Creative Health for Pianists: Concepts,

Exercises & Compositions Pedro De

Alcantara
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/creative-health-for-pianists-concepts-exercises-comp
ositions-pedro-de-alcantara/
Creative Health for Pianists
Creative Health for Pianists
CONCEPTS, EXERCISES & COMPOSITIONS

Pedro de Alcantara
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

© Oxford University Press 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Alcantara, Pedro de, 1958– author.
Title: Creative health for pianists : concepts, exercises & compositions / Pedro de Alcantara.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022053637 (print) | LCCN 2022053638 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780197600214 (paperback) | ISBN 9780197600207 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197600238 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Piano—Methods.
Classification: LCC MT222 .A47 2023 (print) | LCC MT222 (ebook) |
DDC 786.2/193—dc23/eng/20221103
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022053637
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022053638

DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197600207.001.0001

Paperback printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America

Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
To Alexandre Mion
 vii
Contents
List of Figures • ix
List of Photo Credits • xi
Preface • xiii
Acknowledgments • xxi
About the Companion Website • xxiii

Introduction • 1
1 Dialogue • 9
2 Heartbreak • 43
3 Seesaw • 85
4 Celeste • 104
5 The Circle • 147
6 Gesture • 182
7 Advanced Seesaw • 208
8 Sonic Play • 254
9 Horn Call • 297
10 Mudra • 331
Conclusion • 363

Appendix: Practicing the Circle of Fifths • 365

Resources • 385
Index • 393
 ix
Figures

Preface
Figure 0.1 Discovery xix

Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Bouncing 95
Figure 3.2 Bouncing, too 95

Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 Struggle 108
Figure 4.2 Gradations 109
Figure 4.3 Oscillations 111

Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 The circle of fifths 149
Figure 5.2 The manifold circle of fifths 151
Figure 5.3 The cathedral at Chartres 154
Figure 5.4 Layers of the keyboard 165
Figure 5.5 Count Basie 181

Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Left and right 192
Figure 6.2 Nested hands 200
Figure 6.3 The growth of hands 203

Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Hands at the party 210

Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Architect and composer 262

Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 The Horn Call 303
 Figures

Chapter 10
x Figure 10.1 Mudra 332
Figure 10.2 The master and the learner 333

Conclusion
Figure C.1 Propagation 364
 xi
Photo Credits
Figure 0.1 Discovery. © Everett Collection | Shutterstock. xix
Figure 3.1 Bouncing. © OryPhotography | Shutterstock. 95
Figure 3.2 Bouncing, too. © CroMary | Shutterstock. 95
Figure 4.1 Struggle. © lapina | Shutterstock. 108
Figure 4.2 Gradations. © Social Media Hub | Shutterstock. 109
Figure 4.3 Oscillations. © Pedro de Alcantara. 111
Figure 5.1 The circle of fifths. © Pedro de Alcantara. 149
Figure 5.2 The manifold circle of fifths. © Pedro de Alcantara. 151
Figure 5.3 The cathedral at Chartres. © Christian Musat | Shutterstock. 154
Figure 5.4 Layers of the keyboard. © Pedro de Alcantara. 165
Figure 5.5 Count Basie. © Olga Popova | Shutterstock. 181
Figure 6.1 Left and right. © sportpoint | Shutterstock. 192
Figure 6.2 Nested hands. © Alexis Niki & Pedro de Alcantara. 200
Figure 6.3 The growth of hands. © Yashkin Ilya | Shutterstock. 203
Figure 7.1 Hands at the party. © Vladimir Borovic, Montira Areepongthum, Africa Studio |
Shutterstock. 210
Figure 8.1 Architect and composer. © sirtravelalot | Shutterstock. 262
Figure 9.1 The Horn Call. © kokrabue | Shutterstock. 303
Figure 10.1 Mudra. © Dmitry Rukhlenko | Shutterstock. 332
Figure 10.2 The master and the learner. © Beatrice Sirinuntananon, William Bank
Wongveerakul | Shutterstock. 333
Figure C.1 Propagation. © Pedro de Alcantara. 364
 xiii
Preface

Is This Method for You?

A paradigm is a set of principles and beliefs, preferences and hierarchies: “To me, this is impor-
tant and that isn’t important.” Your paradigm as a musician determines your practice habits,
your aesthetics, your relationship with the printed score, your career choices, and much more
besides. Your paradigm is your operating system, the stuff you live by.
In Creative Health for Musicians I propose a new paradigm—​in other words, a shift in what
is important. The paradigm starts with broad definitions. I believe that a musician is anyone
who’s engaged with the materials of music, its sensorial aspects, its structures and mysteries.
A little child who sings “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to herself is a musician, because in her
own way she’s engaged with the materials and mysteries of music. I define creativity broadly,
too. I see it as the quality of your presence in the world, a combination of curiosity, attentive-
ness, and adaptability. By virtue of being alive you’re already creative, but you can improve your
creativity by becoming more curious, attentive, and adaptable. I also define health broadly.
Like creativity, your health is your overall response to the world, a constantly changing state of
being in which you see, hear, feel, think, and decide what you’re going to do today, tomorrow,
and the day after. Good health is a creative act.
Broadening your definitions broadens your pianistic and musical mind. A four-​step pro-
cedure then allows you to put the paradigm to work. You can take these steps sequentially,
one after the other—​or simultaneously, as an integrated approach to everything that you do.

1. Start by paying a little extra attention to the world around you.

2. Acknowledge your own existence as a human being capable of agency.
3. Meet a creative stimulus or situation.
4. Fashion your creative response to the creative stimulus.

