

David Michael Wolff pianist ~ conductor
zen and the art of piano
ZenandtheArtofPiano
A Pianist’s Guide to
Orchestrating at the Keyboard
and Mastering the Flow of Musical Energy
DavidMichaelWolff
The myriad differences are resolved by sitting, all doors opened.
In this still place I follow my nature, be what it may.
From the one hundred flowers I wander freely,
the soaring cliff – my hall of meditation
(with the moon emerged, my mind is motionless).
Sitting on this frosty seat, no further dream of fame.
The forest, the mountain follow their ancient ways
and through the long spring day,
not even the shadow of a bird.
Reizan (d. 1411)
Preface
Twenty years old and a new-comer to I think of Piano as a modern Zen art-form, and from long before I’d ever even heard the word Zen, my approach to the piano was imbued with its principles. The present volume is not a philosophical Buddhist tract, but rather essentially a simple treatise on piano technique viewed as an art of orchestrating at the keyboard with all the possible colors of the piano, and a guide to learning how to phrase according to a system of musical analysis based on balancing positive and negative energy. It’s a system not unlike Schenker’s in that while seeking to understand the energy at play, it simplifies the musical page to its most essential notes and gestures, allowing the rest to fall naturally into place. Different from Schenkerian Analysis however, it is based on both the underlying large poles of energy AND the surface energy, which is often negated in Schenker’s reductions. Mine is a type of musical analysis for performers, not theorists, and is relatively easy to learn. And while the orchestration concepts presented as a whole are quite complex, broken down to their basic components of touch, they are not difficult to grasp and obtain. The goals are lofty but the applications very much of this earth. To me, the energy of music is part of Creation and is a natural link between the physical and non-physical worlds. Whether or not this is so, for the purposes of this argument, is immaterial. Some would call this energy the Tao, and although I don’t personally believe in the Tao as a spiritual energy force, most of its descriptions accurately describe the practical experiences of great musicians, artists, athletes and all sensitive human beings. It’s essential for the interpreter to imagine music in limitless dimensions of time, space and color. When I play a phrase, I search out ways to open up parallel dimensions and am constantly aware of balancing many dimensions at the same time, as if juggling. Every phrase contains countless portals, but they are often ignored and left shut, leaving the interpreter to his two- or three-dimensional perceptions. And as music hides nothing, the listener receives exactly what he’s offered. You may find yourself now wanting to ask, Excuse me, where’s the portal to the fourth dimension? Where can I find the 19th dimension? While I obviously can’t answer these questions directly, it’s a bit like an unsolved riddle – until you know the answer, it seems forever elusive, but once you figure it out, it’s suddenly self-evident. I hope the practical tools that I present here will have the same effect on the reader.
This performance manual does not claim to be a metaphysical guide to the universe or to parallel realities, nor is it a string-theory of musical energy in its countless dimensions (!). However, the musician’s power lies in his ability to transcend time and space by evoking and balancing many dimensions of time, space and color at every moment. There’s a mystical moment at the beginning of each work, movement or phrase where the performer imagines the music to come and somehow conjures into being an entire field of energy that immediately becomes a reality, entering the actual world and leading the performer forward. I call it the Point of Invocation. Most musicians have felt this sensation but it would be difficult to define or prove, and I leave that to musical physicists and metaphysicists. One of the goals in these pages is to give the reader hundreds of real tools to gain greater sensitivity to the movement of musical energy and to gain a command over it so that he can then release command and flow with Zen-like ease.
Because it is so very clear,
It takes longer to come to the realization.
If you know at once candlelight is fire,
the meal has long been cooked.
Mumon

