DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

FINGERING FINGERING 45
all existing methods being totally inadequate.
Accordingly, he fixed the place of the thumb in
the scale, and made free use of both that and
the little finger in every jiossible position. In
consequence of this the hands were held in a
more forward position on the keyboard, the
wrists were raised, the long fingers became bent,
and therefore gained gi-eatly in flexibility, and
thus Bach acquired such a prodigious power of
execution as compared with his contemporaries,
that it is said that nothing which was at all
possible was for him in the smallest degree
difficult.
Our knowledge of Bach's method is derived
from the writings of his son, Emanuel, who
taught it in his Versitch iiber die 'wahre yirt das
Clavier zii t>pieJen. But it would not be safe to
conclude that he gave it literally and without
omissions. At any rate there are two small
pieces extant, the marked fingering in which is
undoubtedly by Sebastian Bach himself, and yet
ditiers in several respects from his own rules as
given by his son. These pieces are to be found
in the ' Clavierbiichlein,' and one of them is
also published as No. 11 of ' Douze petits Preludes,'
but without Bach's fingering. The other
is here given comjilete :
In the above example it is w'orthy of notice
that although Bach himself had laid down the
rule, that the thumb in scale-playing was to be
used twice in the octave, he does not abide by
it, the scales in this instance being fingered
according to the older plan of passing tlie second
finger over the tlrird, or the first over the
thumb. In the fifth bar again the second finger
passes over the first—a progression wdiich is
disallowed by Emanuel Bach.
The discrepancies between Bach's fingering
and his son's rules, shown in the other piece
mentioned, occur between bars 22 and 23, 34
and 35, and 38 and 39, and consist in passing
the second finger over the first, the little finger
under the third (left hand), and the third over
the little finger (left hand also).
?^?^
Bar -2. 23.