The world around you is architecture and art, weather, shapes and colors, laughter,
friendship, and love. Your piano was designed in Japan and built in Indonesia, and it was
shipped to your home in Paris thanks to an incredibly intricate supply chain. A Yamaha up-
right encapsulates several centuries in the history of music and, by extension, the history of
humanity itself. Before you strike a note, you ponder the unfathomable web of connections
leading to this moment in which you’ll play something that Johann Sebastian Bach composed
three hundred years ago. Wonderment and gratitude become a habit that you can tend to—​
and, in my opinion, that you should tend to.
It’s you sitting at the piano now: not J. S. Bach, not your music teacher, not your parents
nor your siblings. And it’s you who’s going to decide what you’re going to do, why, and how.
You’ll need to take into account your goals, your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and
fears. Every sound you make at the piano comes from the interaction of these inner factors.
 Preface

Inescapably, “working on the piano” is “working on yourself.” It’s another habit that you can
tend to . . . and, in my opinion, that you should tend to.
xiv At the piano, you’ll face an endless flow of creative situations. Two notes, a chord, a
melody; a novelty, a difficulty, something you don’t understand, or something you know for
sure that you don’t like. Sharps and flats, counting, the coordination of left and right hands, an
impossibly difficult score, a composition that seems pointless. An invitation to embellish, vary,
or improvise a passage. An interdiction, which may come from a teacher or from a score or
from your own mind. Don’t sound too good, or people will notice you! Play better, or people
will judge you! The creative flow never stops, and this is why you need to keep “working on
yourself ” non-​stop, too.
When musicians talk about technique, they sometimes mean a physical solution to a phys-
ical problem. This has its merits, but in my paradigm I see technique as a creative response to
a creative situation. Head, neck, back, legs, and feet; shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, and fin-
gers; your orientation in space and your sense of time: they’re all pertinent to the process.
Ultimately, your intentions and perceptions give rise to the gestures that produce sound. The
physicality of technique can’t be isolated from your creative intentionality.
Metaphysics (“the mysteries of the world”), psychology (“the mysteries of my exist-
ence”), and creativity (“the mysteries of music”) all precede technique (“the mysteries of em-
bodiment”). When you put technique ahead of the rest, you play in a certain way. When you
respect the hierarchy of mysteries, you play in a different way. This is the paradigm shift that
Creative Health for Pianists invites you to explore.
Many of my compositions are simple on purpose. In order to respect the hierarchy of
mysteries, it’s useful to tackle streamlined compositions without too many things going on,
so that you can really pay attention and make choices. Behind their plain façade, however, my
compositions hide a wealth of sounds and sensations to be explored: the perception of vibra-
tion, for instance, or the ambiguity of intervals that make you happy and sad at the same time.
Or, more importantly, how you really feel about yourself, about the piano, and about music.
Creative Health for Pianists has its share of analytical tools, its share of delights for
musicians who enjoy involvement, discipline, and homework. For instance, throughout the
book I share sequences of compositions that get more complicated little by little. Sometimes
a complication arises suddenly, and this too I do on purpose, inviting you to make decisions.
“Am I threatened by this difficulty, or do I find it stimulating? Do I play it, or do I skip it? Do
I play it as written, or do I tweak it? Do I get bored, or do I get annoyed?” Questions like this
are normal in everyone’s daily lives, but I bring them to the fore as part of the learning process,
so that you can “work on yourself ” and refine your decision-​making skills.
Creative Health for Pianists is a tool. You can use it in a lot of different ways, including as
a companion or foil to other methods that may be more technique-​oriented, and as a prelim-
inary to compositions more elaborate than the ones I offer. In fact, you can use it in any way
you want.
What does the book contain?

• Suggestions regarding general posture, the hands’ stability at the keyboard, a sensitive touch
with many gradations of strength, and the development of healthy gestures that come from
a healthy attitude toward musical and instrumental exploration.
 Preface

• Psychological concepts such as non-​doing, non-​judgment, and the constructive observation

of your own frame of mind as you’re confronted with situations and challenges.
• Exercises presented as quasi-​meditations. A beautiful, simple tune played skillfully many xv
times in a row alters your mood and helps you become calmer and more present. Over time,
calmness and presence become your primary habit, enhancing your creativity and speeding
up your learning of everything, not just the materials in this book.
• Musical archetypes, or compositional snippets that seem primitive but that carry the poten-
tial to encompass large territories in music.
• Step-​by-​step practical explorations of some of the foundational materials of music, in-
cluding vibration, acoustics, the circle of fifths, the harmonic series, tendency tones, and
counting.
• Original compositions, some extremely short and easy to play, others longer and more de-
manding. My sources of inspiration include Minimalism, Brazilian and Latin American
folk and pop, and New Age; and composers such as Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, Conlon
Nancarrow, Gustav Mahler, Hermeto Pascoal, Thelonious Monk, and many others. I don’t
mean that I compose like these great musicians, only that my music may have faint inklings
of their styles.
• Entry points to improvisation and composition, including for beginners without composi-
tional experience or knowledge of music theory.

A Fellowship of Learners
I grew up in Brazil, and my mother tongue is Portuguese. I learned English while at university
in the United States, and I learned French when I moved to Paris more than three decades ago.
In recent years I’ve been studying Spanish. I spend a lot of time taking lessons, reading novels
and essays in Spanish, traveling in Spanish-​speaking countries, watching Spanish-​language
movies without subtitles, listening to a Mariachi radio station, and so on.
Photography and drawing: I’m forever learning about them. Art history: there’s so much
to learn! In a parallel universe I’d be a visual artist, curating interesting exhibitions in an ex-
quisite museum built by Tadao Ando.
Within the domain of music, my learning has included the usual conservatory subjects
such as ear training, theory and analysis, chamber music, and orchestra. I trained primarily
as a mainstream cellist playing the canonic repertory. Later on, I learned to improvise and to
compose; I learned to sing in a particular style; I learned to play the Native American flute.
Now I’m learning to play the guitar.
My main professional activity consists in sharing my learning processes. I’d say I’m a pro-
fessional learner.
Some years ago I started taking piano lessons, having concluded that my limited pianistic
abilities were hampering my overall musical development. My teacher is Alexandre Mion, a
wonderful musician who has been my friend, student, and adoptive brother practically since
I first arrived in Paris. Creative Health for Pianists is partly a result of my conversations with
Alexandre Mion, and partly a result of my learning-​through-​sharing. I’ve shaped and reshaped
my materials thanks to my encounters with pianists of all abilities.
 Preface

Based on my experience, I see four types of pianists who could benefit from Creative
Health for Pianists: beginners who are comfortable reading music, skilled musicians who aren’t
xvi trained pianists and who would like to play the piano better, piano teachers, and accomplished
pianists who are curious about a different entry point into the labyrinth of music.

