The "Common looking" One

I would like to have met Mozart, taken lessons from Beethoven and, as a small girl, sat on Haydn's knee. But I would like to have been friends with Hummel. There is something amicable in the description of a "common looking" man with no sense whatsoever of style, a penchant for laughing at inopportune moments and a beautiful but humble artistry. This artistry seems to have been a large part of what Hummel is remembered for. Before this point, the vast majority of famous keyboardists we have studied were equally famous as composers; this was not so much the case with Hummel. Although he did compose, he is more a model of a complete pianist. Starting at a young age, and entering into a kind of apprenticeship with Mozart, embarking on a long career as a pianist, and completing the picture with a piano method, and a long list of fine students, Hummel offers the blueprint for a successful and distinguished career as a pianist.

Before I comment on the pedagogical ideas of Hummel himself, I would like to muse for a moment on those of Mozart. Mozart's thoughts on the business end of piano teaching are the earliest I have read, and they seem to me not bad. Although his policy on canceled lessons seems a tad harsh, his insistence on fees and payment is an attitude we may do well to remember. Piano teaching is a business, after all. Matters of his fees aside, the frequency and duration of the lessons he conducted were slightly stunning to me. What could one possibly teach a piano student for an hour a day?? And, assuming that he did actually teach music for that hour, how much did his students practice?

Hummel also espoused the idea of an hour long lesson a day, but only for the first six months or a year of instruction. This idea seemed rather ridiculous to me until I considered the rest of his teaching philosophy; Hummel stressed the vital importance of correcting and warding off bad habits at the outset of a student's instruction. His attention to reading, meter, and a fine sense of pitch are notable. If I had had this style of teaching with a lesson every day in my first months of training I would (if I did not dissolve into angry tears and quit first) have learned not to rush every piece of music I learned to the fastest speed I could play it at the moment I attained any level of proficiency at it. I would have learned to sit up correctly, not slouching, not tensing my shoulders. And I would like to imagine that had the piano I learned on been tuned at all times, I would have developed a much finer sense of pitch. Therefore, in Hummel's most basic thoughts on pedagogy, I find usage for a lesson a day for beginners. And with a devoted teacher, the experience would be even more beneficial. In this regard, Hummel went beyond the business of music to the artistry. Music teaching isn't just a way of making money, it is a continuation of the art. And in this age where the demand for classical music is lessening, and children are teased for playing it, a measure of the duty of preserving the art form falls to the music teachers, who must invest all they can in the task of imparting a love of this music in their students.

As a closing note, I would like to note Hummel's thoughts on beauty vs. correctness in performance. A piece of music isn't just notes, like a poem isn't just words, and the exhortation to listen to as much good music as possible, and not just keyboard music, is a good one. I am a musician, after all, why not take time to enjoy the art every once in awhile?