My part 4 of Chopin's Method or Methods (last part)

Chopin begins with N.B. (note well)

   "N.B.  No one notices inequality in the power of notes of a scale
   when it is played very fast and equally, as regards time.  In a good
   mechanism, the aim is, not to play everything with an equal sound,
   but to acquire a beautiful quality of sound and a perfect shading.
   For a long time, players have acted against nature in seeking to give
   an equal power to each finger.  On the contrary, each finger should
   have an appropriate part assigned to it.  The thumb has the greatest
   power, being the thickest finger and the freest.  Then comes the
   little finger at the other extremity of the hand.  The middle finger
   is the main support of the hand and is assisted by the first.  Finally
   comes the third, the weakest one.  As to this Siamese twin of the
   middle finger - bound by one and the same ligament - some players
   try to force it with all their might to become independent, a thing
   impossible and most likely unnecessary.  [Poor Schumann "Hats off
   gentlemen, a genius" - if he had only known Chopin earlier before he
   reportedly ruined his hands, and any career as a pianist, with his
   rope/pulley contraption to equalize finger strength].  There are then
   many qualities of sound as there are several fingers.  The point is
   to utilize the differences; and this in other words is the art of
   fingering."

That's it.  I hope you enjoyed this insight (his) into Chopin's approach
to the instrument (I realize some may have already been familiar with this
document).

I will quickly summarize

No question of musical feeling or style - just mechanism (in three parts)

1.  Learn to feel the keyboard independently in each hand by playing
scales, all types, offset in each hand.  Use fingers 3,4, and 5 also
in chromatic work.  Learn black key scales first.  C is the hardest.

2.  Music is a language where thought is expressed, like all spoken
languages, in sounds.  To make music many sounds are required.

3.  The aim is good quality of sound with perfect shading from the many
sounds available due to the inherent difference in the strength of the
different fingers.

This all sounds obvious in some sense, yet Chopin wanted it saved for
posterity.  In my mulling over it, reading between the lines, etc.  I have
come to this possible interpretation.

In much of Chopin's music the player must have four hands. (Finger # 1 is
the thumb)
The left hand is divided betwen fingers 4,5 -- 3,2,1 or sometimes 5,4,3 --
1,2, and
the right hand is divided between fingers 1,2,3 --- 4,5 or sometimes
1,2, --- 3,4,5

Each hand thus becomes two sub-hands.  Two hands can thus yield 4 seperate
voices in a passage (see his statement "For the production of music, many
sounds are required" - he could be referring to parallel parts).  For
example, a bass line played with the little finger of the left hand, with
a rhythm/harmony chord played with fingers (4),3,2,1 of that hand, while
in the right hand, the melody is played with fingers (4),5 and a little
secondary harmony figure played with fingers 1,2,3 of that hand.  Many
examples of this can be found in his music.  That is quite difficult to do
and many other composers require it as well, especially if they were also
pianists.

This would naturally assign parts to each hand (and sub hand) and would
require the 3,4,5 dexterity he described eariler (play chromatic scales,
thirds, sixths with 3,4,5 as well as 1,2,3).  This would also produce the
shading he described.  Therefore, I have interpreted the Method of Methods
as a treatise on the exercises required to get the effect of 4 hands from
two as the artists gets the effect of 3 dimensions on a flat surface.
Naturally there is not always four parts to each passage - just what the
"feeling" of the passage requires, which he exempts in the very first
statement or the Method of Methods.

Any comments from the other pianists?

Bill Pirkle