Beginners
On multiple occasions, something like this has happened on my watch: A beginner is sitting
at the instrument in fear, incoherence, and self-​doubt. “I’m not good at this. This reminds
me of my childhood. My mother . . .” I invite the beginner to play two notes, then two more
notes: four notes forming a special chord that I describe in ­chapter 1. “It’s not supposed to be
this easy. Not for me, anyway.” I invite the beginner to transpose the chord up by a second, or
down by a second. Stay with the white keys. Keep your hands shaped just so; lift them a little;
move them a little to the right, or to the left; play. The first chord now lives in relationship
with a second chord. This changes everything. “I don’t understand what’s happening.” This
early in the journey, understanding isn’t necessary, and it might even hinder you. Actually, un-
derstanding doesn’t hinder you, but the desperate grabbing for understanding, which comes
from fear, does. “Okay.” And the beginner strikes two, three chords in succession, eight chords
covering an octave—​a tune, and rather pretty. “Wait a minute!” The total beginner is now a pi-
anist, composer, improviser, musician, and artist. Still a total beginner, but a musician anyway.
The transformation is so marvelous that neither of us can explain it.
Creative Health for Pianists is designed to help you become a different type of beginner.
Each chapter starts simple and ends complex. You’ll be able to play the simpler version of
most exercises and compositions without too much effort. Challenges are presented one at a
time, usually with preparatory steps that make the climb easy. You can learn the book linearly,
from the first page to the last. Or you can tackle the easy bits in each chapter before attempting
the more complex materials. When ­chapter 2 starts getting too dizzy-​making for you, skip to
the opening pages of ­chapter 3 or 4, for instance.
Creative Health for Pianists is a useful support if you’re learning the piano with traditional
methods such as the famous Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, Béla Bartók’s equally famous
Mikrokosmos, or graded selections from the repertory from Mozart to Prokofiev and beyond.
Two qualities make Creative Health for Pianists a fine complement to these excellent and well-​
known methods:

1. Explanations, suggestions, metaphors, analogies, and the occasional joke, which

on the whole are missing from the literature.
2. The constant offer of space between you and music. This is the physical and psy-
chic space in which you can think, feel, and decide for yourself what you want to
do and how you want to do it. The space comes from my explanations and the way
I introduce my materials, but also from my compositions themselves.

If your score-​reading skills aren’t advanced, you can use the book to improve score reading
itself, as the materials get more demanding gradually within each chapter and from chapter to
chapter. The first two chapters, for instance, take place entirely in the white keys (with a single
exception, which is a hair-​raising piece in c­ hapter 2).
 Preface

If you don’t read music, you could in principle learn many or most of the book’s
materials by ear with the help of a sympathetic teacher and the book’s video clips. The per-
formance clips listed at the end of the book cover perhaps 70 to 80 percent of the book’s xvii
compositions, and would help you learn the pieces by ear. Nevertheless, the inability to read
music is likely to slow down your progress and diminish your enjoyment of Creative Health
for Pianists.

Trained Musicians Who Aren’t Trained Pianists

Instrumentalists, singers, conductors, and composers have often studied the piano along-
side their main areas of musical exploration. Sometimes these musicians become first-​class
pianists. One example is the late Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor who oc-
casionally performed as a pianist, accompanying the singer Galina Vishnevskaya (who was
his wife).
Average musicians who aren’t trained pianists tend to have gaps and blockages regarding
the piano. And these gaps tend to come with harsh judgments: “I can’t play the piano, I should
be able to do it, I should have learned it years ago. It’s too late now. I’m embarrassed about it.”
This was my own case. I received basic piano instruction in college, and I had to pass
exams that consisted mostly in playing a few scales in major and minor keys. But during those
years I was so busy with my doubts and confusions that I never really got the hang of the
piano. My friendly and competent teachers were Marianna Khazanova-​Salzman and Daphne
Spottiswoode in college, and Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot in graduate school. Here’s me now,
thanking them for their efforts on my behalf back then. “Please accept my apologies for having
taken forty years to learn what you were trying to teach me.”
Creative Health for Pianists brings together technical materials, musical ideas, and psy-
chological concepts that allow the untrained pianist to put harsh judgments aside, catch up,
and become a better pianist quickly. Trained musicians will appreciate the in-​depth and prac-
tical discussion of the circle of fifths, for instance, or the harmonic series. Creative Health for
Pianists will keep you company as you further your appreciation of these essential aspects of
musical life.

Piano Teachers
My concepts and exercises help you sense the relationship between musical materials and psy-
chophysical responses. Seemingly banal chords or rhythms turn out to be rather energizing.
This chord makes your hand want to behave in a comfortable and reassuring way. This rhythm
is like a horse that you can ride in pleasure and joy, and the horse does some of the physical
work for you if you learn to trust it. Almost despite yourself, you make startling improvements
to your playing—​startling because the chord or the rhythm or the listening exercise appears
too modest, too innocent, too plain to have such an impact.
This is catnip to a piano teacher. Innocent materials that trigger startling improvements?
“I need to share this with all my students.” Behind the innocent materials lies the paradigm
that asks you to reorganize your thinking processes and to redefine piano technique. The par-
adigm hints at solutions to long-​standing problems, the removal of blockages, the possibility
 Preface

of expressive and meaningful playing for pianists of all ages and abilities. It’s not a panacea and
it’s not magical; it takes work to make it work. But Creative Health for Pianists offers you a grid
xviii of useful tools. Roughly speaking, the book’s ten chapters each contain thirty exercises and
compositions, for a total of 300 musical concepts of various lengths and depths. And let’s say
that each exercise can be varied in twenty different ways. This makes for a database of 6,000
exercises, allowing for you to juxtapose exercises in untold combinations, each combination
tailored for an individual student.

Accomplished Pianists
If you’ve played everything from J. S. Bach to John Cage and György Kurtág, happily passing
through the mavericks, the experimenters, and the lesser composers from faraway lands,
you’re ready to look at my materials and find something of merit in them. Video clips 1 and 48,
which introduce and conclude the book, highlight performances of a few of my compositions
by professional pianists.
A method like Creative Health for Pianists needs to explain basic concepts in detail,
but nothing stops you from leafing through the book, seeing what’s there, ignoring the
details, and sight-​reading a couple of pieces on a rainy Friday evening when you’re alone in
the house.
But Creative Health for Pianists holds a certain potential that merits discussion. I’d like to
describe an illustrative encounter with a professional pianist I’ll call Myriam. She takes lessons
with me once in a while, with the general idea of becoming more comfortable at the piano. In
one eventful lesson, this happened:

1. Myriam played a passage by Beethoven. The topmost layer of her interpretation

was self-​judgment (and it was negative). Her playing was jagged and hesitant.
2. I asked her to put Beethoven, that triggering pest, aside.
3. From the database I plucked an archetype that approximated the musical essence
and physicality of Beethoven’s passage.
4. I persuaded Myriam to practice the archetype, which happens not to be a triggering
pest. In fact, the archetype is very, very easy to play very, very well.
5. I invited her to play her Beethoven again.
6. Judgment had dissipated, and both Beethoven and Myriam shone.

