A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Touch

by Walter Parratt

TOUCH (Ger. Anschlag). This term is used to express the manner in which the keys of the pianoforte or organ are struck or pressed by the fingers. It is a subject of the greatest importance, since it is only by means of a good touch that a satisfactory musical effect can be produced. Touch on a keyed instrument is therefore analogous to a good production of the voice on the part of a singer, or to good bowing on that of a violinist.

I. Pianoforte. To the student of the pianoforte, cultivation of touch is not less necessary than the acquirement of rapidity of finger, since the manner in which the keys are struck exercises a very considerable influence on the quality of the sounds produced, and therefore on the effect of the whole passage. A really good touch implies absolute equality of the fingers and a perfect control over all possible gradations of tone, together with the power of producing different qualities of sound at the same time, as in the playing of fugues, and polyphonic music generally. In fact all the higher qualities of pianoforte technique, such as crispness, delicacy, expression, sonority, etc., depend entirely upon touch.

Generally speaking, pianoforte music demands two distinct kinds of touch, the one adapted for the performance of brilliant passages, the other for sustained melodies. These two kinds are in many respects opposed to each other, the first requiring the fingers to be considerably raised above the keys, which are then struck with firmness and rapidity, while in the other the keys are closely pressed, not struck, with more or less of weight according to the amount of tone desired. This quality of percussion in brilliant passages is to some extent a characteristic of modern pianoforte-playing, the great players of former times having certainly used it far more sparingly than at present. Thus Hummel (Pianoforte School) says that the fingers must not be lifted too high from the keys; and going back to the time of Bach, we read that he moved only the end joint of the fingers, drawing them gently inwards 'as if taking up coin from a table.' [See vol. ii. p. 736b.] But the action of the clavichords, and after them of the Viennese pianos, was extremely light, the slightest pressure producing a sound, and there is no doubt that the increase of percussion has become necessary in order to overcome the greater resistance offered by the modern keyboard, a resistance caused by the greater size of the instruments, and consequent weight of the hammers, which had increased in the lowest octave of Broadwood pianos from 2⅝ oz. in 1817 to 4 oz. in 1874, and which, although now somewhat less, being in 1884, 3 oz., is still considerably in excess of the key-weights of the earliest pianos.

It seems possible that the great improvement manifested by modern pianofortes in the direction of sonority and sustaining power may have given rise to a certain danger that the cultivation of the second kind of touch, that which has for its object the production of beautiful tone in cantabile, may be neglected. This, if it were so, would be very much to be regretted. The very fact that the pianoforte is at its best unable to sustain tone equably, renders the acquirement of a 'singing' touch at once the more arduous and the more necessary, and this was recognised and insisted upon by Emanuel Bach. For an expressive melody to be hammered out with unsympathetic fingers of steel is far worse than for a passage to lose somewhat of its sparkle through lack of percussion. Beethoven is reported to have said that in adagio the fingers should feel 'as if glued to the keys,' and Thalberg, who himself possessed an extraordinarily rich and full tone, writes^[1] that a melody should be played 'without forcibly striking the keys, but attacking them closely, and nervously, and pressing them with energy and vigour.' 'When,' he adds, 'the melody is of a tender and graceful character the notes should be kneaded, the keys being pressed as though with a boneless hand (main désossée) and fingers of velvet; the keys should be felt rather than struck.' In an interesting paper on 'Beauty of touch and tone,' communicated to the Musical Association by Mr. Orlando Steed, the opinion is maintained that it is impossible to produce any difference of quality, apart from greater or less intensity of sound, in a single note, no matter how the blow may be struck (though the author admits that the excessive blow will produce a disagreeable sound). But it is shown by Helmholtz^[2] that the timbre or sound-quality of pianoforte strings, variation in which is caused by greater or less intensity of the upper partial tones, depends upon two conditions among others, namely, upon the length of time the hammer remains in contact with the string, and upon the hardness of the hammer itself, and it is a question whether the nature of the blow may not be slightly affected in both these respects by differences of touch. It would seem possible that the greater rebound of the hammer which would be the consequence of a sharp blow upon the key might render the actual contact with the string shorter, while the greater force of the blow might compress and so slightly harden the soft surface of the felt with which the hammer is covered; and the natural result of both these supposed changes would be to increase the intensity of the partial tones, and thus render the sound thinner and harder. Moreover when the key is struck from any considerable distance a certain amount of noise is always occasioned by the impact of the finger upon the surface of the key, and this gives a certain attack to the commencement of the sound, like a hard consonant before a vowel, which conduces to brilliancy of effect rather than smoothness. The fact is, that Touch depends on so many and such various conditions, that though its diversities can be felt and recognised by any ordinarily attentive listener, they are by no means easy to analyse satisfactorily.

