Content area
الخلاصة
J. P. Milchmeyer's Die wahre Art das Pianoforte zu spielen (The True Art of Playing the Pianoforte) was a keyboard instruction manual published in Dresden, Germany, in 1797. It was addressed to a middle-class audience either of students attempting to learn without an instructor, or of teachers who lacked training and experience. The present dissertation is a translation of the first (and only) edition,"as clear and readable as possible, while reproducing the book in a form as much like the original as practical" (from the Translator's Preface).
There are six chapters: (1) "The Position of the Body, the Arm, the Hand, and the Fingers"(including advice on styles of articulation and on rhythm); (2) "On Fingering" (the longest chapter); (3) "On Ornamentation" (with many written-out examples); (4) "On Musical Expression" (terminology); (5) "On Knowledge and Modification of the Pianoforte" (evaluating pianos and employing the various special-effects pedals); (6) "Several General Remarks."
The manual was the first keyboard treatise in Germany (and possibly in all Europe) to champion the piano exclusively--most authors still favored or at least seriously considered the harpsichord or the clavichord. Also. Milchmeyer's advice sometimes differs from better-known authorities in ways which may more accurately reveal the actual performance practice of the time.
The original book was seventy-three pages long, with approximately half the total page space taken up by musical examples. The translation runs to 179 pages, with all musical examples converted into clear modern notation and interspersed, as in the original, throughout the text. The translator has added a ten-page introduction and seventy pages of annotations (appearing as endnotes), which provide historical background, stylistic commentary, and comparison with other treatises of the eighteenth century, most notably those of C. P. E. Bach (1753) and Daniel Gottlob Turk (1789).
