Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy

This easy to read fiction book is very well known in Australia. It has appeared regularly on school curriculums and is often described as a "coming of age" book. The basic plot is about a young boy (Paul) growing up in Darwin and his relationship with his mysterious piano teacher, known as The Maestro. Available study guides talk about Darwin's weather being hot and humid mirroring the young pianist's budding sexuality, the student's fruitless quest for musical artistry and achievment along with themes of escapism, guilt and regret.

When I originally read the book, I found the plot clever and creative, but what really interested me and has stayed with me long after reading the book were the little nuggets of piano pedagogy tucked into the story. It turns out that Peter Goldsworthy, a medical doctor as well as an author, is the father of Australian concert pianist Anna Goldsworthy (whom I saw play at a Western Australia Piano Teacher Conference). He seems to have picked up some wisdom from her or her illustrious piano teacher, Mrs. Sivan, and inserted it into the story.

THE HAND:

When the young boy starts taking piano lessons from the Maestro, he has quite a few lessons where he is not allowed to play the piano even though he already is a pretty competent musician. Instead, the Maestro only discusses the hand and has many individual lessons about each finger without allowing the boy to play any music. It is very striking because it seems quite cruel to have piano lessons without allowing a student to play. However, it made this part of the story get into my head and got me thinking about how does the hand relate to the piano.

In the story, the fingers are described as:

Thumb: "Thumb is...too strong. A rooster, a show-off. Sultan of the harem. He must be kept in place."

Forefinger: "This finger is selfish. Greedy. A....a delinquent. He will steal from his four friends, cheat, lie."

Middle finger: "Mr. goody-goody....Teacher's pet. Does what he is told. Our best student."

Ring finger: "Likes to follow his best friend.... Likes to....lean on him sometimes."

The fifth finger is not described because as part of the story, the Maestro has cut off his fifth finger and tells the boy that it is unnecessary because many great pianists from previous eras never really used their fifth finger. Although that is kinda true, it would have been fun to also have a colorful description of the fifth finger from the Maestro. Maestro then describes the fingers as the pupils, the elbow as the teacher, and finally the brain as the headmaster.

Later in the story when the boy is describing his lessons to his parents, he says that the only thing they talked about in his initial lessons were the lengths of the fingers and that not all fingers are the same length. It was also pointed out by the Maestro that all the keys on the piano are the same length and the student is asked what could be done to remedy the mismatching.

From my point of view, this one the most basic issues at the heart of all piano playing and it has caused me to think a lot about how pianists do deal with the issue of having fingers with different "personalities" and lengths. I've thought about how we move our hands at the keyboard to compensate for those differences. It seems a very useful way to describe the hand early on in piano lessons to my students because it makes you consider how to best use your mismatched hand from the very beginning.

POSTURE AND HAND POSITION: Early in the piano lessons, the boy wants to play Chopin for the Maestro and gets ready to play when the following exchange occurs: 

Paul: "I, too, would let my hands do the talking. I dropped them to the keyboard. But before a single note had been played he reached over and seized my wrists.

Maestro: "No," he said. "No more. I do not like your Chopin." 

Paul: "But I haven't started!" 

Maestro: "You have of course started. Your hands are in the wrong position. Also your fingertips. Your elbows. I do not have to listen. I know how your Chopin would sound."

I love this exchange and wish I could be so very knowledgeable as to definitely be able to tell how something will sound on the piano simply by looking at a student's hand position and posture. However, in real life sometimes people can sound amazingly good with poor hand position and/or posture. Nevertheless, I still always try to teach my students to have good posture and hand position because I believe it can help prevent injuries and also because most pianists do sound better if they have what is considered proper hand position and posture.

THE QUEST FOR MUSICAL ARTISTRY: One of the main plot points in the book is the student's quest to become a classical pianist and how he continually falls short of his goal. There are a number of great quotes in the book that describe that quest:

“We must know when to move on. To search too long for perfection can also paralyse.”

“Only the second-rate never make mistakes.”

"No advance in art is possible for the self-satisfied... A step back is often as useful as a step forward."

"What is the difference between good and great pianists?" ...."Not much"....."Just a little."

"Perhaps there can be no perfection. Only levels of imperfection. Only.....differences. Each time we move closer and closer - but can never be satisfied. A piece is never complete, only at some stage abandoned."

