L'Art du Chant appliqué au Piano
The great piano tradition of the Neapolitan Piano School can be mainly traced back to the influential pianist Sigismund Thalberg, founder of this school.
I had the privilege of being able to receive these teachings from great pedagogues and I consider myself an heir to an important piano and pedagogical tradition developed in Naples by S. Thalberg.
During my studies I trained with Maestro Carlo Alessandro Lapegna (student and assistant of the great Maestro Vincenzo Vitale). He shared me all the secrets of the Thalberg Piano School, based on the “L’Art du chant applique au piano” method that Thalberg himself wrote.
The “Art du Chant” is a collection of 25 transcriptions, which in the concept of the composer had to offer to a young pianist, a way to acquire a softer and smoother touch. If the simple elaboration of famous melodies, do not generate particular interest regarding to how they are composed, with the inability of reaching the sophistication and complexity of patterns, is the introduction written by Thalberg himself, who recommends to young artists twelve “General Rules to sing well on the piano”.
In the introductory remarks, Thalberg, offering to us a direct document of his art of the Piano, he exposes what he considers to be the objectives: “The art of singing well, said a famous woman, is the same that applies to any instrument. In fact there shall be nor allowances or sacrifices to the special mechanism of different instruments; It is the interpreter who makes sure that the mechanism is subordinated to the requirements of art.”.
The art of singing well, is thus the need of the art of the music to which the interpreter, who is guided by feelings, must “subjugate the mechanism” of his own instrument. It may appear as “sacrificing” the identity of the piano, but one can read through these lines, an accurate knowledge of the instrument and the desire to increase its expressive power, allowing the singing to suggest the effects and the pianist to find ways to achieve them.
This is not “trying to imitate” the singing, but to create the illusion, searching for nuances, already existing in the instrument, however, not detectable by simple “mechanism”. The purpose of the work becomes clear: To learn about the piano and, with the skill and art, to create the illusion to be able to prolong, sustain and reinforce the sounds, just like the singing voice can do.
THE SCIENCE OF PIANO TECHNIQUE
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANATOMY OF THE HAND, TONE PRODUCTION, AND MUSICAL GOALS
Subsequently, I attended masterclasses with other disciples of this piano school, with the Maestros Laura De Fusco, Francesco Nicolosi, Aldo Ciccolini and Sandro De Palma. I have been searching for my personality for several years, researching and experimenting a lot, until I added other technical-scientific aspects to my methodology, which I called “The science of piano technique”.
During the lessons I analyse a problematic passage from a musical, compositional and technical point of view; the most distinctive trait of this piano school is the strong link between awareness of hand anatomy, redistributions, sound production and musical goals.
I have had focal dystonia and had to reprogram my brain, having received the secrets of this great piano school, built on the knowledge of muscle coordination, it has allowed me to make my discoveries and researches, creating my methodology of a modern Neapolitan piano school and returning to tread the international stages and forming new generations of pianists.
Among the Neapolitan Piano School most renowned pianist are Martha Argerich, Bruno Gelber, Enrique Barenboim (who later taught his son Daniel), Daniel Rivera, Riccardo Muti, Sergio Fiorentino, Aldo Ciccolini, Paolo Spagnolo, etc..
Physiology of music perception
The perception of music takes place in three stages: the first is an elementary perception of the auditory musical stimulus; the second corresponds to the structural analysis of music, at both an elementary (pitch, intensity, rhythm, duration, timbre) and an advanced level (phrasing, timing, themes); the third stage is identification of the work being played.
Different cortical centers come into play for each of these functions. Students of my methodology approach find that many aspects of their lives become easier. Since it is based on human physiology and laws of movement, one can use it to solve problems in Liszt, play another instrument, or to drive a car.
People learn about their inner selves too, on the way to becoming their own best pianist. One of my students said to me once, “Before I encountered the Devastato’s methodology approach, everything was about pushing and ‘efforting. Now it’s about letting things flow and getting out of my own way. I’ve learned that I don’t need to create an artifice of myself, that my self will do just fine.”
Physiology of the limb: arm, forearm, hand, and tendons in charge of the realization of the piano mechanism
The pedagogical legacy of the Neapolitan Piano School is very much alive. Surprisingly, students of different generations went through the same detailed explanations they received in class about the step-by-step muscular process of producing the right kind of sound that would fit a specific musical need.
This clearly represents Devastato’s approach to musical teaching, technique and goals. During one of his masterclasses, Giuseppe Devastato expressed the following concept:
In what ways can a young pianist work so as to achieve a mastery of piano sound and produce a beautiful, singing tone? In the first place, the combination of his own natural gifts is important: he must have a good general musicality, a fine ear, and a love of music.
But apart from any inborn talent, which must of course be nurtured in every way possible, I believe the most important thing is an ability to coordinate correctly and accurately those movements that are involved in piano tone production.
In order to achieve a beautiful sound, a pianist must have the capacity to control it, but in order to control this sounds, he must also know how to hear it, getting a good sound wasn’t instinctive or left to last-minute inspiration.
To possess a large color palette the pianist must know the different ways of producing sound, and this would vary according to the muscle group used. This relationship is perhaps the most important message that I love to successfully convey not only to my students, but to future generations of pianists.