Systematische Anleitung zum Fantasieren auf dem Pianoforte by Carl Czerny; Ulrich Mahlert Review by: Barry Cooper

Music & Letters, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Nov., 1994), pp. 620-621 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/737311 . Accessed: 25/02/2014 22:19
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a often improvised thatpianists and indicate thework ively, musicology abundant,and evenwithin a setpiecesuchas a sonata playing before Kallberg has begun to exploregenre prelude ofJeffrey The thirdchapterdeals withimforsong itself, or variations. sophistication; withconsiderable and full-scale dis- proviseddecorationat fermatas, buttrenchant a brief Carl Dahlhaus provides Century concertocadenzas, with Czerny providingan cussion of generic issues in Nineteenth FirstPiano & example of his own forBeethoven's J. Bradford Robinson,Berkeley Music(trans. aware- Concerto. Los Angeles,1989,pp. 96-105). A greater discussimprovisasix chapters The remaining ness of such workand the issues it raiseswould pieces-fantasiason a single more tionofindependent have resultedin a subtlerand ultimately on severalthemes,pot-pourris To recognize thesocial theme,fantasias study. thought-provoking themesby other of genericconstraints (based on severalwell-known natureand the variability or fugal in strict fantasias variations, would enrich both the contextualbackground composers), Czernyalso pointsout that ofHirsch'sstudy- style, and capriccios. foreground and theanalytical His intermingled. of thesecategories can be freely reconsideration and it would forcea salutary pieces,are someofwhichare complete question and the linear examples, the book's underlying a formidthoughdemanding remarkable: it entails.Despite these rather of history construction imaginative are highly they DramaticLieder able pianotechnique, though, Schubert's limitations, of those mechanical issues; it is to be hoped thatits and the absoluteantithesis raisessignificant withwhichhis name is mostassociated. authorwill continueto explorethose issues as exercises probableinflutheir for well as to beginto take intoaccountthe critical They are also interesting challenges they pose to conventionalinter- ence on Liszt (who was a pupil of Czernyfrom and polythema1821to 1823):themonothematic pretation. use extensive for their are noteworthy DAVID E. GRAMIT ticfantasias transformation, oftheLisztiandeviceofthematic whichCzernyexplainsat some length;and the zum Fan- pot-pourri pointsthe way towardsLiszt's opera Anleitung Czerny, Carl, Systematische Ed. by Ulrich reminiscences. auf dem Pianoforte. tasieren muchof & Hairtel, Czemy had in turnlearnt Presumably Mahlert.pp. xv + 111. (Breitkopf fromhis own teacher, Wiesbaden,Leipzig & Paris, 1993,?30. ISBN the art of improvisation heardextemporwhomhe had often Beethoven, 3-7651-0291-1.) ize. In addition to his own examples, Czerny compositions to existing reference as a pedagogueand makesfrequent Carl Czerny'sreputation Hummel,Ries, Clementi, and exer- byMozart,Beethoven, piano studies ofinnumerable composer cises has changed littleover the last hundred Moscheles and a number of other composers which could also serve as years,but his enormousoutputremainsalmost including himself, improvisation. true of his modelsfor totallyneglected.This is certainly was an important part of a Extemporization Op. 200, the titleof treatiseon improvisation, century. in the earlynineteenth Guideto pianist'sactivity as Systematic whichcould be translated for had been morerenowned When it first Indeed Beethoven at the Pianoforte. Extemporizing other set pieces,and several playing important thisthanfor appearedin 1829itseemedsufficiently includingMozart, had been noted for reviewby pianists, a publicationto receivean extensive The absence ofrecordin thisfield. musikal- theirability WilhelmFinkin theAllgemeine Gottfried to discern prehas made itdifficult extensive ings,however, and itwas indeedthefirst ische Zeitung, known: cisely what took place during their ofitssubjectto becomewidely treatment and thisis one ofseveralreasons (1801-2) improvisations, by Sorge(1767),Gretry attempts earlier is the Another is so useful. impact whyCzerny'streatise and Hering(1812-14) had made so little in into performance practice, seems to have been clues it provides that even Czerny himself dicatingthe extentto which preludeswere imunawareofthem. were and fermatas longerworks, before is dividedintonine shortchap- provised The Anleitung ofimprovisa- provided with decorative passage-work.The form a different each covering ters, to the music of a chapterwill beginwithseveral relevance of the Anleitung tion.Typically to its significand Liszt adds further and advice,whichare Beethoven ofinstructions paragraphs followed by one or moremusicexamples-often ance. has been moreor less ignoredin The treatise quite extendedones lastingseveralpages-and because of a lack of largely century, twochap- the present The first remarks. further a few perhaps Whereasin pianists. in by improvisation interest respectand preludes shorter longer cover ters