At the end of the session, Myriam lingered and asked a few hesitant questions, lingered
and didn’t say much, lingered and fell silent. In my opinion, she had undergone a paradigm
shift and “had become someone else,” a different type of pianist who embraced new priorities
and who played not in pain but in pleasure. Myriam didn’t understand how it had happened,
and she didn’t want to leave the strange place where old hurts and frustrations had dissipated,
if only temporarily.
For me, witnessing her silent lingering was like looking at a baby in a maternity
ward: Myriam was reborn.
A paradigm shift is consequential. It entails letting go of assumptions and habits that have
defined your identity over decades. Letting go is by no means easy. Paradoxically, it’s painful
to let go of pain.
 Preface

It isn’t obligatory for you to undergo a paradigm shift. You may be perfectly at home
in your way of doing things, and you’d be right in rejecting the paradigm that I advocate in
Creative Health for Pianists. xix
But to be a child again, and to discover the piano as if for the first time . . . wow (figure 0.1).

FIGURE 0.1 Discovery

 xxi
Acknowledgments
I researched and drafted Creative Health for Pianists at various music studios in Paris, where
I was invariably welcomed by friendly faces. I’d like to thank the team at Studio Bleu, the team
at Studios Campus, and Philippe Basseville at Pianos Beaumarchais. Monsieur Basseville is a
remarkably gracious person, and his piano shop down the block from my home in Paris is a
haven of beauty.
Charles Harvey helped me create many images in the book, such as the circle of fifths and
the piano keyboards in ­chapter 5.
David Tepfer provided me with invaluable help in creating the pedagogical video clips,
which we recorded at his fabulous Atelier de la main d’or. For some of the performance video
clips I also had the support of the personnel at the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse de
Trappes, outside Paris. I’d like to thank the director of the Conservatoire, Arnaud Morel; and
the technicians who recorded the clips, Bruno Leguédois and Émilien Rannou.
A group of musicians of various stripes put time, thought, and effort into recording perfor-
mance video and audio clips. It’s been wonderful to witness my compositions being brought
to life by these devoted friends: Mona Al-​Kazemi, Jorge Baeza Stanicic, Jon Breaux, Rosana
Civile, Lara Erbès, Renato Figueiredo, Karolina Glab, Helen Kashap, Petra Lipinski, Bonnie
Lubinsky, Lorenzo Marasso, Carla Marchesini, Dellal McDonald, Magdalena Portmann,
Alison Roper-​Lowe, and Viki Roth.
A few people came to my aid regarding the project’s passage from the private domain of
thoughts and feelings to the public sphere of manuscript review and acceptance. I’d like to
thank Polly van der Linde and Mira Sundara Rajan for their handiwork.
Creative Health for Pianists wouldn’t exist without the steady assistance of Norman
Hirschy at Oxford University Press. I can’t thank him enough for his patience and encour-
agement. And I’d like to thank Suzanne Melamed Ryan, who was there for me in the project’s
tender early days.
My wife Alexis Niki was my trusty sounding board, witness, and foil. Echoes of our friend-
ship reverberate throughout the book.
Pedro de Alcantara
Paris, May 31, 2022
 xxiii
About the Companion Website
www.oup.com/​us/​Creati​veHe​alth​forP​iani​sts

Oxford has created a website to accompany Creative Health for Pianists. The site contains a
collection of forty-​eight video clips illustrating some of the book’s materials. Clips available
online are indicated in the main text with Oxford’s symbol .
Most clips are short. I wanted the clips to show you only the gist of this or that tech-
nique, the better to give you a chance to sort things out for yourself. The concepts and tools
in Creative Health for Pianists are like toys. The clips are prompts, inviting you to play with the
toys. And the book itself is the toys’ instruction manual, methodical and detailed.
Separately from these pedagogical clips, I gathered a large collection of performance
clips in which friends and colleagues of mine explore my compositions. I didn’t want these
performances to interfere with your personal discovery of the book’s materials, and I’ve
kept them apart from the main text. The performance clips are hosted on my website. Please
visit www.pedro​deal​cant​ara.com/​piano. For more information, refer to the section titled
“Resources” at the end of the book.

Video Clips
Introduction
1. Creative Health for Pianists
1, “Dialogue”
2. Dialogue
3. Sonic Clashes and Caresses
4. The Practice of Counting
5. Germinating Seed, Variation, Composition
2, “Heartbreak”
6. Heartbreak
7. Horizontal and Vertical Journeys
8. The Power of Intervals
9. The Skills of Variation
3, “Seesaw”
10. Seesaw: Horse & Rider
11. The Hands Sing a Chorale: In Estonia
12. Sympathetic Resonances: Marrakesh
13. Bursts of Improvisation
4, “Celeste”
14. Celeste
15. Repetitive Practice
16. The Harmonic Series
 About the Companion Website

17. Hymn to the Pedal

18. Forest Stone
xxiv 19. Pacific Sunrise
20. Sonic Sculpting
5, “The Circle”
21. The Circle of Fifths
22. The Skills of Transposition
6, “Gesture”
23. The Crawler
24. Crossing Hands
25. Improvising to a Constraint
26. Singing Thumbs
27. Nested Thumbs
7, “Advanced Seesaw”
28. The Party
29. Cloverleaf
30. Aloysia
31. Left Aloysia
32. Seesaw of Heartbreak
33. Odd Man Blues
34. Catch the Breeze
8, “Sonic Play”
35. Intertwining
36. Albers
37. The Albers Sequence
38. Transpositions by Thirds
39. Smooth Transpositions
9, “Horn Call”
40. Canyon
41. Mahleriana
42. Mano Sinistra
10, “Mudra”
43. Mudra
44. Shapeshifter
45. Kaliště
46. Cats & Dogs
47. Venus Rising
Conclusion
48. Unconditional Love
 1
INTRODUCTION

