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It must always be remembered, of course, that the device is only a creation of the imagination and must in no wise be allowed to become evident or interfere with the proper rhythm. But as a mental measurement it will always facilitate the negotiating of rapid jumps correctly and continuously. The last passage in the Concerto in C minor of Saint-Saëns for piano and orchestra, also serves to illustrate the method of reducing the difficulty by this calculation of the mind.

Passage from C minor Concerto of Saint-Saëns to illustrate the mental device of
considering the Octaves in groups of threes, as indicated by the lines below,
though the sound of the rhythm must remain in 3/4 time.

Still more hard than so-called simple octave technique is that where intermediate notes between the octaves have to be struck together with them, as in successive progression of rapid chords, such as are to be found in the opening cadenza of Liszt’s E flat Concerto. (Picture 1) This starts with a tremendous sequence of grand chords in C major, which is extremely difficult to play accurately, and can only be mastered by unceasing practice. In such a passage the wrist should be kept loose and the intermediate notes (in the chord of C major it is the second finger on G) should be struck with rather a stiff finger, so as to form a sort of point of support, the thumb and 5th fingers, however, falling loosely on the two octave notes, C and Octave C. The hand should be arched and form a cup-like position. Thus :

Showing position of hand when playing Octaves
with intermediate notes.

The stiffening of the intermediate finger must be very slight and almost imperceptible; in fact, here again it should be little more than a mental impression. I give the fingering which I use in the afore-mentioned passage in chords out of the Liszt concerto, in the hope that it may help some who may be struggling with that particular cadenza. (Picture 1)

For very rapid octave scales with intermediate notes, it is of assistance, instead of striking the middle note with the finger in its natural position, which interferes here with speed, to strike it upon the key with the first phalange joint of the finger, as in the following passage out of Saint-Saëns C minor Concerto. Thus :

Showing intermediate note taken
with phalange joint to help speed.

Extract from Saint-Saëns C minor Concerto.

The above is a passage where the intermediate notes between the Octaves can be struck with the whole of the first phalange joint of the finger instead of with the tip of the finger simply. This is a device for facilitating speed, and can only be used in the right hand.

But this last is a technical hint for helping rapidity, to be used only by those who have already reached a considerable stage of virtuosity and also possess a wide stretch of the hand, and it should in no case be adopted by the student even of advanced technique! I merely mention it as a curious instance of the little ingenuities that can make the greatest difficulties become possible.

What are termed broken octaves are also continually to be met with, especially in adaptations of pieces from orchestral scores and in the works of Beethoven and Mozart. These have to be played with great skill if they are to sound really well and make a good effect, therefore they must be patiently studied. For practising them I advise using the 1st and 5th fingers with equal strength, the wrist being kept stiff and the hand oscillating to and fro as if it and the fingers were made of one piece with the forearm. There are excellent studies for the development of broken octave technique in Czerny’s “Kunstfertigkeit.”

Picture 1
Extract from Liszt’s Concerto in E flat, showing fingering of opening Cadenza.

I now come to Octave Technique for which every sort of studies have been and continue to be written. Now the real octave wrist, combining great strength with high nervous tension and suppleness, is a gift of nature, like the capacity for playing staccato bowing on the violin. But those who do not possess the power can develop it to a limited extent. There are several methods of playing octaves, one being with a loose wrist and the 5th finger slightly stiffened. This is a good way for octaves in a slow tempo, but when speed is required it can only be secured by nervous contraction of the arm, the wrist being kept stiff meanwhile. To accomplish this needs much muscular strength, as the advantage of the loose wrist has to be discarded, and whenever the rapidity of the tempo increases, the stiffening of the wrist must increase also.

As far as the practice of octaves go, I do not think merely playing them in scales is efficacious, and, as I have already said, there are so many studies devised on this most difficult branch of piano technique that it is best to work with them. Those of Kullak are, I find, especially excellent. It is very unwise ever to work at octave playing for more than ten minutes at a time, as it is so fatiguing and may injure the arm if overdone. But there are ways of helping oneself to relieve exhaustion during long sequences of octaves. Some of these devices are useful for all, though generally each player finds out means for himself according to the structure of his own particular muscles.

To illustrate what I mean by these helps against fatigue, I will give an example from the A flat Polonaise of Chopin. The great octave passage in the second part for the left hand lasts 34 bars, which is a tremendous length, as all pianists know, and the strain may become almost unbearable.

Extract from the A flat Polonaise of Chopin, showing
Octave passage in left hand, which lasts 34 bars.

Here it is a considerable relief to think of the passage as in a semi-circular motion from left to right.

Above illustrating the mental device of placing each
group of four Octaves as component parts of half a circle.

Again, in the enormously difficult octave passage for the right hand in the Sixth Rhapsody of Liszt, it will be found to be of assistance to keep changing the position of the wrist from being high to becoming low.

First position of hand with wrist held high in Octave playing

This very small action of the wrist gives respite for a second from the tension, and sets the momentum of the nervous contraction going again.

Second position of hand in Octave playing,
with wrist held low to give relief from fatigue.

This same movement can apply to most continuous octave sequences of any length, provided they are in scale-like progressions, or in the form of reiteration. But for octaves which move in arpeggi, this same action would not answer, because here the mind has to be occupied with the matter of judging the distances, or I should rather say, feeling them. For all jumps are very uncertain quantities, and no eye judgment can be possible where a high rate of speed has to be obtained. Therefore in arpeggio-like octave passages only a mental device will be of any help in the difficulty. This contrivance is to imagine the octaves in groups of threes in the mind, no matter what the rhythm is in which they are written. I take an example out of the Hungarian Fantasie of Liszt for piano and orchestra to show the idea.

Extract from “Hungarian Fantasie” of Liszt,
showing difficult Octave passages.
Note : The lower bridging lines indicate the mental
measurement of the Octave passages
in Triplets. The upper lines

Well, I will start from the first third in the scale of C major, which will be C and E. Next come D and F, and in attempting to pass rapidly from the first third to the second one a difficulty will be immediately encountered. This is the ungovernable tendency of each finger to run apart from each other, and refuse to pull together at all. A purely mental difficulty though is this, and it can be overcome by training the mind, and accustoming it to govern the hands and fingers in complete independence one of the other. In fact I am convinced that in general, technical facility and control can only be obtained by great mental concentration, and not merely through mechanical practice.

That is why some people are able to learn to play a scale in thirds in an hour quite decently, because they possess the necessary power of brain, while others who may have quite as much musical talent will never master one at. all though they work six hours a day at it! I do not mean to say by this that thirds do not require an enormous amount of study, because of course they do, only to be successful the practice must be accompanied by much concentrated brain effort. Therefore one of the principal efforts of a good pianoforte teacher should be to stimulate in every possible manner the mental faculties of his pupils.