Chapters 3&4

I have to say it was interesting reading about the development of the piano and how the pianoforte quickly became so popular. It's crazy to think of all the "toys and gadgets" that were added to give different timbre and effects. Thankfully those quickly fell out of fashion and now our modern piano allows us to imitate the orchestra.

I've found it interesting that most of the pianists discussed so far have firmly been against "flashy" playing. I agree completely with the sentiment. I'm not against expressive movement, but when it becomes a production nothing of value is added.

It's hard to imagine such a rich musical culture. It seems like every person played at least one instrument and those who didn't at least had knowledge about music. Based on the readings it seemed like Mozart had quite the interesting personality and demeanor. As with previous pianist, his playing was described as effortless. I think this is partly due to natural talent, but he even said himself, he worked hard so he didn't have to anymore. I liked his idea of locking away the music and working only on fundamentals. I think this would be beneficial to do every once and a while. I would go crazy if that was all I practiced.

I think Clementi is an underrated composer. Some of his sonatas are quite difficult to play but many of his works have lasting pedagogical value. I think the sentiment that he is such an inferior composer comes from Mozart's opinion of him. What the book doesn't say is that the Emperor declared the duel between them a tie. Mozart even based part of the Overture to the Magic Flute off of Clementi's B-flat Major Sonata published 10 years prior!

So far with advances in technique, not much has changed. This chapter still talked about "finger technique," keeping the fingers curled and the thumb close to the keys while making the distinction between legato and non legato. After reading about Mozart's technique I've tried to emulate some things while working on his A minor sonata and it's really been helpful.