Creative Health for Pianists is built on what we might call archetypes: condensed music snippets
that magnetize some aspect of music making and piano playing. The snippets are easy to play
and suited for a beginner’s exploration. The attitude they encourage might be encapsulated
like this: “I’m going to play something simple and beautiful, and I’ll learn to play it well and
reliably. I’ll achieve some degree of coherence and comfort. Then I’ll see what I can do when
I play something more elaborate.”
The archetypes are, for the most part, musically ambiguous. For example, “Dialogue”
(­chapter 1) starts as a minor second—​an interval we always consider dissonant. But it soon
becomes a four-​note chord that is both dissonant and consonant, both happy-​making and
troubling, both sweet and sad. These musical ambiguities render the archetypes irresistible to
your ears and hands. You start playing them, and you become as if addicted, wanting to find
out more, more, more. The archetypes open the floodgates of creativity for the willing pianist
at any level.
Chapter by chapter I present these archetypes, explain their logic, and propose technical
and psychological tools for practicing. Then I spin each archetype out in exercises, variations,
and compositions. Throughout the book I suggest prompts for improvisation, as well as im-
provisational games with step-​by-​step rules. These allow a beginner pianist to become an im-
proviser and composer from the first lesson onward. And they allow an accomplished pianist
to discover or rediscover enriching aspects of the creative process.
Improvising isn’t obligatory. Creative Health for Pianists has enough exercises and
compositions to keep you busy if you’re an incurable improphobic, a condition shared by a
lot of musicians.
Here’s a snapshot of the book, showing a sample archetype per chapter. This snapshot is a
sort of Post-​It, showing you perhaps one percent of the whole project. Like all snapshots, it’s
both true and not true. It gives you a glimpse of the book’s individuality, but it doesn’t reveal
its inner depths.

Creative Health for Pianists. Pedro de Alcantara, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2023.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197600207.003.0001
 Introduction

1. “Dialogue” shapes the playing hands into a comfortable and reliable structure (ex-
ample I.1).
2 EXAMPLE I.1 Dialogue

2. “Heartbreak” deepens your perception of intervals and their power to communicate beauty
and meaning (example I.2).

EXAMPLE I.2 Heartbreak

 Introduction

3. “Seesaw” is the practice of up-​and-​down actions of playing fingers, with an emphasis on

rhythmic drive (example I.3).
3
EXAMPLE I.3 Seesaw

4. “Celeste” is an exploration of sound, resonance, and sympathetic vibration. It invites you

to listen closely, and to become aware of the harmonic series (example I.4).

EXAMPLE I.4 Celeste

 Introduction

5. “The Circle,” or the circle of fifths, underpins relationships and hierarches in much of music
(example I.5).
4 EXAMPLE I.5 The Circle

6. “Gesture” highlights the relationship between creative stimulus and physical response. It
contains exercises and compositions for each separate hand, for both hands together, and
for crossed hands (example I.6).

EXAMPLE I.6 Gesture

 Introduction

7. “Advanced Seesaw” deepens the exploration of the up-​and-​down movements of fingers as

they respond to more complex rhythms (example I.7).
5
EXAMPLE I.7 Advanced Seesaw

8. “Sonic Play” highlights the collaboration of finger action, rhythm, and sound. The chapter
contains multiple entry points to improvisation (example I.8).

EXAMPLE I.8 Sonic Play

 Introduction

9. “Horn Call” is an exploration of sound, vibration, and dynamics (example I.9).

EXAMPLE I.9 Horn Call

6

10. “Mudra” invites you to think differently about your hands at the piano (example I.10).

EXAMPLE I.10 Mudra

To give you some indication of how I develop the archetypes into exercises and
compositions, I put together a sampler of what happens in ­chapter 2 (example I.11).
“Heartbreak” starts as a single four-​note chord. Arpeggiation; transposition up and down the
keyboard; changes in rhythm, tempo, and dynamics; chord voicing; and chromaticism trans-
form “Heartbreak” into a chorale, a waltz, a jazzy piece, and much else besides. Creative Health
for Pianists invites you to see how embellishment, variation, transposition, improvisation, and
composition exist as potentialities in your own musical life.
 Introduction

EXAMPLE I.11 Developing an archetype

7
 Introduction

Note combinations, with their intrinsic beauty, become finger combinations. Each finger
combination requires something of you: feel this, pay attention to that; drop, lift, relax, firm
up; elbow, forearm, wrist, fingers; joints, skin, flesh, and bones. Certain note combinations
8
and their required gestures have the potential to hurt you, if the notes are awkwardly com-
posed or if you react awkwardly to them. Logically enough, other notes and their gestures have
the potential to heal. Music itself might become your osteopath, so to speak, dissipating your
awkwardness or your pain. Creative Health for Pianists contains multiple concepts to put you
on a healing journey.
Two things will help you: an ever-​deepening awareness of the basic phenomena of music,
and a particular way of thinking about technique.
Play two notes together: C and E♭, a minor third. Not a big deal, right? Except that it is a
big deal. The interval has a personality, a specific vibration. It’s very different from C and E♮
played together, a major third. If you pay attention, intervals like these tell you a lot about con-
sonance and dissonance, subtext and connotation, beauty and meaning. If the interval isn’t a
big deal, you play it in a certain way; if it’s a big deal, you play in a different way. Touch, the
transfer of weight from your arm to the keys, timing, dynamics, voicing—​nothing is the same.
I hope Creative Health for Pianists will help you make a big deal of simple but wonderful mu-
sical components.
It’s often said that healthy technique comes from physical relaxation. I take the view that
healthy technique, besides being a creative response to a creative situation, is the result of mul-
tiple forces—​or tensions—​brought into balance. You need to plant your feet on the ground,
to orient your spine upward, to integrate your shoulders and back, to lift your arms and hands
without stiffening your neck, and to drop the hands toward the piano keys with a specific mu-
sical goal in mind. All these activities require a sort of mental presence very different from the
relaxation of slouching in front of the TV. Music itself is a form of tension. An interval like a
minor third (the C and E♭ of our example) has a built-​in musical agitation that implies move-
ment and direction. Sound, too, is a force or energy with tension-​like properties. Whenever
you play something, oscillations travel in space and impact your eardrums. The balanced in-
teraction of physical, mental, musical, technical, and aural forces might give you the impres-
sion that you’re relaxed. It’s an illusion, or rather a paradox: your whole body is engaged, your
whole mind is engaged. And yet your ego stays out of the way and you feel as if you’re not
doing anything, because music does the job for you. This is healthy technique.
Video Clip 1, “Creative Health for Pianists.”
 DIALOGUE 1 9

