Virtuoso Technique for the Piano by Paul Creston; The Pianist's Warming-Up Exercises by

Harold Bauer; The Development of the Articulation and Independence of the Fingers in Piano
Playing by Leona H. Dounis
Review by: Edwin Hughes
Notes, Second Series, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Dec., 1951), pp. 170-171
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/890546 .
Accessed: 17/06/2014 22:10

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Music Library Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:10:15 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
natural gift for melody has led him out of
bounds in this instance, and the result
is music far better suited for use outside
than within a place of worship.
Seth Bingham: Variation Studies, Op.
54, for the organ. New York: M. Witmark
and Sons, 1951. [19 p., $1.75]
The Variation Studies by Seth Bingham
are 11 short essays on an original theme,
designed as exercises in various organ-
playing techniques. Their pedagogical
intentions are, however, strictly musical,
and together they make a delightful
suite, resembling in spirit and style those
composed by the French organists of the
late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Teacher, student, and recitalist will find
them equally useful and attractive. Finger-
ing and pedal markings have been added
by Catherine Crozier.
Ulysses Kay: Two Meditations [for
Organ]. New York: The H. W. Gray Co.,
[1951]. [7 p., $.75]
Ulysses Kay, a young American com-
poser whose work for other musical media
has received considerable recognition,
offers organists a sample of his writing
in Two Meditations, published as No. 27
in H. W. Gray's Contemporary Organ
Series. The sample is rather slight (both
pieces together total little more than
three minutes), and hardly serves as a
fair exhibition of his talent. However,
most organists are grateful for even small
favors from the better contemporary
composers. They are prepared, too, to
conceal the composer's lack of experience
in writing for the instrument (as is the
case here) by careful registration and
even a little judicious editing. Each piece
is more or less a prelude based on a
single idea, commenting briefly and with-
out emotional excitement. Neither is
difficult, and none need shy from the mild
dissonances used.
PIANO MUSIC (FOR TEACHING)
Paul Creston: Virtuoso Technique for
the Piano. New York: G. Schirmer,
r1950]. [19 p., $1.50]
Harold Bauer: The Pianist's Warming-
Up Exercises. New York: G. Schirmer,
[1950]. [12 p., $.75]
170
This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:10:15 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Paul Miiller-Zurich: Toccata II in D
[for Organ]. (Saint Cecilia Series, No.
773). New York: The H. W. Gray Co.,
[1951]. [8 p., $.75]
Paul Muller-Zurich is a Swiss com-
poser and teacher (born 1898) whose
music seems to be little known in this
country. His Toccata II in D reveals
a hand skilled in the true organ style.
No tricks are needed to project this
music. It moves vigorously and con-
vincingly on its own merits from the
opening allegro through a quieter middle
section to the return of the allegro at
the end. Its energy and forthrightness
recall the style of the old north-German
masters; its musical language is con-
servative but, if one or two lapses are
overlooked, not dull. It is not too difficult
and requires between four and five min-
utes for performance.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Memorial Col-
lection. Organ Series, Vol. III. Selected
and Edited by Walter E. Buszin. St.
Louis: Concordia Publishing House,
[1950]. [103 p., $3.00]
The Johann Sebastian Bach Memorial
Collection, edited by Walter E. Buszin
and published as Volume III of the Con-
cordia Organ Series, is excellent. The
editor has carefully selected 24 preludes
from among those "not readily available
in American editions and yet eminently
worthwhile." There are no Schiibler or
Orgelbiichlein duplications; most have
been taken from the so-called miscel-
laneous preludes. Harmonizations of the
less familiar chorales are included. The
editor has supplied accurate and pertinent
information when needed, otherwise leav-
ing the music to sound for itself. It is
a very convenient and useful collection
for the working organist, no matter how
extensive his Bach library might be.
LUTHERNoss
Leona H. Dounis: The Developmentof
the Articulation and Independence of
the Fingers in Piano Playing. New York:
Mills Music, [1951]. [4 p., $1.00]
These recently published books of tech-
nical exercises indicate that there are
 those who do not believe in the old-
fashioned idea, still prevalent in some
circles, that one can learn to play the
piano adequately by merely studying
pieces.
It is true that the works of J. S. Bach
and his predecessors, contemporaries,
and immediate followers (also those of
Haydn and Mozart) require compara-
tively little muscular power for their
adequate technical performance, physical
and mental agility being the principal
requisites. But from Beethoven and
Schubert on, piano composers began to
demand a vastly increased tonal range
of the performer. No pianist can hope to
give an acceptable interpretation of the
greater works of these composers, and
those of Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rach-
maninoff, Prokofieff and others, without
exceptionally strong fingers, hands, and
arms; and not many come by this
strength naturally.
Paul Creston shows himself very much
aware of this in the publication of his
Virtuoso Technique for the Piano, a
genuinely valuable contribution in this
field. In concise form he presents a
series of exercises that are definitely
for advanced players, and are designed
to aid in the development of the high
degree of physical strength necessary to
master compositions of the "virtuoso"
type. The figurations and the chord,
octave, and double-note combinations
which he has devised exploit cleverly
and quite thoroughly the technical diffi-
culties presented by works of this sort.
Harold Bauer's short book, The Pian-
ist's Warming-Up Exercises, is less pre-
tentious in scope and character, but
should be of assistance in its expressed
purpose: "For the maintenance and im-
provement of technical fluency, and espe-
cially for the restoration of power and
control to cold and stiff fingers."
Leona H. Dounis presents an introduc-
tion and three pages of five-finger pat-
terns, somewhat in the Hanon manner,
her aim being "to reduce to the min-
imum the exercises that are necessary
for the highest development of this phase
of piano technique."
EDWINHUGHES
171
This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:10:15 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Bela Bart6k: 42 Hungarian Folk Mel-
odies ("for Children"). New York:
Leeds Music Corporation, 1951. [42 p.,
$2.00]
During the years 1908-1909 Bart6k
composed a collection of delightful pieces
for children, reviewed earlier in these
pages. From that same period we are
fortunate in having this set of forty-two
short pieces based on Hungarian folk
melodies and designated especially "for
children." Bart6k's simple and greatly
varied treatment preserves the strange
and appealing quality of the true Hun-
garian folk melody while keeping always
to a pianistic style. Technically the
range is from easy to moderately diffi-
cult and there is great diversity of mood,
color, and dynamics. Canonic writing is
expert and imaginative and, in instances
where the quality of narrative song is
maintained, the harmonic treatment is
vivid. The variety in dance rhythms is
a delight, moving as it does from the
delicate grace of the village belle to the
impetuosity of the country bumpkin. The
imaginative student should have a won-
derful time with this volume.
Walter Golde: Gargoyles, for the Piano.
New York: G. Schirmer, 1951. [7 p.,
$.50]
Walter Golde: Contemplating, for the
Piano. New York: G. Schirmer, 1951.
[5 p., $.50]
These two recent compositions of
Walter Golde are written in traditional
romantic style. Contemplating is a pleas-
ant piece in three-part form with broad
melodic lines. Gargoyles requires fleet
fingers. It is pianistically adroit but
slightly monotonous in color. Both pieces
are of medium difficulty and should be
enjoyed by the student whose taste is
conservative.
Dmitri Kabalevsky: Ten Children's
Pieces for Piano. New York: Leeds
Music Corporation, 1951. [28 p., $1.50]
This collection is a welcome successor
to Kabalevsky's popular 15 Children's
Pieces. There is a certain brightness
about Kabalevsky's writing which, in
combination with his good taste and im-
agination, makes his children's pieces