Performance Practice Review

Volume 3
Number 1 Spring

Article 8

"Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music" By

Sandra P. Rosenblum
A. Peter Brown

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Part of the Music Practice Commons
Brown, A. Peter (1990) ""Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music" By Sandra P. Rosenblum," Performance Practice Review: Vol. 3:
No. 1, Article 8. DOI: 10.5642/perfpr.199003.01.8
Available at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/ppr/vol3/iss1/8

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90 A. Peter Brown

Sandra P. Rosenblum. Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. xv, 516pp. ISBN 0-25334314-3
That a hot hostility exists between pianists and fortepianists became
evident to me only last year when I taught for the first time a keyboard
literature course for piano performance majors at the master's level. It
is in such an environment where the work of the Badura-Skodas,
William S. Newman, Frederick Neumann, and others have barely
penetrated that Sandra Rosenblum's Performance Practices in Classic
Piano Music might be successful in effecting some positive change; she is
an active pianist who plays both modern and original instruments, and in
the course of her monograph, remarks on the details of performances by
both fortepianists and pianists. Yet, Rosenblum's book is thoroughly
musicological; she seems to have read everything, digested it, and
recycled it into clear expository prose. With eighty-six pages of notes and
four-hundred pages of text, careful and thorough documentation marks
this study. Thus, this is a book for two audiences: performers and
scholars.
From the views of both communities, Rosenblum's approach can only be
described as exhaustive. She has consulted the appropriate treatises,
studied the autographs, early copies, and editions, as well as the best of
the critical texts of both solo and ensemble works, observed and
commented upon present-day practices, played replicas and originals of
eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century pianos, and has placed all this
into historical and musical contexts. The book concentrates on Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, dementi, and the English Pianoforte School;
Beethoven receives the most extensive coverage. When necessary,
examples from outside the piano repertoire are cited. Documentation is
combined with, but carefully delineated from, Ms. Rosenblum's own
preferences, and she wisely avoids the vitriolic controversies that have
marked some of the issues. In short, this is a virtuoso performance: a
compleat introduction, but hardly a "plaine" and "easie" one.
The first chapter "The Background for the Study" attempts to do
too much with difficult and elusive concepts in too little space. Ideas
such as the relationship of music and rhetoric, Emfindsamkeit, and Sturm
und Drang are concepts yet to be defined to the satisfaction of many
students of the period. For example, when she writes that Mozart's
Sonata for Piano K. 309, "composed in Mannheim in 1778, mirrors a
predilection for dynamic nuance, contrasts, and crescendos characteristic

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91

of the 'Mannheim School"1 (p. 14), we are dealing with two questions:
whether K. 309 was written in Mannheim and if these characteristics
were stimulated from the 1770s style at the Elector's court. The answers
are possibly not and certainly no. The so-called "Mannheim" style, as
defined by Riemann, had peaked a generation earlier with Johann
Stamitz and was only to be found in his late symphonies. This style was
derived from the Italian overture; Stamitz's contribution was one of
refinement.
The author's approach is refreshing in a discipline in which few are
inclined to suggest what can be definitely known: "the goal of historically
founded performance practices is to reveal each composition to its fullest
in a manner at once consonant with the composer's expectations (as best
we can discern them) and satisfying to the performer and the audience"
(p. 1). There are no tricks of argumentation throughout the book.
Neither is Ms. Rosenblum a strict partisan regarding the instrument: "So
much attention to the early piano or 'fortepiano' is not intended to imply
any limitation of performance to an "authentic" instrument, nor does
playing such an instrument of itself guarantee a fine performance" (pp. 12).
The second chapter T h e Fortepiano Circa 1780-1820" represents
the tightest and clearest avialable exposition of this topic. The author
goes beyond discussing the so-called English and Viennese actions to
cover the various mutations of sound, tone, touch, and range. For the
latter, she considers the question of note restoration: that is, should
analogous passages, seemingly changed to accommodate the eighteenthcentury keyboard, be returned to their "intended shape" when played on
the modern piano? Citing Czeray and Schindler, who argued against
restorations in Beethoven, the author too believes that such passages
should remain as notated by the composer.
The chapter on dynamics and accentuation deals with another
controversial issue: repeats within forms and inner repeats in the minuet
and scherzo. In both cases, keyboardists have been wont not to repeat.
In the case of sonata form movements, there has been more willingness
to take the first repeat than the second. However, despite Alfred
Brendel's claim that repeats are not necessary and can even be
detrimental in Schubert (New York Review of Books, February 2, pp. 3236 March 16, pp. 42-43, and April 27,1989, pp. 58-59), there can be little
question that the drawing of a double bar is an act on the part of the
composer as deliberate as any other indication on the page. One
suspects that in the minuet and scherzo, repeats are eschewed because of

