Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/58

 be played in a style peculiar to himself. With many, there predominates a brilliant, shewy, and strongly marked manner; with others, an expressive, quiet, connected, and gentle style of playing is most generally called for; others, again, require a characteristic, impassioned, or even fantastic and humorous expression; and, in many compositions, a tender, warm, playful, and pleasing mode of execution is most suitable. Lastly, there are pieces which include all these different styles, and which therefore compel the player to adopt corresponding alternations of manner in his performance. Thus, for example, Hummel’s compositions require an extraordinary and pearl-like mode of execution, which is produced by a lightly dropping of the keys, as I have explained to you in my Pianoforte School. In Beethoven’s works this style will seldom be suitable; as, in them, great characteristic energy, deep feeling, often capricious humor, and a sometimes very legato, and at others a very marked and emphatic style of playing are requisite.

A piece which is played too fast or too slow loses all its effect, and becomes quite disfigured. Where the time is not marked according to Maelzel’s metronome, the player must look to the Italian words which indicate the degree of movement; as allegro, moderato, presto, &c. and likewise to the character of the