When I was playing in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with a student there. (Birmingham University is rightly protective of its students’ identities, so I won’t name her.) She was studying aspects of the history of women playing the piano. We were talking about the issue of hand size and the fact that female pianists, with their smaller hands, have historically been disadvantaged when it comes to the study and performance of some iconic piano repertoire written by men with their own larger hands in mind.
She told me about a letter written by Franz Liszt in reply to a question from one of his female students, Johanna Wenzel. This young lady had written to ask Liszt whether she should consider having an operation to snip the webbing between her fingers in order to give her a bigger lateral stretch for playing virtuosic piano pieces.
Liszt was horrified by the idea and wrote back:
My Dear Young Lady,
In reply to your friendly lines I beg of you earnestly no longer to think of having the barbarous operation performed upon your fingers; rather all your life long play every octave and chord wrong than commit such a mad attack upon your hands.
With best thanks, I subscribe myself yours respectfully,
F. Liszt
Weimar, June l0th, 1872
It’s good to know that Liszt’s advice was so clear and definite. But how distressing to think of the young women who contemplated having their hands operated upon in order to enable them to stretch more than an octave!
I didn’t know about Liszt’s letter when I was writing Women and the Piano, but I’ll remember the story when I’m next talking to an audience about this topic.
Men can have narrow hands too, of course, as I have. Though the narrow mind is still the bigger problem.
Men can have narrow hands too, of course, as I have. Though the narrow mind is still the bigger problem.
What a wonderful story! It gives an insight into the duty of care Liszt felt towards this young lady pianist and he was absolutely right to be horrified. We are so lucky that the piano repertoire is so vast so that there is always glorious music to choose in spite of hand size. Did you find any outsize hand stretches in your chosen recital of pieces written by women pianist / composers at Wigmore?
I did, actually, yes, Orla. But why did those women write large stretches into their own piano music? Perhaps this should be the subject of a blog post!
Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: “From Rome to the End”
116. To Johanna Wenzel
[The lady here addressed was a pupil of Liszt’s at the time, and subsequently married Jules Zarembski, and is at present one of the teachers of the pianoforte at the Brussels Conservatoire.]
My Dear Young Lady,
In reply to your friendly lines I beg of you earnestly no longer to think of having the barbarous operation performed upon your fingers; rather all your life long play every octave and chord wrong than commit such a mad attack upon your hands.
With best thanks, I subscribe myself yours respectfully,
F. Liszt
Weimar, June l0th, 1872
http://www.searchengine.org.uk/ebooks/01/73.pdf
Bravo, Liszt! One of the hindrances to women enjoying extensive repertoire may be the lack of imagination of the teacher, who has to think outside of (his) usual box to consider the (myriad) differences in hand flexibility.
Pamela, it’s true – one of the problems is the existence of ‘iconic repertoire’ which every pianist is expected to learn as part of their basic musical education. If piano teachers had a totally free choice and could always choose music to match the pupil’s size and stage and hand flexibility, life could be easier…!
I remember reading a story about Clara and Robert Schumann as a child.
There is an incident where Robert Schumann injured his hand trying to stretch it, ? ostensibly to be able to concentrate on composing rather being a pianist
This seems characteristic of Liszt’s benevolence as a teacher. He didn’t take payment for his lessons at Weimar (though he did expect his pupils to stand up when he came in and not speak until they were spoken to!). Also, although he invented the format of the masterclass I am not aware that he exploited it for self-aggrandizement, unlike certain later masters…
I was thinking about this issue just today when I was having a look at Debussy’s fifth prelude from the first set, Les Collines d’Anacapri. (It’s a piece that I love so much that I’ve never tried to play it!). From bar 66 the right hand configuration would be quite easy for a pianist with long fingers but I was really struggling as my fingers are short. Such configurations are probably bread and butter for professional pianists, but I gave up in frustration!
I know what you mean! I think on the whole one has to admit that composers didn’t give a great deal of consideration to pianists with smaller hands than their own. Understandable in a way, but frustrating in another.