of the Liszt's Rigoletto Paraphrase
- Chapter 11 Technical phrasing
- Chapter 12 Technical variants
- Chapter 13 Fingering, pedal
- Chapter 14 Compositions, transcriptions, editions, teaching, writings
- Chapter 15 Busoni's esthetics
- Chapter 16 Busoni's esthetics, continued
- Chapter 17 World War I. Operas
- Chapter 18 Busoni's final years, 1918–24
- Conclusion
- Annotated Discography
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Translator's Bibliography
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
The second important link in Busoni's technical “system” is the so-called method of technical variants. Following Liszt's legacy again, Busoni counsels every pianist, in working out a difficult passage, to invent textural variants for them and use these as helpful exercises and etudes. As examples, he offers his own technical variants to Preludes I, II, III, V, VI, XV, and XXI of Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach, to Etudes, Op. 10, nos. 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9 and to Prelude, Op. 28, no. 3 of Chopin.
This method of technical work is echoed by other great pianistic authorities, but is not accepted in the “piano classes in all of Europe.” It demands of the students a greater than usual creative initiative and more independence of thinking; in addition, along with other aspects of Busoni's pedagogy, it demolishes the academic separation between theory and practice, between training for performance and analysis and compositional exercises. For Busoni, as for Liszt, the “analysis of a problem” is the best pianistic exercise, altering the texture, transcribing is the best analysis; only by changing something do we comprehend it and only by comprehending something do we master it. “Only in the mirror of the variant are the interesting features of the original uncovered,” says the epigraph to Busoni's variants to Chopin's Etudes.
As has been said before, the method of variants is not accepted by all teachers.
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- Information
- Busoni as Pianist , pp. 60 - 72Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010