Table of Contents Introduction Part I Zen Prelude Self and the Eternity of Gestures The Vertical Defining the Color Levels The Techniques behind the Colors Creating an Orchestral Sonority – Applying Vertical Hierarchy The Horizontal Establishing Horizontal Hierarchy Dynamic Differentiation Applying and Removing Gloss Defining the Pedaling Linking and Separating Gestures Defining Rubato Differentiating the Texture of Touches The Dry Pedal – Finger-pedaling From the Key Surface or From the Air? To the Key-bottom or Beyond? On Conducting and Studying the Score Away from the Piano Imagining Real Orchestration Zen, Circular Energy, and the Four Time Dimensions The Four Principle Mallets The Four Physical Levels The Weight-bar, or the Hand of Karajan The Hand of God – Using Hammers and Chisels After-touch Is Percussion Beautiful, Zenful? Horowitz' Voicing Speed, Weight and Compression Earth, Water, Fire and Air Memorizing The Myth of Evenness Energy = Emotion + Form + Color { e = E+F+C } Canvas of Silence Enjoyment – The Kernel of Talent and Persuasive Performing The Metronome Preparing for Performance On Accompanying Willpower and Vision On Practicing Posture Part III Vladimir Horowitz Artur Rubinstein Ivo Pogorelich Marta Argerich Claudio Arrau Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli Glenn Gould Walter Gieseking Alfred Cortot Sviatoslav Richter Emil Gilels
Preface
{ Allegro moderato }
The Path to Zen
Practical Applications
Grouping Levels and Packaging Chords
Combined Vertical and Horizontal Effects
Applying Height Vertically
Applying Height Horizontally
Applying Depth Vertically
Applying Depth Horizontally
Combining and Contrasting Height and Depth
Drop-voicing
Slap-and-Caress
Mimicking Masters ~ The Imitation Filters
Super-melody
Playing Blind
Part II
{ Andante con mosso }
Encircling Reflections
Technique
On Teaching
Integrity and Persona
{ Scherzo }
On Great Pianists
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Part IV Fuga: The Music Theory behind Energy Pillars Harmonic Dissonance Meter Note-value Note-height Variazioni: Practicing Zen Orchestration Applying and expanding techniques from Part I using examples from the full gamut of the Piano Repertoire Variation II: Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Variation III: Bach’s Goldberg Variations { Variation XXX } Variation IV: Debussy’s Ondine Variation V: Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6, Op. 82 { opening of first movement }
{ Fuga con Variazioni }
Variation I: Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 no. 1 { opening of the 1st movement }

I am not concerned at not being known; I seek to be worthy to be known. -K'ung fu-tzu
Introduction
The following pages describe my search to attain a complete pianism encompassing all the possible colors and color combinations that the piano is capable of. I write of my understanding of musical phrasing, my personal approach to musical energy, and how to transmit energy with a Zen-like ease and purity. Later I discuss my personal approach to various works in the repertoire to show a practical application of my techniques. And finally I speak of my personal relationship to the great pianists of the past and present, of what each has taught me and represents to me.
I must say upfront that I’m generally not a fan of books of this nature, although there have been a few along the way that have been meaningful and important to my own development. I write this book essentially for myself. As I chronicle a lifetime struggle to understand the nature and potential of the piano, I teach myself what I’ve learned and forgotten over the years, and somehow try to string it all together in my mind on a more conscious level, to form my own Theory of Everything Pianistic, if you will. If I find a few readers in students or colleagues or pianophiles who find something thought-provoking or are able to use some of these ideas as points of departure for debate or further study and growth, I will be happy to have inspired passions and moved people’s minds, hearts and fingers to action.
By the water, deep within the forest, you find traces.The Ox-Herding Pictures, around 800AD

A little over a year ago, I started keeping a log on my laptop of my daily piano practice sessions that I lovingly call “Confessions and Contradictions of a Practicing Pianist.” The following book has been developed through this process of self-analysis and continual search for the ever-elusive Final Pianistic Solution. I often find that as I push each pianistic and interpretational approach to its logical conclusion, I contradict what I’ve just discovered a day earlier, and the following day often brings new contradictions – this is one of the great beauties of the complex art of piano playing. And I have to confess that I often fall victim to short-sightedness as I lunge after new realizations and revelations. How many times have I discovered the Great Secret, only to tear it apart the next day as a mirage or half-truth! But gradually, you wind round and round the mountain and slowly find yourself a little closer to the summit. And that’s the joy of this never-ending pursuit of a
Part I is an introduction to the concepts of orchestration and energy. I limit myself to a single musical example, the first page (“A-section”) of Rachmaninoff’s well-known Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2. This is a page of music easily learned by an intermediate pianist and was carefully chosen to help make this work accessible not only to University Piano Performance Majors and Concert Pianists, but also to young aspiring pianists and amateur pianists. Part II expands on the ideas in Part I in a less dense, more readable way. It includes Essays about all matters pertaining to the preparing and performing of a work. Part III consists of a collection of Essays about great pianists and what I’ve learned from them. Part IV, like a second-year foreign language text book, reviews all of the concepts presented in Part I, expanding them and developing them. It opens with Fuga, an exploration of the Music Theory behind Energy Pillars. This is followed by Variazioni, in which five examples from stylistically diverse works are explored one at a time, following the path laid in Part
The book is divided into four large sections, echoing the form of a Symphony – I: Allegro moderato, II: Andante con mosso, III: Scherzo, and IV: Fuga con variazioni.
Before I had studied Zen I saw mountains as mountains,
waters as waters. When I learned something of Zen,
the mountains were no longer mountains,
waters no longer waters,
But now that I understand Zen, I am at peace with myself,
seeing mountains once again as mountains, waters as waters.
Ch’ing-yuan (660-740)

Read escerpts from Zen and the Art of Piano – www.davidmichaelwolff.com/Zen_Art_Piano_excerpts Read the Introduction to Zen and the Art of Piano’s companion work, Zen and the Art of Music – www.ZENandtheARTofMUSIC.com Feel free to send questions and comments to david@davidmichaelwolff.com Thank you for reading!