Harpsichord Vs. Piano Technique

A while ago I received the following from a Dutch musician. I share it with you here along with my responses... Dear Mr. Fraser, With great interest I read your book “The craft of Piano Playing”. Besides playing the modern piano, I play the fortepiano, the clavichord and the harpsichord. I am the lucky owner of a copy of a Dulcken fortepiano from about 1800, a Broadwood grand from 1890 and a Grotrian Steinweg piano from about 1920. The Dulcken and the Broadwood have small hammers and are not cross strung. Only the Grotrian Steinweg has a modern action, but the touch is lighter than a modern grand. For this instrument I can use your book, but with some restrictions. Do you know Vivian Sofronitsky and her American husband who makes her old fortepianos? Craft actually refers to craftsmanship, and not to power at all. And actually I wrote my book for all keyboardists. When I have shown harpsichordists and organists my insights into the structure of the hand I have improved their sound sometimes tremendously. I have also given lessons to fortepianists with similar results. My techniques actually go back to harpsichord technique and reinstate its place in modern piano technique. The “modern-grand-players” may ubdoubtedly have profit of your advises. But the players of instruments which are a hundred years old, or still older, less. That is my opinion. I am afraid I have to disagree with you! The sons of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and so much others (even Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Debussy) played on such instruments. They played with an other technique on their instruments as you prescribes in your book. Please refer to my second book and especially my third book where I write at great length about reinstating harpsichord technique at the modern piano. They played with less power. About Chopin we know that he played soft and with a very tender attack. But his hands were capable of amazing voicings and articulations, and for that he had great strength. It's a different kind of strength but strength nonetheless. Yet your book does appeal to me. When I take all your advises about finger/hand strength, pressing, extension and rotation a number of gradations lesser, then the excercises in your book can be also productive to me. I am glad you have found that. I will be curious if, after you read my other books, you will see things more from my point of view! G. van R., musician from Netherlands. All best wishes and good luck! Alan Fraser

Dear Alan, Unfortunately, when reading reactions to your method throughout the Web, I see that people tend to think in terms of raw muscle power, not bones or kinetic energy through activity of the hand/fingers. Very often, I also read remarks about the size of your "huge" hands, usually as an argument against even trying your exercises, which purportedly "cannot do anything else but cause tension in people with smaller hands". Also, maintaining the arch suggests "unnecessary tension" in the minds of those who believe in "relaxation" immediately after sounding a note. Discussions on this topic get very religious sometimes and usually end in mere mud slinging. Personally, instead of trying to prove a point for the benefit of mankind, I now tend to avoid that kind of discussions. P.S.: Off-topic: The kind of mistakes against usage of the English language displayed in the letter suggest not a native of Holland; although we, educated Dutch people, do commit errors against English sometimes, they are never of that kind. This has to do with a certain linguistic relationship between Dutch and English. What I read here seems more like "import" from Eastern Europe to me. Kind regards from Moscow, Paul

Hi My first thought was that this must be Brautigam... I'm a fan of old instruments (only for practise) and I tend to agree with G van R. Some parts of Craft are not directly for Clavicordplayers -on the other hand organizing such a tremendously complicated subject to fit in for all instruments is not feasable. Amsterdam has "Maison Erard" with Jaanmaat where you can find restored old instruments-every pianist should visit this friendly bloke. I think you shouldn't expect to much from distance-learning still Alans teachings are probably among the best as there is a large accent on the anatomy of the hand. The kind of strength Alan talks about can be built up without injury and even prevent injury but you have to read all of it carefully. I've seen there are individual lessons on video and they are good.In my opinion much better than the examples from masterclasses. Hammarklavierplayers and Clavicordplayers usually have a fantastic sound and touch when playing on modern grands. I don't know why.Maybe because they instinctively optimize the power needed. I heard that in the sibeliusacademy they even oblige pianists to learn to play Clavicord. Using some "Lhevinne" on a good Erard was a very nice experience I had years ago.

I recently had a great experience watching an excellent Austrian harpsichordist teach our piano students. What a revelation! And everything she said agreed with what I've written in my books... I am all for a more sensitive manipulation of the key. The kind of structural standing I teach near the beginning of Craft is just to wake the hand up and get it capable - it is definitely not the endgame. AFF