Compositions
Simplicity (example 1.10)
Higher Simplicity (example 1.11)
Trivium (example 1.12)
Stroll (example 1.14)
Promenade (example 1.15)
Fingers (example 1.16)
Mysterium (example 1.19)
Ceremonial (example 1.20)
Hello Hemiola (example 1.22)
Seksy Sesky (example 1.23)
Tally Up (example 1.24)
Pentagram (example 1.26)
Three of Eight (example 1.28)
Brief Eulogy (example 1.31)
Eulogy (example 1.32)
Driven (example 1.35)
Driven Forward (example 1.36)
Escalator (example 1.38)
Charanga (example 1.39)
Jumping Frog (example 1.40)
Juventud (example 1.41)
Tranquil (example 1.42)
Farewell (example 1.43)
Video clips
2. Dialogue
3. Sonic Clashes and Caresses
4. The Practice of Counting
5. Germinating Seed, Variation, Composition

A well-​tuned acoustic piano, fully open and in a resonant room, is a joy. But if all you have at
your disposal is an electronic keyboard, it’ll be good in its own way. The left thumb plays B, the
right thumb plays C—​the interval of a minor second (example 1.1).

Creative Health for Pianists. Pedro de Alcantara, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2023.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197600207.003.0002
 Creative Health for Pianists

EXAMPLE 1.1 The birth of a technique: anchoring thumbs

10

Add two new notes. The left little finger plays E, the right little finger plays G (example
1.2). How fast, how slow, how lyrically, how percussively should you play? You choose. Put
these bars on a loop and play them a few dozen times, varying their speed, dynamics, and
character.

EXAMPLE 1.2 The birth of a technique: counterweighing pinkies

The thumbs anchor the hands, and the pinkies provide a counterweight. The hands are
symmetrically organized and placed next to each other. You barely need to do anything to
structure the gesture and to feel good doing it.
Vary the order in which you strike the notes (example 1.3). Play them as a melody, as an
arpeggio, as a chord. Add the right pedal if you wish.

EXAMPLE 1.3 The beginning of playful exploration

The chord melds two distinct sonorities: an E-​minor chord in root position, and a C-​
major chord in first inversion (example 1.4). Some theorists would call the melded chord a
 Dialogue

C-​major triad with an added seventh, in first inversion. Major or minor? Caress or clash? Joy or
sadness? You could dwell in this chord for a long time without solving its musical ambiguities
or your emotional response to these ambiguities.

EXAMPLE 1.4 Musical ambiguity 11

To produce such an interesting musical structure with your bare hands gives you a feeling of
power: “I’m a pianist, I’m a musician; I’m the agent of meaningful, deep expression.” Strangely,
you might also feel that you’re not responsible for the gesture or its sonic results: “I’m just put-
ting my thumbs here and my pinkies there. It comes out of its own accord.” It’s hard to define
the “it” that comes out of its own accord: the sound, the music, the emotion, the connection,
everything tangled up and interdependent.
“Dialogue” is a conversation between the two hands, between consonance and disso-
nance, between caresses and clashes. It’s nothing but a four-​note chord, and yet it deserves to
be called an archetype—​a living idea that can take a thousand different shapes.
Video Clip 2, “Dialogue.”
To increase comfort and control, make individual notes louder or softer (example 1.5).

EXAMPLE 1.5 Comfort and control

Use the interplay of dynamics to enhance your perception of the exercise’s simple beauty
(example 1.6). Activated and magnetized by your attention, the thumbs and little fingers give
the hands a special shape, which is relatively firm, while the wrists and arms stay supple. The
keyboard becomes a sort of trampoline for the organized hand.
 Creative Health for Pianists

EXAMPLE 1.6 Interplay of dynamics

12

Chord Sequences
With unchanging fingerings and the two hands close to each other, the chord is easy to trans-
pose up or down a step (example 1.7).

EXAMPLE 1.7 Chord sequences

To the eye, it looks like a double sequence of parallel fifths. In fact, you’re playing a se-
quence of juxtaposed parallel sixths. For the sake of convenience, they’re fingered as if the
hands were playing parallel fifths (example 1.8).

EXAMPLE 1.8 Juxtaposed parallel sixths

Example 1.9 shows how the same chord can be fingered and voiced to highlight the fifths
or the sixths. The exercise compels your thumbs to become intelligent and adaptable.
 Dialogue

EXAMPLE 1.9 Intelligent and adaptable thumbs

13

Using the easier fingering and voicing, let’s extend the sequence a little, add rhythmic va-
riety, and calmly go up and down the keyboard until we tweak the sequence at the end of the
walk (example 1.10). We’ve gone from exercise to composition. We’ll title our work “Simplicity.”

EXAMPLE 1.10 “Simplicity” ©Pedro de Alcantara

 Creative Health for Pianists

We’ll compose something slightly more elaborate, and title it “Higher Simplicity” (ex-
ample 1.11). After you learn it, play it one octave higher.

EXAMPLE 1.11 “Higher Simplicity” ©Pedro de Alcantara

14

Legato, staccato; chorale-​like, joke-​like; caressing, insistent. “Dialogue” can become

anything you want it to become. Example 1.12 is a short sequence of short compositions
illustrating a few possibilities. We’ll title the sequence “Trivium.”
 Dialogue

EXAMPLE 1.12 “Trivium” ©Pedro de Alcantara

15
 Creative Health for Pianists

In later chapters we’ll practice the skills of transposing phrases and whole compositions to
keys both close and distant. For now, we’ll limit ourselves to diatonic pieces in C major, which
means that we stay within the white keys. When you play sequences of chords in “Dialogue,”
it’s possible to use unchanging fingerings and to keep the shape of your hands the same for
16
every chord. It makes it easy to move up and down the keyboard by intervals bigger than a
step (example 1.13).

EXAMPLE 1.13 Intervals bigger than a step

Take the snippet from example 1.13, lengthen it by a few bars, and rewrite its ending. It
becomes a composition. We’ll call it “Stroll” (example 1.14). Or ignore my composition and
create your own with the same general principle. All you need is to keep your hands side-​by-​
side, thumbs and pinkies delineating the interval of a fifth wherever they go.

