section>
THE PIANIST’S FIRST MUSIC MAKING
BOOKII.
TOBIAS MATTHAY
AND
FELIX SWINSTEAD
Copyright © 2017 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay was born on 19th February 1858, in Clapham, Surrey, England. He was an English pianist, teacher and composer.
Matthay's parents originally came from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised British subjects. He studied composition at the 'Royal Academy of Music' (London) under Sir William Sterndale Bennett and Arthur Sullivan, and piano with William Dorrell and Walter Macfarren. Matthay served as a sub-professor there from 1876 to 1880, and became an assistant professor of pianoforte in 1880, before being promoted to professor in 1884.
Alongside Frederick Corder and John Blackwood McEwen (both composers and music teachers), he founded the Society of British Composers in 1905. This organisation was established with the aim of protecting the interests of British composers and to provide publication, promotion and performance opportunities. It was disbanded thirteen years later, in 1918. Matthay remained at the Royal Academy of Music until 1925, when he was forced to resign because McEwen – his former student who was then the Academy's Principal – publicly attacked his teaching.
In 1903, after over a decade of observation, analysis, and experimentation, Matthay published The Act of Touch, an encyclopaedic volume that influenced piano pedagogy throughout the English-speaking world. So many students were soon in quest of his insights that two years later he opened the Tobias Matthay Pianoforte School, first in Oxford Street, then in 1909 relocating to Wimpole Street, where it remained for the next thirty years. He soon became known for his teaching principles that stressed proper piano touch and analysis of arm movements. He wrote several additional books on piano technique that brought him international recognition, and in 1912 he published Musical Interpretation, a widely read book that analyzed the principles of effective musicianship.
Many of Matthay's pupils went on to define a school of twentieth century English pianism, including York Bowen, Myra Hess, Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany, Eunice Norton, Lytle Powell, Irene Scharrer, Lilias Mackinnon, Guy Jonson, Vivian Langrish and Harriet Cohen. He was also the teacher of Canadian pianist Harry Dean, English composer Arnold Bax and English conductor Ernest Read.
In his private life, Matthay married Jessie (née Kennedy) in 1893, the sister of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (the Scottish singer, composer and arranger). She sadly died in 1937.
Tobias Matthay died at his country home, High Marley, near Haslemere, on 15th December 1945. He was eighty-seven years old.
THE PIANIST’S
FIRST MUSIC MAKING
FOR USE IN CONJUNCTION WITH
TOBIAS MATTHAY’S
“THE CHILD’S FIRST STEPS”
IN
PIANOFORTE PLAYING
MUSIC COMPOSED BY
FELIX SWINSTEAD
PREFACE AND DIRECTIONS
BY
TOBIAS MATTHAY
BOOK II
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
SECTION I.
Weight-touch with arm sideways
SECTION II.
Weight-touch with fist turned over, knuckles up
SECTION III.
Weight-touch with fingers closed together
SECTION IIIa.
Weight-touch with fingers opened out
SECTION IV.
Rotatory exertions and relaxations at alternate sides of hand
Rotation Preparation
SECTION V.
To ensure a clearer idea of staccate
SECTION VI.
To ensure a clearer idea of tone production in tenuto and legato
BOOK II.
Rotation study continued—The employment of all five fingers alternately
Rotation study—Its application to adjacent fingers
Learning to turn the thumb under, and the fingers over