92 A. Peter Brown
their less weighty character and the insecurity of performers about how
to maintain interest. Rosenblum offers specific examples as possible
solutions for these dilemmas. Also of interest is the extended treatment
given to various aspects of accentuation, especially Beethoven's use of
metrical accents and how some of these may have been interpreted as
dots or strokes: "knowing this, the performer should be alert to the
possibility that dots distributed regularly on beats or half beats in passage
work may be a substitute for strokes intended as accents" (p. 97).
Some forty pages are devoted to the problems of pedalling. Often
players have been unwilling to accept damper-pedal indications in
Beethoven and his contemporaries. This has resulted in changes in
pedalling instructions to force examples such as the first movement of
the "Moonlight" Sonata, opus 27/2, and the finale of the "Waldstein,"
opus 53, to sound as "Classic" piano music should, i.e., with clarity of
articulation and purity of harmony. Instead, Beethoven here brushed
aside both ideals and the result seems to be almost "impressionistic."
Opus 27/2, where the entire first movement is to be played without
dampers, the author finds problematic: "I have not yet been convinced
by any performance of this movement (including my own attempts) on
contemporary fortepianos or replicas with the dampers continually
raised" (p. 137). This stimulates a discussion that is required reading for
every pianist who wishes to play this warhorse in an out-of-the-ordinary
way.
The next pair of chapters on "Articulation and Touch" and "Historical
Technique and Fingering" continues the many strengths I have already
noted. A composer's notation of slurs and their varying interpretations
in the copies and prints can prove to be the most frustrating of editorial
decisions. To cite but one example treated by Ms. Rosenblum, mm. 1213 of Haydn's Sonata, Hoboken XVI:22/1:
Example 1. Hoboken: 22/1, mm. 12-13
Autograph/Pasler(Breitkopf & Hartel)/Feder(HenIe)
Allegro moderate

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93

Chiista Landon

My own solution

Both Georg Feder's Henle and Pasler's old Breitkopf & Hartel edition
follow the autograph exactly, as does Rosenblum's example; Christa
Landon, in the Wiener Urtext Ausgabe, turns the first four sixteenths into
the articulation of the following beat; Le., sixteenth-note pairs.
Rosenblum's explanation is that "Haydn presumably meant four-note
slurs to avoid an obvious two-note grouping with its attendant accent on
the third note, as found on beats 2 and 4" (p. 162). While I cannot
dispute this interpretation, there is another instance where one would be
more likely to take Christa Landon's interpretation of this sort of
problem. In Hoboken XVI:49/1, the autograph indicates that the third
quarter of m. 4 should have one slur:
Example 2. Hoboken XVL49/1, mm. 1-5
Autograph/ (1st Edition) Feder
Allegro

j J ,i J ' J

94 A. Peter Brown

Despite what occurs in the previous measures of the first edition, did
Haydn mean to lessen the emphasis in m. 4? Perhaps he was just being
careless. But, with two occurrences in Hoboken XVI:22/1, an
interpretation like Hoboken XVI:49/1 seems less likely. Another
alternative is to perform these as J~J J , reading the slur as belonging
only to the two middle sixteenths. Such situations are editorial
judgments; performers are often surprised to learn that autographs and
other authentic sources present ambiguous texts.
"Historical Technique and Fingering" is one of the more specialized
chapters, dealing with the actual realization of certain types of slurring
and articulation. The emphasis is on fortepiano technique in contrast to
the clavichord and harpsichord. The positioning of arm and hand,
different types of touch, and difficult problems of technique are treated
with special reference to Beethoven and Clementi.
Though we can be grateful for the devotion of much space to aspects
other than ornamentation, the topic is treated extensively. It is difficult
to understand how it came to be that ornamentation and embellishment
have been for many the alpha and omega of performance practice. By
definition, these are small adornments in the totality of the composition.
Granted, if done to excess and in poor taste, they can affect the piece
negatively. But it is not excess and taste that concerns pianists; rather,
how the ornaments are to be correctly realized and the embellishments
effectively added? Rosenblum's chapter fills a need by providing for the
performer both guidelines and possibilities.
Equally controversial are under- and overdotting. Underdotting centers
on the performance of dotted rhythms in the context of a predominantly
triplet surface motion. One editor may believe that the dotted notation
receives a three-way division