EXAMPLE 1.14 “Stroll” ©Pedro de Alcantara

Logically, we move on to a composition that alternates movement by step and movement

by larger intervals (example 1.15). Its title is “Promenade.”
 Dialogue

EXAMPLE 1.15 “Promenade” ©Pedro de Alcantara

17

So far we’ve used an unvarying fingering, with the hands moving up and down the key-
board with a fixed shape anchored by the thumbs and pinkies. While keeping the basic chords
intact, we’ll use an alternative fingering that engages the hands differently (example 1.16). I’ll
say that this is a composition, and I’ll title it “Fingers.”
 Creative Health for Pianists

EXAMPLE 1.16 “Fingers”

18

Revisit “Promenade” and overlay it with the new fingering (example 1.17). At first it might
feel laborious, but practice and time will help you integrate it. Then choose the fingering that
you prefer.
 Dialogue

EXAMPLE 1.17 New fingerings

19

Sonic Textures
Using the right pedal, play example 1.18 with a loud ringing tone, legato sostenuto. Hold the
final fermata for a long time and hear the sonic clashes and caresses of the chord’s intervals. As
the sound decays over the life of the fermata, the clashes and caresses transform themselves in
surprising and inexplicable ways.

EXAMPLE 1.18 Clashes and caresses

Video Clip 3, “Sonic Clashes and Caresses.”

 Creative Health for Pianists

Put those bars on a loop, and you’ll create a simple composition of surprising beauty. Or
take its basic idea—​a sonic clash and a repetitive structure with lingering chords that allow you
to pay attention—​and start composing something more elaborate. In example 1.19 I show you
a possibility. At the risk of appearing pretentious, I’ll title this composition “Mysterium.”
20
EXAMPLE 1.19 “Mysterium” ©Pedro de Alcantara
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
In the New Year it was quite evident to those who had much to do with the
parish that there had arisen a feeling of discontent among some of the people,
specially among members of the choir, as lately the Public Hall had been
opened on Sunday evenings at 8 o'clock for what was termed a sacred
concert, and the Vicar's long sermons prevented the men from getting to the
Hall before the concert began; consequently as the place was packed they
had to take back seats.

When this came to Mrs. Stone's ears, she wondered if she could not help
matters by giving Rachel a hint as to the way the wind was blowing.
Consequently she went to see her one afternoon. The winter was passed, and
the first flowers had arrived in Rachel's little garden. She insisted in calling her
yard a garden, and had planted wild hyacinths as well as primroses to remind
her of her home in the country. The hyacinths were beginning to show.

Mrs. Stone found her looking down rather pensively at her few flowers.

On hearing the door open Rachel called her visitor into the garden.

"I am trying to imagine I am in the woods at home," she said laughing. "By
now they must be a sheet of blue. In the distance it looks almost like a cloud
of blue fallen to earth. I can't tell you how lovely it is."

"How you must miss it," said Mrs. Stone.

"There is compensation in all things," said Rachel gaily. She felt it would be
fatal to give way to the overwhelming longing for home that these first Spring
days were creating in her. She would not for the world that Mrs. Stone should
guess that her whole soul was crying out for beauty and the sense of
companionship.

"But let us come and sit down. These poor little hyacinths can't mean to you
what they mean to me. I'm glad you have brought your knitting."

"Your husband is out this evening is not he?"

"He is really out every night just now," said Rachel. "I hope the congregation
realise that he is spending his life for them, and that his poor wife sits at home
moping. Do you think they appreciate us properly?" she added.

The question was asked in fun, but behind the words there lay an anxiety that
had arisen lately in Rachel's heart. She had noticed an almost imperceptible
change in the manner of some of the former ardent admirers of her husband.
She had said nothing to Luke about it, as it was better that he should not be
worried over the matter if he had not noticed it.

"They would be extremely ungrateful if they didn't," said Mrs. Stone. "I have
never met a harder worker than the Vicar. He spends his life for us all, as you
say. And as for you, why I think it is often harder to sit at home and wait than
to be in the thick of the battle. But they that looked after the stuff in David's
time were to share the spoil. You see you keep him well and cheerful for us. I
for one can't feel grateful enough to you."

"How encouraging!" exclaimed Rachel. "That's the first word of the sort I have
heard here. I was afraid I was considered a mere drone in the hive."

Mrs. Stone who knew from Mrs. Greville's own words that she did not consider
her daughter-in-law suitable as yet for the work, did not refer to the subject
again, but as she settled down to her knitting with Rachel beside her, she
came to the conclusion that Rachel herself had given her an opening to do
what she considered a difficult duty and a kindness.

"I can tell you one little matter in which I believe you could be a great help to
your husband. Have you noticed lately that there is a feeling of dissatisfaction
in the parish among some of the men?"

"Yes, and I want so much to know what it is all about. Polly's father is in the
choir and used to be such a nice mannered man. In fact I often have him in to
do little carpentering jobs for me. But lately he has been rather unpleasant
and surly, and I have not liked to tell Luke as it might make a disturbance."

"Well I can tell you what it is all about if you like."

Rachel let her work drop on to her knee while she listened.

"In the first place, you know, the Vicar says things very plainly. He calls a
spade a spade. I admire and like him for it. But some of the men are offended
at one or two things he said about the strikes that have lately taken place."

"I'm not surprised. Luke is so brave and fearless. I sometimes wish he would
be a little more careful as to what he says."

"No, don't wish that. It is so much better to talk straight to the men. They
respect him for it though they are annoyed at him."
"If only they knew how really sympathetic he is with them. But he is so stern
sometimes that I am sure they don't understand him. But he loves his men
and would do anything in the world for them."

"That's why he tells them the truth. If he cared for them less and for his own
popularity more, he would not speak to them so plainly. He wants to save their
souls."

"Yes. He is always saying, 'we are out to save souls.' But is there anything
else that they complain of? I am afraid he will never alter his way of preaching.
He will always speak straight, as they say. That is Luke."

"There is another little matter of which they complain. But I am so afraid if I tell
you it may pain you."

"I would rather know what it is," said Rachel.

"Well then they consider the Vicar preaches too long sermons."

Rachel flushed.

"Too long!" she exclaimed.

"Yes. You see things are not what they used to be, and people will not stand
long sermons. I—I don't think them at all too long myself."

"I thought everyone loved his sermons. I do."

"So do I. But the fact is, the men want to hurry off to the Public Hall concert,
and they are just too late for it."