In relation to phrasing, touch is of two kinds, legato and staccato: in the first kind each finger is kept upon its key until the moment of striking the next; in the second the notes are made short and detached, the hand being rapidly raised from the wrist, or the fingers snatched inwards from the keys. Both kinds of touch are fully described in the articles on Legato, Staccato, Dash, and Phrasing.

Sometimes two different kinds of touch are required at the same time from one hand. Ex. 1, from Thalberg's Don Giovanni Fantasia, op. 42, is an instance of the combination of legato and staccato touch, and Ex. 2. is an exercise recommended by Thalberg for the cultivation of different degrees of cantabile tone, in which the large notes have to be played with full tone, the others piano, without in the least spreading the chords.

An excellent study on the same subject has been published by Saint-Saens, op. 52, no. 2.

[ F. T. ]

II. Organ. Until recent times Touch was an impossibility upon large organs. Burney, in his Tour, in 1772, speaks of a touch so heavy that 'each key requires a foot instead of a finger to press it down; again of a performance by a M. Binder, at Dresden, who at the conclusion was in as violent a heat with fatigue and exertion as if he had run eight or ten miles full speed over ploughed fields in the dog days! Of an organ in Amsterdam he reports that each key required almost a two pound weight to put it down! The mechanism of English organs was probably never so bad as this, but it is said that Mendelssohn, after playing at Christ Church, Newgate Street, was covered with perspiration. The pneumatic actionhas solved this difficulty. Still the question of organ touch is complicated by the peculiarities of the instrument and the varieties of mechanism. Many organs exist with four keyboards (even five may be met with), and the necessarily different levels of these make it almost impossible to keep the hand in a uniform position for all of them. It is rare to find any two of these manuals with a similar touch, and the amount of force required to press down the key varies within wide limits. Even on the same keyboard the touch is appreciably heavier in the bass, and inequalities occur between adjacent notes. A recently regulated mechanism is sometime in a state of adjustment so nice, that the slightest pressure upon the key produces a squeak or wail. This same mechanism after a time will be so changed by use and variations of temperature as to allow of the key being pressed almost to its limit without producing any sound.

These considerations will show that the delicate differences which are characteristic of the pianoforte touch are impossible with the organ. Fortunately they are not needed, but it must not be supposed that touch on the organ is of no importance. The keys must be pressed rather than struck, but still with such decision that their inequalities may be neutralised, otherwise the player will find that some notes do not speak at all. Perhaps the most important part of organ touch is the release of the key, which can hardly be too decided. The organ punishes laxity in this direction more severely than any instrument. Shakes on the organ should not be too quick; with the pneumatic action they are sometimes almost impossible. Care should be taken in playing staccato passages on slow speaking stops of the Gamba kind, especially in the lower part of the keyboard. The crispness should be not in the stroke but in the release of the key. It is generally said that the hand should be held rather higher above the keys than in the case of the piano, but as has been before pointed out, it is difficult to keep the same position towards keys so differently placed in relation to the performer as the upper and lower of four or even three manuals.

Modern key makers have invented a new danger by lessening the space between the black keys, so that in a chord where the white keys must be played between the black, it is impossible for some fingers to avoid depressing the adjacent notes.

Pedal touch has within recent times become a possibility, and passages for the feet are now as carefully phrased as those for the fingers. Mendelssohn's organ sonatas afford the earliest important examples. Freedom in the ancle joint is the chief condition of success in this. The player must be warned that large pipes will not speak quickly, and that a staccato must be produced by allowing the pedal key to rise quickly rather than by a sharp stroke.

[ W. Pa. ]

1. L'art du chant applique au piano.
2. The Sensations of Tone, translated by A. J. Ellis, p. 121.