Hoffman on technique

Technic  represents the material side of art, as money represents the material side of life.  By all means achieve a fine technic, but do no dream that you will be artistically happy with this alone. 

There is a technic which liberates and a technic which represents the artistic self.  All technic ought to be a means of expression.  It is perfectly possible to accumulate a technic that is next to useless.

 Josef Hoffmann, cited in  Gerig, Reginald (1974) Famous Pianists and their Technique.  Washington: Robert B. Luce Inc., p. 1-2.   


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