Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/44

 were addressing us in a strange and unintelligible language.

To all these faults, we may accustom ourselves, in the zeal of practice, without knowing it; and when, to our mortification, we are made to observe them, it is often too late wholly to leave them off.

Do not suppose, however, that you are to sit at the piano as stiff and cold as a wooden doll. Some graceful movements are necessary while playing; it is only the excess that must be avoided.

When we have to play in the highest or lowest octave, a gentle inclination of the body is at once necessary and appropriate. When we have to play difficult passages, chords struck loud and short, or skips, the hands are and must be allowed a moderate degree of movement. As we must sometimes look at the notes, and sometimes at the hands, a slight movement of the head is, if not necessary, at least very excusable. Still, however, you should accustom yourself to look rather at the notes than at the fingers.

But the elegant deportment of polished life must always be transferred to the art; and the rule applies, generally, “that every movement which conduces really and essentially to our better playing is allowed;” here, however, we must avoid all that is unnecessary and superfluous.