another that the distinction must be maintained

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95

T*
Perhaps the oddest of situations is to be found in the Henle edition of
Schubert's Klaviersonaten. Volumes one and two were prepared by Paul
Mies with the distinction preserved as: J
^

This policy is countered in the preface to volume three, with the new
editor Paul Badura-Skoda remarking that Schubert notated this rhythm

and that it should be performed as such. However, this third volume is

engraved in the same way as volumes one and two. Yet, one can cite
instances in Schubert where either or both interpretations are plausible,
e.g., the first and last movements of the "Great" C Major Symphony, D.
944. The mere mention of double dotting causes storm clouds to
descend over the musicological community. Ms. Rosenblum provides
the theoretical basis, cites some possible examples, and wisely remains
detached from the tempest.
The ninth and tenth chapters treat tempo and flexibility of both tempo
and rhythm. Careful consideration is given to every important issue from
the proportional relationships as outlined by theorists to the ever-present
controversy over Beethoven's metronome indications. Two main points
are made: 1) that the later nineteenth century tended toward tempo
exaggeration, as deliberate tempos became slower and lively ones faster,
destroying line in the former and clarity in the latter, and 2) that
Beethoven's unusually fast tempos might be more easily negotiated on
the lighter action of original instruments. Another issue is the
relationship of many Classic tempos to Baroque dances. Students are
often either unfamiliar with the dances and their character or, because of
arbitrary historical boundaries, fail to recognize the continuity of dance
styles in Baroque and Classical music. To cite but one example from
outside the keyboard repertoire, the "Marcia funebre" from the "Eroica"
Symphony can be taken so slowly that one could not possibly ambulate to
its beat. In the tenth chapter smaller dimension matters of tempo are
considered: rhetorical and agogic accentuation, treatment of the
fermata, "contrametric rubato" (alteration in one hand while the other
remains steady), and "agogic" rubato (tempo flexibility). Again,

96 A. Peter Brown
examples are discussed to give the performer an idea where these
ornamental alterations might be used.
In a final brief essay (9 pages), Ms. Rosenblum considers Beethoven's
Bagatelle Opus 126, no. 5. In addition to covering points from previous
chapters, the variants among sources are presented. This might
stimulate performers to consult an editor's report for passages that prove
problematic. Though I understand the practical reasons for the selection
of a short example for this performance-practice lesson, it seems that a
sonata movement might have provided a stronger ending to a volume
that deals so effectively with a multitude of issues.
The book itself is a handsome product and should stand up to the years
of use it deserves. However, the citations are relegated to the end of the
book. With eighty-six pages of notes, this means that twenty percent of
the material, which is often a valuable commentary on the main text, can
only be read by constantly flipping back and forth. As an avid reader of
notes, I found my thought interrupted every time I wanted to know what
was missing when one of those 1489 tiny numbers appeared. While any
solution to this problem may cost more, for publishers who specialize in
scholarly books, these essential commentaries and citations the very
indicators of scholarship should be made easier to consult.
Although I have only touched on a few of the many issues covered, this is
among the most important and accomplished studies on eighteenthcentury performance. Its comprehensiveness, clarity, and scholarship
make it indispensible. Sandra Rosenblum's book, together with Paul and
Eva Badura-Skoda's Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard (1957),
Frederick Neumann's Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart
(1986), and William S. Newman's Beethoven on Beethoven (1988), forms
a powerful quartet of tools for performing Classic music. Now that the
essential resources are available, the most difficult task remains: to find
accomplished performers willing to take advantage of them.
A. Peter Brown