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Czerny'sday itwas regarded as amongthehigh- as musicology, theworkofan amateur.'Sketchy' est achievements, and perhaps more important is one ofthegentler epithets to havebeen applied than performing workssince it enabled to Westernhagen's existing workover the years,so it is the pianist to give free rein to self-expression refreshing to findWarrenDarcy giving creditto rather thanslavishly following theprescriptions of that pioneer's readings on the not infrequent another composer, in thelaternineteenth century occasionswhen he can agree withthem.Darcy the art declined rapidly.Even the terminology pulls no punchesin his criticisms either, but, if reflects this: Czerny's 'Fantasieren', which anything, he is evenmorescathing aboutwhathe impliedsomething original and imaginative, as the failings ofmorerecent, gave regards moreproway to our 'improvisation', withits overtones of fessional writers, especiallyCarl Dahlhaus and something makeshift and notfully crafted. Carolyn Abbate,and hisdismissal ofat leastsome Only recentlyhas the situation begun to oftheir ideas aboutWagneris a clearindication of change,as a result ofgrowing interest in pastper- his own position.Here, to put it polemically, is forming styles.In this context Ulrich Mahlert's the formalist backlash at full stretch, a study editionof Czerny'sAnleitung makes a valuable whosematerials embraceextensive transcriptions contribution.Mahlert provides an extended from of Wagner's'complete draft' (Gesamtentwurf) introduction, plus a commentary on manyindi- Das Rheingold as thebasis for an interpretation of vidual passages in the treatise,and he has the work's genesis,and which also proposesa researchedthe topic well, givingmuch back- reconciliation as betweenWagnerand Schenker ground detail. He includes lengthyquotations thebestbasis for thework'sstructure. analysing from bothFink'sAmZ review of 1829and HumIn keepingwiththisformalist agenda, Darcy mel'sdiscussion ofextemporization in thesecond declares in his 'preliminaries' that his book edition of his Ausfuhrliche 'no thoroughgoing ofthe theoretisch-practische attempts interpretation Anweisung zumPiano-Forte-Spiel (1838). Mahlertis "symbolic meaning" oftheopera'. 'Cultural pracin implying perhapsa littleover-optimistic that tice' is certainly not his concern, yet,as theconofthistypeis now beingwidely junction of 'Structure and Meaning' in a extemporization revived, and hisviewthatCzerny'sAnleitung is of subsection on thePrelude headingofthechapter major significance forthe studyof performance reveals,Darcy is no more indifferent than the practiceseems overstated. He should also have arch-formalist AlfredLorenz beforehim as to provided a clearerlistofcontents for thevolume, how, forexample,a composermightgo about so thatitsstructure and content couldbe seenat a writing 'an orchestral thecreation of for metaphor glance.The volumeseems overpriced, too, con- theworld'.Darcy'sown narrative thrives on style sidering thatit is soft-bound and containslittle thekindofformulations whichfusemusicalfuncmore than a hundredpages, mostof whichare tionand dramatic as when,from bar motivation, simply reproduced photographically from the 3511,Wotanattempts Erda 'by forcing to restrain elegantoriginal.The editiondoes, nonetheless, theneighbour a [resolve?] through [A~]to revolve makeavailablean important sourcethatneedsto German augmented sixth chord back to the be studiedby pianists and scholars alikeand that dominant'. When the characters compose the provides manyinsights intothe musicalthought music,the drama certainly comes to life.Meanand attitudes ofthetime. is composing, while, Darcyhimself voicedevising BARRY COOPER leading reductionswhich aim to reveal the he sees as basic to continuities and hierarchies Wagner'sformal strategy. Wagner's 'Das Rheingold'. By WarrenDarcy. pp. Schenkerian from fundamentalists, shrinking xv + 259. 'Studies in Musical Genesis and thepragmatism withwhichDarcyshifts between Structure'.(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993, reductions of the completemusical fabricand f30. ISBN 0-19-816266-9.) sketchier treatments whichfocusmainlyon the bass line, may remain unpersuaded that Much has happened duringthe past quarter- Schenker himself misread Wagner.On thepurely century of Wagner studies,but few large-scale technicallevel,one mightindeed question the accounts of the sketchesand drafts have been statusoftonalstructures from whichthe prolonmade generally available.RobertBailey'sPrince- gational motionsof the upper lines have been tondissertation on thefirst actof Tristan und Isolde excluded.If anything, it is Darcy's nevertheless, (1969) has remainedin thesisformat, whileCurt would-be Schenkerianstrictness, and not any von Westernhagen's Die Entstehung des 'Ring' consistent concernto adapt or modify the mas(Zurich,1973;Eng. trans., Cambridge, 1976)was, ter's principles,which comes to seem most

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