Note 135 — MUSICAL OBSERVATIONS.[109]

With regard to pianoforte playing, Beethoven always inculcated the following rule:—"Place the hands over the key-board in such a position that the fingers need not be raised more than is necessary. This is the only method by which the player can learn to generate tone, and, as it were, to make the instrument sing." He abjured the staccato style, especially in the performance of phrases, and he derisively termed it "finger-dancing," or "manual air-sawing." There are many passages in Beethoven's works which, though not marked with slurs, require to be played legato. But this a cultivated taste will instinctively perceive.