On some occasions it will not be difficult to bring out a melody because of where the
melody is placed on the piano in relation to the accompaniment. Where the melody is in
an inner part or is in the bass, careful attention will usually have to be given to subduing
the accompaniment.
Some of the chords in works such as the Beethoven sonatas and the Liszt Sonata in B
minor may be played without voicing, that is, with an equal dynamic level for every note,
to emphasise the dramatic nature of the chords. As a general rule, however, chords,
whether in loud or in soft passages, should be voiced.
Voicing the hammers of a piano
Voicing also refers to a completely different procedure in which a piano technician
pierces with a special tool the felt covering of a piano hammer. This is done to soften a
hammer’s impact on the string and restore its tone quality. In a piano that has been
played at an advanced level voicing will probably need to be done throughout the range
of the keyboard.
WAGNER
Wagner & Liszt
Richard Wagner (1813-1883), opera composer, conductor and friend of Liszt, was visited
on 5 April 1855 by Karl Klindworth at his rooms at 22 Portland Terrace, Regents Park,
London. Wagner wrote on the same evening to Liszt:
‘Klindworth has just now played your great Sonata for me! – we spent the day alone
together and after dinner he had to play. Dearest Franz! Just now you were with me; the
Sonata is inexpressibly beautiful, great, lovable, deep and noble – just as you are. I was
profoundly moved by it, and all my London miseries were immediately forgotten.’
‘Klindworth astonished me by his playing; no less a man could have ventured to play
your work for me for the first time. He is worthy of you. Surely, surely it was beautiful.’
The other documented performance for Wagner of the Liszt Sonata took place just under
twenty years later, this time by the composer himself. Liszt was staying with the
Wagners at Bayreuth from 24 March to 3 April 1877 and they celebrated Wagner’s
name-day on 2 April when Wagner gave Liszt a signed copy of his newly published
autobiography, Mein Leben. In the afternoon Wagner sang the first Act of Parsifal with
Liszt accompanying him on the piano.
In the evening of 2 April 1877 Liszt played his Sonata. Cosima (who was Liszt’s
daughter, Wagner’s wife and Bülow’s former wife) wrote in her diary of ‘a lovely
cherished day, on which I can thank heaven for the comfortable feeling that nothing – no
deeply tragic parting of the ways, no malice on the part of others, no differences in
channels – could ever separate us three.’ ‘Oh, if it were possible to add a fourth [Bülow]