What Was Liszts Technic Like?
This question has been asked of me by students, teachers and other music lovers, with such frequency as to induce me to attempt an analytical description of Liszt’s technic, although the tesk is one before which not “to falter would be sin.” We usually mean by “technic” a well trained human playing apparatus, a well developed finger mechanism, supported by wrist or arm or both, as the case chances to require. We mean the “mechanical” side of music making; that side which has nothing to do with spirituality except to serve its purposes as an unquestioning underling. This technic can be acquired by any one that has a good drill master and teh requisite persistence in practicing, because it is “mechanical.” If in the face of this definition of technic I should speak of such a thing as a “spiritual technic” I should run the risk of being laughed at, and yet – there is such a thing, as we shall presently see is a crude exemplification. Among the people that apply to a teacher for lessons th
