faty
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
Hummel as teacher and pedagogue
According to Kroll (2007a: 241, 242) the 19th century was not only the era of the virtuoso pianist but also the era of the virtuoso piano teacher. After 1800 the number of people studying musical instruments increased dramatically due to the emphasis on individual achievement that was a product of Enlightenment thinking, and the growing middle class that placed great value on the ability to play an instrument well. According to Flanders (2006: 42), the invention of the upright piano as opposed to the grand prototype was also responsible for the growing popularity of piano playing among the middle classes. In 1795 William Stodart had taken a grand piano, set it upright on a stand and put it inside a sort of a cupboard. This instrument took up far less space than the traditional concert grand and was therefore better suited to the middle class home. Perhaps the greatest influence of all was the number of professional virtuosos appearing in public during the 19th century, serving as highly attractive role models. For the first time in history, piano teaching became a full time profession. Hummel was a remarkably gifted and passionate piano teacher who made an indelible impression on his students. His reputation as a teacher was undoubtedly supported by his pianistic achievements, but it would be unwise to imagine that he taught by musical instinct alone. His approach to teaching was carefully considered and according to his student Ferdinand Hiller he coped with technical and musical problems in the most systematic fashion. It was of the utmost importance to Hummel that his students play in a singing style (Kroll 2007a: 249). Piano sonority, ornamentation, fingering and rhythm all received the most detailed attention. As mentioned in section 2.1, he started his teaching career at the age of twelve, never ceasing to teach throughout his life.
Studies and études in the 19th century
It is of importance at this point that one remembers that the modern piano as we know it today was at the beginning of the 19th century still in its developmental stage. The fortepiano was a superb musical instrument in its own right, ideally suited for the kind of music Mozart, Beethoven and their contemporaries performed on it. With its narrower keys and much shallower touch than those of the late 19th century it was possible for the performer to delicately decorate and embellish the music literally with the ‘flick’ of the fingers. The instrument possessed a huge range of tonal expression, among its many virtues being the ability to play a true forte without sounding vulgar (King 2006: 51). King (2006: 52) elaborates that the renowned fortepianist Malcolm Bilson (b1935) is of the opinion that the music of Mozart and his contemporaries is better served by the fortepiano because the long singing lines made capable by the modern piano and the longer rate of tonal decay were not part of Mozart’s sound world. Bilson (Winter 2001: 574) has made a special study of performance practice on the instruments of the late 18th and 19th centuries and has recorded the piano sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert on the fortepiano, the instrument of that time. More recently, Bilson has ventured further into the 19th century, playing works by Schumann, Chopin and other composers on an 1825 Alios Graf piano. This, in my opinion is reason to regard Hummel’s Études as unique and of importance for their era as so much of his music, educational principles and style was rooted in the late 18th century. Yet many of them demand the sonority, singing tone and wide dynamic range of the piano, which was to be developed and refined only later in the 19th century. Hummel’s Études, like the études of Chopin, and later Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Debussy, are suffused with almost every human emotion. They express jubilation, tenderness, intimacy, brilliance, pathos, drama, subtlety, and sheer fun at times. Howat (2011: 23) is of the opinion that distinct echoes can be heard in Debussy’s Études of those of Chopin, to whose memory he dedicated his Études. The influence of Hummel on Chopin, by way of their friendship and contact at various points in their lives, is in this instance reaffirmed, establishing Hummel as an artist of influence on later generations of composers.
1 Introduction
1.1 Background to the study
1.2 Aim of the study
1.3 Literature review
1.4 Research questions
1.5 Methodology
1.6 Delimitations of the study
2 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837): An overview of his life and work
2.1 A brief biography
2.2 Hummel as teacher and pedagogue
2.3 Hummel, one of the first international virtuoso pianists
2.4 Hummel, the composer
2.5 Contacts, colleagues and associates
2.6 Summary
3 The origins and history of the Concert Étude as background to Hummel’s 24 Grandes Études op. 125
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Historical background to the étude
3.3 Studies and études of the 19th century
3.4 The contribution of Moscheles and Hummel to the development of the Concert Étude
3.5 Summary
4 Intertextuality and influence in the piano compositions of Hummel, his contemporaries, and the early Romantics
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Hummel’s links to Clementi, Mozart, Dussek and Beethoven
4.3 Hummel’s links to Schubert
4.4 Hummel’s links to Schumann
4.5 Hummel’s links to Chopin
4.6 Hummel’s links to Liszt
4.7 Intertextuality in Hummel’s 24 Préludes op. 67 (1814/15)
4.8 Intertextuality in Hummel’s Grandes Études op. 125 (1833)
4.9 Summary
5 Hummel’s pedagogical contribution to piano performance and teaching in the 19th century
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Expressive indications in the piano compositions of Hummel until 1815
5.3 Hummel’s contribution to piano pedagogy in the early 19th century
5.4 Summary
6 A pedagogical and technical study of Hummel’s Grandes Études op. 125
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Compositional style in Hummel’s 24 Grandes Études op. 125
6.3 The role of key choice in Hummel’s 24 Grandes Études op. 125
6.4 A technical appraisal of Hummel’s Grandes Études op. 125 with reference to the new technical demands of the new Romantic style
6.5 Performing Hummel’s 24 Grandes Études op. 125
6.6 Summary
7 Conclusions and recommendations
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Answering the research sub-questions
7.3 Answering the main research question: How relevant was Hummel as a transitional composer, pianist and pedagogue between the Classical and Romantic period as evidenced in his 24 Grandes Études op. 125?
7.4 Recommendations for further study
7.5 Conclusions
