Leopold Godowsky

thumb|Godowsky in 1911 Leopold Godowsky (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. Quotes about Godowsky What was Godowsky's method of teaching? As everybody knows, he was reported to be "a wizard of technique" (ein Hexenmeister der Technik, as he was dubbed unanimously by the German and indeed the world press). For this reason numerous young pianists from all over the world flocked to him, mainly in the hope of getting his recipe for attaining "virtuoso technique". Alas for them! Godowsky hardly ever said a word about technique in the sense in which these youngsters understood it; all his comments during a lesson were aimed exclusively at music, at correcting musical defects in a performance, at achieving maximum logic, accurate hearing, clarity, plasticity, through a scrupulous observance and a broad interpretation of the written score.In his class, he valued above all the real musician and approached with obvious irony those pianists whose fingers were fast and agile while their brains were slow and dull (and there were several such in my time). He would immediately lose all interest in a pupil whose hearing was inaccurate, who memorized wrong notes or showed bad taste. Heinrich Neuhaus, The Art of Piano Playing (1958), Ch. 1. The Artistic Image of a Musical Composition External links Category:Composers from Poland Category:Educators from the United States Category:Pianists from the United States Category:1870 births Category:1938 deaths Category:Immigrants to the United States Category:Composers from the United States Category:Educators from Poland Category:Pianists from Poland Category:Jews from Poland Category:Jews from the United States