Furthermore we do not simply strive for plainlegato touch.
If you attempt even a simple sonata with no legato touch, no idea of chord or scale playing, you can not make the piece sound like anything.
Szumowska says: "Paderewski lays great stress on legato playing, and desires everything to be studied slowly, with deep touch and with full, clear tone.
But legatodoes not bring the best results in rapid passages, for it does not impart sufficient clarity.
The fifth page needs great power and the legato octaves well connected and sustained.
Visit the Zoological Gardens, where you can learn much about legato and staccato from the kangaroos.
The old instruction books tell us that legato must be learned first, and is the most difficult touch to acquire.
Double passages, such as double thirds and sixths, should be divided and each half practised separately, with legato touch.
In legato playing, for instance, the fingers rest upon the fleshy part behind the tip rather than immediately upon the tip as they would in passage work when the player desired to have the effect of a string of pearls.
The sensation in legato playing is that of pulling back rather than striking the keys.
He was fond of playing with the dampers raised, and might well contest the honor with Liszt of having originated the modern style of pedal legatoas distinguished from the finger legato of Chopin and all the early writers.
Here also, in the Andante we have the tricks which he afterward made so effective in the Concertstück, of the legato melody accompanied by chords pizzicati.
They were, however, still passed over one another, as well as the thumb, and in order not to break the legato effect, the finger passed over was drawn back before leaving the key.
But this was by no means Bach's only method of accompanying, for he demands in the majority of cases a legato accompaniment, and sometimes a "melodic" manner.
In order to play legato on the organ, the middle fingers were made to go under and over each other.
Bach did what was possible, however, to use thelegato style on it, and on the other hand introduced on the organ, as far as it would bear it, the rapid execution peculiar to the harpsichord.
He held that a good pianist should have a perfect legato style (legato means "bound," and legato style is that in which the notes flow smoothly one into the other) a singing touch and a manner without affectation.
The connection between one tone and another in good legato is so clean, so free from blurs that there is nothing to compare it with.
After one has been through a mass of such material, the matter of legato singing becomes more or less automatic.
There is a busy, buzzing string accompaniment, and the melody is a gentle, legato waltz movement.
The steady accompaniment and firm legato theme are the woof and warp through which, around which, and over which a little five-note appoggiatura sports like a weaver's shuttle.
The lingering legato melody seems to rise softly and rest in the air until it passes away in tones so faint that Bizet has marked them four times pianissimo.
This hymn, called "The Bower of Prayer," was dear to Christian hearts in many homes and especially in rural chapel worship half a century ago and earlier, and its sweet legato melody still lingers in the memories of aged men and women.
The composer of the bright legato melody just described was Frederick Burgmüller, a young German musician, born in 1804.
These slight wrist actions are required to prevent a peculiar kind of scrape being heard, this sound, although permissible, and even necessary in certain kinds of bowing, is most objectionable in smooth legato playing.
This must be accomplished without spoiling the legato effect of the three slurred quavers.
The adagio opens with a melody for bassoons and basses, which later leads to a very legato and lovely melody for violins, treated at times with very elaborate figuration, especially at the return of the principal theme.
It should be played as if it were being done by a string quartet, as legato and sympathetically as possible.
In all these the connected legato of the melody is of the first importance; and, second, the proper sinking and swelling of the melody in the true manner of impassioned singing.
The theme itself affords a very pretty contrast between the staccato of the first period and the close legato of the second period.
The latter quality, however, can never be developed without the legato touch.
He wrote them, so to speak, out of his own hand, and his legato is so perfect that it may well be taken as a model by anybody.
The accumulation of each chord should be produced through the pedal, not through an excessive legato touch.
Do not take the over-smart differentiations of legato seriously.
Sidenote: The Firm and Crisp Legato Touch] I am confused by the terms "firm legato touch" and "crisp legato touch.
To play a rapid run non-legato will consume much more time than to play it legato because of the lifting of the fingers between the tones.
For the acquisition of a legitimate legato Chopin's works cannot be highly enough recommended, even in the transcriptions by Godowsky, which become impossible when tried with any touch other than legato.
In playing legato the fingers are not lifted off the keys, but--hardly losing contact with the ivory--glide sideways to the right or the left as the notes may call for it.
Legato means "bound together," for which we substitute the word "connected.
The selection of a practical fingering is, of course, of paramount importance for a good legato touch.
I am convinced that the degree of perfection of finger technic is exactly proportionate to the development of the legato touch.
The most beautiful tone in legato style is ever produced by a "clinging and singing" gliding of the fingers over the keys.
This style of articulation often disturbs the legato flow and spoils the general effect.
Of course the voice must sing from the highest to the lowest note with a continuous legato flow.
It is not necessary, as many suppose, to sacrifice distinct utterance in song for the sake of the legato flow of voice, the most desired mode of singing.
On the other hand, the free legato flow of the vowels need not interfere at all with distinct articulation.
Articulation, under right conditions, will not interfere with the legato flow of voice.
Music) Defn: A dumb gymnastic apparatus for training the hands of pianists and organists, as to a legato touch.
Its technical object is a simultaneous legato and staccato.
Riemann phrases the study with a multiplicity of legato bows and dynamic accents.
Riemann repeats his trick of breaking a group, detaching a note for emphasis; although he is careful to retain the legato bow.
He taught the scales staccato andlegato beginning with E major.
Being a pupil of Hummel, who had in turn taken lessons of Mozart for two years, it was quite within the line of descent that he should have acquired the extremely smooth legato touch of those masters.
While this extreme staccato is also desirable and frequently used, it is not the kind of effect here desired, namely, a clear, clean delivery of the tones which in no wise disturb the legato effect.
Of course it requires cultivation and skill to secure just the right degree of finger-motion to preserve the legato and at the same time the slight separation of each tone.
Therefore the fingers must not be drawn so quickly as to produce a separation or staccato effect, but in just the right degree to avoid impairing the legato or binding effect.
I think every dramatic singer should cultivate coloratura to some extent--should study smooth legato scales and passages.
To listen to some of the dramatic rôles of to-day, one would think that smooth legato singing was a lost art.
