The Klavierübung (Piano Tutorial, BV A 3), by the Italian pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni, is a compilation of piano exercises and practice pieces, comprising transcriptions of works by other composers and original compositions of his own. Busoni worked on the Klavierübung at various times during the last seven years of his life, and with it, he hoped to pass on his accumulated knowledge of keyboard technique. The Klavierübung is not a comprehensive or systematic graduated course of study, nor is it intended for beginning or intermediate students. Instead it assumes the student has mastered standard piano technique and has reached a virtuoso level. Busoni proceeds by adding refinements, short cuts, and unusual solutions for pianistic problems encountered in a performing artist's repertoire. The included exercises and examples reflect Busoni's own special, but diverse, interests and abilities.

Assessment

Edward J. Dent, author of the first definitive biography of Busoni, had this to say about the exercises and studies in the Klavierübung: "...they are all extraordinarily interesting and stimulating. They are interesting too as helping to elucidate some of Busoni's other compositions, for the studies show how certain of his harmonic devices grew out of purely pianistic principles based on definite positions of the hands on the keyboard. Every one of the studies has genuine musical originality, and even the exercises to be repeated in all keys are a good deal more musical than such forms of torture are generally made to be."

Publication of the first edition

The Klavierübung was first published by Breitkopf & Härtel in separate parts beginning in 1918. Part 2 appeared in 1919, and parts 3 and 4 two years later. The fifth, and what was to be the final part, appeared in 1922. Kindermann, who prepared the first extensive catalog of Busoni's works in 1980, refers to this "First Edition" as Klavierübung in fünf Teilen [Piano Tutorial in Five Parts], and Breitkopf & Härtel later republished a collected edition under this name ca. 1996.

Original plan of the work

Part 1 (Sechs Klavierübungen und Präludien) consists of six tutorials (numbered I - VI). Tutorials I to V were written in three days (10–12 September 1917), and tutorial VI one month later. The first piece of Part 2 was written on 7 November 1917, and the remainder from 4 to 10 June 1918. It consists of three tutorials (VII to IX). Each tutorial begins with exercises and moves on to short original pieces and adaptions or transcriptions of excerpts from the repertory. For instance, the first tutorial starts with traditional scales (although the fingerings are unorthodox), then adds two excerpts which require power and speed: the first is from Liszt's Totentanz, and the second is based on two bars in Busoni's "Turandots Frauengemach" [Turandot's Bedchamber] (Book 4 from Elegien, BV 249). This is followed by two original compositions: a 16-bar "Tempo di Valse" and a 33-bar "Preludio," both of which emphasize legato scales at moderate speed. Busoni frequently lists at the bottom one or more pieces from the repertoire as examples (in German: Beispiele) suitable for further study. In the case of the "Preludio," the Beispiel is Alkan's first etude from Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs, (Op. 35). The first tutorial exemplifies a blueprint which is used for the subsequent tutorials, each emphasizing a different aspect of piano technique. These include, in addition to the "simple" scales of the first tutorial: forms derived from scales (chords incorporated into scales); chromatic "sliding-finger" (or "sixth-finger") technique; repeated notes; arpeggios and broken chords; examples of "three-hands"; trills; examples with arpeggios; and further examples of "three hands."

Difficulties completing

Because of distractions, including ill health, and other concerns, not least being the work on his lifelong masterpiece, the opera Doktor Faust (unfinished at the time of his death in 1924), many planned components of the Klavierübung were delayed or never fully realized. For instance, the foreword was not written until July 1920, and did not appear until the publication of Part 3 in 1921. Part 2 contains material which should have been included in Part 1, in tutorials V [arpeggios] and VI ["for three hands"]. Part 3 presents additional material appropriate to Part 1, as appendices. A "Chromaticon" for Part 4, mentioned in a footnote to the foreword, had to be abandoned, and was hurriedly replaced with his edition of Eight Etudes by Cramer (BV B 53) first published in 1897. Part 5 likewise consists of already existing pieces. Perhaps, if Busoni had lived longer, he would have included much more. For example, there are no tutorials on the very important technique of pedalling, for which he was particularly well known.

Publication of a second edition

From December 1923 to January 1924 Busoni did manage to reorganize and enrich the material for a second edition of 284 pages. Entitled Klavierübung in zehn Büchern [Piano Tutorial in Ten Books], it was published posthumously in 1925 as Volume VIII of the Bach-Busoni Edition. Only a small number of copies of the second edition were printed, and until recently, it has been a major rarity. Fortunately, it is now available online (see, for example, this page at the International Music Score Library Project).

Significance of the second edition

The second edition is particularly important, since it contains all Busoni's last piano compositions. Two of these are not found elsewhere and are of special interest, since they were intended as source material for the unfinished final scene of Doktor Faust:

Annotated listing of contents

Busoni did not typically disclose the source of the extracts on which he based many of the pieces in the Klavierübung. They are often simply titled, for example, "Nach Bach" or "Nach Schubert." Fortunately, both Beaumont and Sitsky have provided fairly detailed descriptions of the contents of both the first and second editions. Some of this information is inserted here as annotations between square brackets.

Klavierübung in Five Parts (First Edition)

Klavierübung in fünf Teilen

Part 1: Six Piano Tutorials and Preludes

Sechs Klavierübungen und Präludien (der Klavierübung erster Teil.) (score)

Part 2: Three Piano Tutorials and Preludes

Drei Klavierübungen und Präludien (der Klavierübung zweiter Teil.) (score)

Part 3: Staccato

Lo Staccato. (der Klavierübung dritter Teil.) (score)

Part 4: Eight Etudes by Cramer

Acht Etüden von Cramer (der Klavierübung vierter Teil.) (score)

Part 5: Variations. Perpetual motion. Scales.

Variationen - Perpetuum mobile - Tonleitern (der Klavierübung fünfter Teil) (score)

Klavierübung in Ten Books (Second Edition)

Title page: Title shown on page 1:

Book 1: Scales

''Erstes Buch. Tonleitern'', pp. 1–12. (score)

Book 2: Forms derived from scales

''Zweites Buch. Von Tonleitern abgeleitete Formen'', pp. 13–26. (score)

Book 3: Chordal (broken chords)

''Drittes Buch. Akkordisches'', pp. 27–50. (score)

Book 4: "For Three Hands"

''Viertes Buch. "À trois mains,"'' pp. 51–62. (score)

Book 5: Trills

''Fünftes Buch. Triller'', pp. 63–88. (score)

Book 6: Staccato

''Sechstes Buch. Lo Staccato'', pp. 89–117. (score)

Book 7: Eight Etudes after Cramer

''Siebentes Buch. Acht Etüden nach Cramer'' (score)

Book 8: Variations and Variants on Chopin

''Achtes Buch. Variationen und Varianten zu Chopin'' (score)

Book 9: Seven Short Pieces for the Cultivation of Polyphonic Playing

''Neuntes Buch. Sieben kurze Stücke zur Pflege des polyphonen Spiels'' (score)

Book 10: Etudes after Paganini-Liszt

''Zehntes Buch. Etüden nach Paganini-Liszt'' (score)

Composition and publication details