Starting the Piano

Modern piano playing can be no more reduced to such technical and musical formulas as in the days of Liszt, Czerny or Dohnányi. The piano works of our contemporary composers do not demand the techniques of the classical scale, broken chords and series of parallel intervals: they are more inclined to demand from the performer a secure feeling for position, rich rhythmic imagination, a receptivity towards colour and dynamics which will become apparent in refined nuances of touch, the capacity for lightning adaptation in quickly changing ways of playing - in other words, a richness of colour in playing the instrument which was unimaginable in earlier times. For the carrying out ofthese demands increased training is required in the kinds of movement used in playing but well developed hearing is also important for the performer to be able to control the sounding variety.

Lajos Papp's small pieces are intended to offer some assistance to this method, for use at the very beginning of studying the piano. The forty little pieces of this volume are like studies. This study quality moves in the direction of playing modern music but naturally it presupposes the study of traditional piano technique.