There is also a very telling exchange between the boy and the Maestro which illustrates Paul's fruitless quest for music artistry:
Paul: "I played Beethoven that night as well as I had ever played, and turned afterwards, smiling, ready for praise."
Maestro: "An excellent forgery .... Technically perfect".
Paul: "At such moments I always remember a forged painting I once saw. In a museum in Amsterdam: Van Gogh. A fascinating art work. Each violent brushstroke was reproduced with painstaking, non-violent care. The forgery must have taken many many times longer than the original to complete. It was technically better than the original."
Maestro: "And yet something was missing. Not much - but something.... And that small something may as well have been everything."

I love the allegory of the Van Gogh painting because it helps explain why some performances although technically perfect, don't move you as a listener. This book allows it's main character to not quite make it as a classical pianist, to fall just short of the quest. It speaks to all of us about the struggle for musical artistry and how appreciative we should be of the great classical pianists over the ages who have manage to achieve such elusive artistry even if only for a short time.

There are of course many more nuggets of musical wisdom in this story, like the importance of listening, how becoming a concert pianist is always a gamble, etc. For me, it is wonderful how all of these important musical concepts are woven throughout a compelling story rather than a more "dull" book on piano pedagogy. This is a book that music and especially piano students can read for the story, but through osmosis learn important aspects of piano study and start to appreciate the rigors of a pianist's search for musical artistry.

I actually only have one minor quibble with this book. How could the Maestro possibly have an authentic autograph of Czerny, all the photos of his past life, the two pianos, etc. in his Darwin apartment if the ending of the book really happened?

The Prague Sonata

I received The Prague Sonata book as an unintentional Christmas present one year from Amazon. I had ordered a number of books as presents for members of my family and had considered this book as a possibility, but I didn’t actually order it. Then it showed up in my package from Amazon. So....Thanks Amazon! I think I didn’t order this book originally (even though I love interesting books about pianists and musicians) because I have been disappointed in the past with some books that simply use a piano teacher or musician as a character in an otherwise uninteresting story or it becomes evident to me that the author doesn’t really have a good understanding of music in general. When I read reviews of this book, the subject matter seemed promising, but the biographical details of the author were mostly about his distinguished literary credentials and I was worried that the book wouldn’t have enough musical credibility. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the book a great deal. The writing was clear and the narrative moved along at a good pace. The characters were interesting and the story was absorbing enough that I was able to pleasantly spend time totally immersed in my fictional setting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes their fiction to include musical elements.

According to an interview with the author , Bradford Morrow, the plot is a quest epic. During the Nazi invasion of Prague in 1939, a woman named Otylie Bartošová is forced to break up a treasured eighteenth-century musical manuscript, a handwritten piano sonata she inherited from her father. Much later, a young New York musicologist (and former aspiring classical pianist) named Meta, comes into possession of part of the manuscript and begins a quest to locate the rest. Meta’s journey takes her to Prague and other places in search of the other movements. I found the story very convincing for the most part, however if I’m going to nitpick:
1. The evil musicologist was a bit of a stretch for me. I guess the author felt Meta needed an antagonist to make the “quest” a little more difficult.
2. The romantic interest in the novel being a journalist seemed fine for me, but it seemed a little self-conscious to have him taking secret notes about writing a book about his experience with Meta at the same time.
3. Although the novel does not really mention a timeframe, I found it difficult a bit difficult to believe that so many of the original people involved with the manuscript from WWII were still alive during Meta’s quest.

I think the part I enjoyed the most about the book was its setting in Prague as well as the plausibility of an actual lost sonata by a great composer as presented in the book. I have previously visited the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic and it was great fun to recognize landmarks like Lobkowicz Palace, where we also saw rare musical manuscripts as a tourist. I also agreed with descriptions of the Nazi occupation and the Velvet revolution that were part of the story. During my personal visit to Prague, I attended a lecture about the communist occupation and details included in the Prague Sonata book dovetailed very well with local opinions presented to me during my own visit.  The back story to the manuscript coming into the hands of Otylie managed to seem like reasonable conjecture. In addition, the descriptions of the musical manuscript were authentic sounding. Consequently, I feel Bradford Morrow did a very good job with his book research especially in his description of Prague as well as with the details of the lost musical manuscript. This story makes you wish a lost Sonata by such a famous composer had really been found.

