entirely free at the passing under and over, but rather on a lateral movement (with the elbow hanging quite down and always easy) of the hand, not by jerks, but continuously and evenly flowing, which he tried to illustrate by the glissando over the keyboard.  Of studies he gave after this a selection of Cramer’s Etudes, Clementi’s Gradus ad Parnassum, Moscheles’ style-studies for the higher development (which were very sympathetic to him), and J. S. Bach’s suites and some fugues from Das wohltemperirte Clavier.  In a certain way Field’s and his own nocturnes numbered likewise with the studies, for in them the pupil was—­partly by the apprehension of his explanations, partly by observation and imitation (he played them to the pupil unweariedly)—­to learn to know, love, and execute the beautiful smooth [gebundene] vocal tone and the legato.

[Footnote:  This statement can only be accepted with much reserve.  Whether Chopin played much or little to his pupil depended, no doubt, largely on the mood and state of health he was in at the time, perhaps also on his liking or disliking the pupil.  The late Brinley Richards told me that when he had lessons from Chopin, the latter rarely played to him, making his corrections and suggestions mostly by word of mouth.]

With double notes and chords he demanded most strictly simultaneous striking, breaking was only allowed when it was indicated by the composer himself; shakes, which he generally began with the auxiliary note, had not so much to be played quick as with great evenness the conclusion of the shake quietly and without precipitation.  For the turn (gruppetto) and the appoggiatura he recommended the great Italian singers as models.  Although he made his pupils play octaves from the wrist, they must not thereby lose in fulness of tone.

All who have had the good fortune to hear Chopin play agree in declaring that one of the most distinctive features of his style of execution was smoothness, and smoothness, as we have seen in the foregoing notes, was also one of the qualities on which he most strenuously insisted in the playing of his pupils.  The reader will remember Gutmann’s statement to me, mentioned in a previous chapter, that all his master’s fingering was calculated for the attainment of this object.  Fingering is the mainspring, the determining principle, one might almost say the life and soul, of the pianoforte technique.  We shall, therefore, do well to give a moment’s consideration to Chopin’s fingering, especially as he was one of the boldest and most influential revolutionisers of this important department of the pianistic art.  His merits in this as in other respects, his various claims to priority of invention, are only too often overlooked.  As at one time all ameliorations in the theory and practice of music were ascribed to Guido of Arezzo, so it is nowadays the fashion to ascribe all improvements and extensions of the pianoforte