THE PIANOFORTE STUDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 173, 22 July 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PIANOFORTE STUDENT.

A COMMON ERROR IN EXPRESSION.

(By J. S. Van Cleve.) l

One morning, while listening to a young lady recite her lesson in pianoplaying, I observed, with more than usual distinctness, an error in the under* standing- of musical directions of expression which is so frequently made that a word of elucidation and caution may; be well.

Everyone knows, or. at any rate thinks he knows, what is signified by the Italian word ritardando often employed toy composers. My pupil was reciting the "Rondo Capriccioso," by Mendelssohn. In the introductory Andante there is toward the close a precipitate passage of octaves in the right hand, which has a mark of ritardando. WJien she arrived at the last three notes there was an abrupt halt, and a very slow, emphatic sounding out of the notes. Besides being quite abhorrent to the Mendelssohnian tradition, which demands almost constant equality of beating, this wasiso gross a gaucherie as to be quite glaring. I took occasion to explain tos her the marked difference between ritar-* dando and meno inosso.

The latter effect is also often employ* ed in music, but is quite another thing from ritardando. Meno mosso means that there is to be an instantaneous alteration, of the tempo to a slower) rate, at whico. it is to temain until luf-< ther notice. ".'

The secret of the ritardando is to add , ■an insensibje amount of lengthening to each beat or note, at any rate to each! unit of the music to be retarded, whether there be but two or three on four of such notes, or whether the slackening is to extend through a long series of 30 or 40 notes. Suppose you 1 were to add a grain of sand each'moment to a pan of a balance; it would) sink lower and lower by very gentle and 1 nicely-graded abatements, and the sinking would be as soft as the gentle alighting of a balloon under perfect control.This may be taken as an image of the ritardando. Such an effect is to be ass aerial and pulse-like as possible, and 1 nothing is more fatal to the effect desired by the composer, namely, tho , softening and dulling of the fire of feel* ing, than suddenly to quench it. Do not dash a cup of water upon the flamejj sprinkle ashes upon it.

The expression meno mosso is generally used at the beginning of some enjtirely new thought or form of tonestructure 3 and is intended to distract the mind for- a moment, and to produce a slight arrest of the attention or spur of wonder. The pit-fall into which all 'beginners at retarding seem to fall by ; some fatal instinct of blunder is that of changing the first note or two much: too violently. The truth is, you must deliver the notes which immediately follow the direction "ritardaado" nearly as fast as you have been going, then byj little and little, usually by changes quite too delicate for a tyro, the sluggishness of the pulse must be brought! in. /-' There is a widespread neglect cf accurate attention to these routine and fundamental marks of expression among our pupils, and, as teachers, wo are imuch too apt to take for granted a' knowledge, of -what is to us so j;ud.Ußfiin tal. >-* *-