Some Favorite Quotes from The Prague Sonata:
• All wars begin with music….The fife and drum. The marching songs, sung to the rhythm of boots tramping their way to battle. The bugle’s call for an infantry to charge. Even the wailing bassoon sirens that precede the bombardment and the piccolo whistles of the falling bombs themselves.
• Why do people fight wars? The girl asked. Because God lets them, he answered, suddenly quieter. But why does he let them? Her father thought for a moment, tucking the wool blanket under her chin, before saying, Because God loves music and so he must abide war.
• “Prague? Wow Meta. Can you really afford to do that?” “I’ve got some money saved up. Not a ton, but if it came down to it, I could always sell my piano.” “Never. You’d sooner die,” Gillian insisted.
• Her student was as earnest as death. He knew all the notes, had memorized them like multiplication tables. One day, he would grow up to be a damned good industrial engineer.
• Scales, she wrote in Czech in her diary. Jakub, I had forgotten what soulful things scales are! The perfection of flowers here in this park, the flowers that know just how many petals and leaves are needed to grow every spring to find their way into the sunlight, that’s what scales are.
• …luck is the progeny of persistence.
• “His piano was his saddest loss. It was all burned, but the brass pedals and part of the – what do you call this? – music board with the Bosendorfer?”…. “The label on the soundboard didn’t burn completely, so he saved that.”

Memoirs of A Secret Pianist by Robert M. Fells

As an adult piano teacher specialist, I am always very interested in auto-biographical books written by older piano students learning to play or re-play the piano. The books that I have read in this genre all paint very different pictures with respect to the pianists motivations and self-observations. This reflects my own experience in teaching adult students. They are all very different and as a teacher, you need to meet them on their own terms and be very flexible in your teaching methods.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this particular slim volume. I love his introduction where he discusses "learning to play a musical instrument is one of the best ways to keep the ageing brain agile and retentive." I also very much appreciate his observation that "you don't have to be very good at it to derive enjoyment from playing." (I would add a caveat that "good" piano playing is a very nebulous term.) I also totally agree that learning play the piano should be fun. Mr. Fells advice on choosing an instrument, though basic, has some good points. I agree that digital keyboards are very useful and that if you are going to buy an acoustic piano, you should love how it sounds.
Once we get to Chapter 2 however, Mr. Fells tells us that "the basics of piano playing are so simple to master that it seems almost wasteful to hire an instructor to explain them to you." And I guess I would agree if you just want to explore the piano entirely on your own for financial reasons or because you can't seem to find a teacher that fits your needs. However, as an adult piano teacher, I would ask; why not take advantage of a teacher's expertise on how to avoid common injuries, how to practice effectively, what are the best and fastest learning strategies, what's a good curriculum for you personally, to have help finding enjoyable literature, and help finding safe performance opportunities with other adult students? I also find in this small volume several misconceptions about music which bother me quite a bit. For instance in this chapter, Mr. Fells states that increasing the tempo is allegro and slowing it down is adagio, but that is incorrect. Allegro means lively and fast and Adagio means slowly. Increasing the tempo would actually be an accelerando and then ritardando for decreasing tempo.
Mr. Fells also talks about how he learned to play as an adult through adult group lessons, which can be great, but I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the old and stale John Thompson method when there are so many more new and interesting method books available for adults. Many of these method books include CDs so that you can hear each piece as well as have access to accompaniments giving you a backing band as you are playing. Mr. Fells also attributes a well-known quote about practicing to Vladimir Horowitz, ie. "If he skipped a day of practice he could notice it in his playing. If he skipped two days the critics noticed it. And if he skipped three days, the audience noticed." I've seen this quote attributed to many people, but never Horowitz. Usually its attributed to Paderewski, but upon a little more research this quote may have originally come from Listz, but certainly not Horowitz. Anyway, its a bit of an indication of sloppiness in his writing.
I also disagree with his idea that its helpful if he calls his practice, "rehearsing". For me rehearsing has a very specific meaning and its what I do when a piece has been practiced thoroughly and I'm preparing for a performance. However, once again if it helps him to "practice" the piano by calling it "rehearsing", then I'm glad it works for him.
Then, its back to what I love about this volume. Mr. Fells strongly urges you to learn only works that you really want to play. I totally agree with this idea. You need to love the music you are trying to learn. But then he spoils it by talking about "Head Bobble syndrome", where the pianist hasn't taken the time to learn their notes or their way around the keyboard very well and so they have to constantly look at their fingers to figure out where the notes are located. Mr Fells doesn't mention little helps like steps, skips, and leaps which can help pianist with their kinesthetic movement around the keyboard. He also doesn't mention in this section that many great pianists do look down from their sheet music to check the geography of the keyboard for larger leaps. Its quite acceptable to have an occasional "bobble".
And so it goes with this volume. I find sections I totally agree with and then hit something that is quite jarring. For instance, I don't think Chopin deliberately wrote his compositions with complexity to simply showcase the dexterity of the performer. Chopin agonized over every note in his compositions trying to get them to sound exactly right to his ear and one of my favorite quotes by Chopin is: "Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art." Quite a different sentiment than the idea of Chopin writing his compositions simply to showcase a performers dexterity.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed reading this volume and getting a sense of Mr. Fells observations about piano playing. However, I don't think I would give this volume to one of my adult students, unless they would like to read all my handwritten notes avidly agreeing with some sentiments and strongly disagreeing with others.

The Secret Piano

I love autobiographies about pianists that overcome obstacles and find satisfaction and/or success with the piano later in life. This novel hit all my "hot buttons". It is about a young girl  who had been on a fast track for success at the conservatoire in China, but got derailed (and brainwashed) during the communist revolution. After working hard at an age too old for the typical pianist, along with an astonishing amount of generosity from many people, she has achieved a reasonable success as a concert pianist and educator.  I'm definitely going to look up her recordings of the Bach Goldberg Variations.

I've read some other autobiographical books about the communist revolution.  Mao's Last Dancer was required reading for my daughter in her English course a number of years ago, so I read it as well. The Secret Piano was unique for me in that Zhu Xiao-Mei was in the Conservatoire, old enough to witness the effects on the teacher/artists at the school, but young enough to be "brainwashed" by the revolution.  She experienced and participated in terrible atrocities.  All the deaths and humiliations of the teachers in the Conservatoire were especially chilling.  The destruction of manuscripts was heart-rending. Her denunciations of herself and others along with the lifelong repercussions of her own actions were fascinating.  However, once she escaped from China and reached the US is not the end of the story, but merely the halfway point in the book.

Zhu received much help along the way, but also had to persevere terrible obstacles.  People helped her by opening their homes to her. She worked in many menial jobs to make enough money to survive.  She auditioned and was accepted to the New England Conservatoire after reaching the age of 30.  She realized that she wasn't attaining her goal in the US and wound up moving to France where she kept studying and practicing.  Then through even more help and her own hard work, she finally received some professional success. The second half is a testament to persevering in the western world despite enormous obstacles. It also includes quite a lot of philosophy that she used to help her survive, move forward, and finally shape her philosophy of music.

As I said before, this book hit all my buttons.  Its got an interesting historical component that taught me more about China's cultural revolution.  Its got an older pianist achieving success when conventional wisdom predicts failure.  She must be a remarkable artist and person to have achieved her success. The Secret Piano is a wonderful book and I will be recommending it to all my friends.

As a piano student and teacher, I also look at the book on another level. I like to see if there's anything in the book that would not only help me in my playing, but also in teaching others to play the piano. Here's some excerpts that I especially liked:

"By constantly practicing, without casting about or forcing the matter, insight into life and how things worked emerged without my conscious awareness of it. This is the essence of Chinese philosophy: something that can be experienced without always needing to be explained. The Chinese path to understanding is quite different from that taken by Westerners.  It is more intuitive, less strictly rational. The Chinese believe that many things do not need explanation because they are natural phenomena.  Unlike their Western counterparts, who see understanding as a prerequisite to practice, Chinese people see practice as one way to achieve understanding.  They are skeptical about any single-minded search for an ideal or truth.... Once I have analyzed the entire piece, I play it evenly and attentively: I never force it or try to grasp its meaning too quickly.  I do this until I experience love for each passage and note, until I reach a state of natural and intuitive understanding."

"It is increasingly clear to me that the thrust (line of reasoning or meaning) of a work is linked to its thrust (forward motion or direction). That the music - propelled forward and shaped by the life-giving bass notes - advances horizontally, and that this horizontality ultimately takes precedence over its verticality."

"I also learned... not to struggle with my piano.  It is an eternal friend, regardless of external events and the day's fugitive moods.  This in turn allows me to better explore its infinite resources, to get closer to the attack and sonority that I am seeking."

"Before playing a work, I have discovered I need... to be peaceful, to empty my mind. To see down to the bottom of a lake, the water must be calm and still. The calmer the water, the farther down one can see. The exact same thing is true for the mind - the more tranquil and detached one is, the greater depths one can plumb."

Zhu tells us that studying Chinese philosophy helped her understand the "truth of music".  Maybe it resonated with her more because it fitted in with her cultural worldview, but maybe studying some Laozi wouldn't be so bad for me.