"How disgraceful of them," said Rachel hotly.

"Of course the concerts ought never to have been allowed. They call them
sacred, but from the programme that is issued every week I see that this is by
no means the fact. My husband is very vexed that the Town Council gave way
about it."

"I can't possibly ask Luke to shorten his sermons," said Rachel.

"Can't you? I just wondered if you could not Influence him in the matter. I
disapprove of these concerts as much as anyone, but I feel it is such a terrible
pity if just for want of a hint the men should leave the Church altogether. You
see they have written several anonymous letters of which the Vicar has taken
no notice."

"Anonymous letters! Luke never told me. How mean of them."

"I dislike anonymous letters intensely. But what makes the matter so important
is that I heard a rumour that the choir would leave en bloc unless their request
was attended to."

"How despicable of them. I hope, I sincerely hope that Luke won't cut his
sermons short by one sentence. Of course he won't. Besides I shan't tell him."

"But, my dear, he will soon find out if his choir desert him."

"They surely won't do that?"

"I am afraid they will."

Rachel was silent. She knew how bitterly grieved Luke would be at such
conduct. He loved the men of his choir.

"I can't think what is to be done," she said anxiously.

"Why not give him a hint?"

"I could never give Luke a hint. No, I must tell him out right if it has to be done.
But it will pain him dreadfully; and to happen just now when he is so pressed
with work."

"I am so sorry about it," said Mrs. Stone; and as she left she wondered if she
had acted wisely by talking over the difficulty with Rachel. It might have been
better to have told Mrs. Greville senior. However, she remembered the threat
of the men of the choir to leave en bloc, and she felt that to be taken by
surprise in that way would probably have caused more pain both to Rachel
and her husband than if they were prepared for what might happen.

When Luke came in tired and a little depressed about a meeting at which he
had been, Rachel was silent about Mrs. Stone's information. She felt it would
be cruel to tell her husband what she had heard when he was so played out.
Neither did he give her any information as to the cause of his depression. He
buried himself in a book till eleven o'clock, when Rachel went to bed. Then he
arose and made his way into his study.
But the next morning Rachel noticed that at breakfast he was in good spirits
so she ventured to speak of what was on her mind.

But she need not have feared to break the news to Luke. Apparently it was no
news to him. He had read the first anonymous letter through but had thrown
the others into the fire. So he knew what they were about.

Rachel was greatly relieved.

"What shall you do Luke?" she asked.

He looked up at her across the table with a smile.

"What do you expect me to do?"

"To make no difference whatever in the length of your sermon," she answered.
"But do you realise that one Sunday you may find yourself without a choir?"

"Perfectly. But a choir is not absolutely necessary. We can do without one."

"And you mean to make no difference in your sermons?"

"In order that the men may run off to a concert! No, certainly not. I disapprove
of those concerts and shall not make it easy for them to attend."

"I wonder if you are quite wise," said Rachel.

Luke laughed.

"Would you like me to give way?" he asked. He knew what her answer would
be.

"No, no, no." she said, "I am so very thankful that you are not weak, and yet I
can't bear that your choir should desert you."

"Worse things might happen," he said, and he passed into the hall and was
out of the house before she knew he was going.
 CHAPTER XII.
RACHEL MAKES A MISTAKE.

Rachel found Polly crying in the kitchen on Sunday after the Morning Service.

"Why Polly, what is the matter?" she said.

"It's them men in the choir," sobbed the girl. "There won't be none of them at
service to-night. It's a reg'lar shame."

"But how do you know?" asked Rachel.

"I ran home after Church just now and I heard father telling mother that they
had all made up their minds to keep away as the Vicar had taken no notice of
their letters."

"The Vicar never takes any notice of anonymous letters," said Rachel.

"And it's a shame that they've written 'em," said Polly wiping her eyes, "and
you and the Vicar so kind to everybody. I think it's right mean of 'em. Why the
master, he is thinking of 'em all day and as for that, all night too. He'd give up
his dinner and everything else for the men if he could help them. I'm right
ashamed of them."

Rachel was silent, but she did not mean to sit down and do nothing. She
made up her mind that if the men did not come, girls and women should take
their place, and Luke should still have a choir. She said nothing to Luke at
dinner about what Polly had told her, but as soon as it was over and her
husband had gone to open the Sunday School, she started off to see Mrs.
Stone.

"I want you to give me the names and addresses of any girls in the place who
can sing in tune," she said, after telling her of what she had just heard. "I
mean to get up a choir for to-night's service."
"What a good idea," said Mrs. Stone. "But I don't see how you can go round to
them all as they live in different parts of the town and it is beginning to rain."

"I don't mind the rain, but I do mind that Luke should find himself without a
choir to-night, and I mean to get one together."

"Well then you must let me lend you my cloak," said Mrs. Stone, amused at
the determination in Rachel's voice. She saw her in quite a new light this
afternoon.

The rain came down in torrents as Rachel made her way to different parts of
the town, but she hardly noticed it. She was happy in the thought that at last
she was really helping Luke with his work, and looked forward to seeing his
pleasure and surprise.

Some of those to whom she went had never seen her before. They did not all
belong to St Mark's congregation. But Rachel's charming personality and
persuasive ways won their hearts at once and not one refused her help. In
fact they quite entered into her plan and seemed keen to do what they could
in the matter. When she had found twelve who were willing to form the choir
she returned home. It was only then that she realised how wet and tired she
was. But the happy consciousness that she was helping Luke made her hurry
home in good spirits.

She was a little later than she thought and she found from the fact that his hat
was in the hall that Luke was already back from the Sunday School and in his
study.

"Polly," said Rachel, as she looked into the kitchen on her way upstairs, "lay
the table for tea and put the kettle on. I shall be downstairs in a few minutes."
As she went upstairs she was wondering when she would tell Luke of the
surprise that awaited him. She determined not to tell him till after tea. She
liked the feeling of anticipation.

"You have been out," said Luke as he sat down to the tea table. "Did you get
very wet?"

"Yes, I got soaked. I hope you did not."

He told her no, as when it was raining the hardest, he took refuge in his
mother's rooms as she had a cold and had not been able to get to the school
that afternoon.
He apparently forgot to ask Rachel where she had been, or what made her go
out in such rain. His mind had started to work on the conversation he had just
had with his mother which put his wife's walk in the rain out of his thoughts,
and Rachel was glad as she did not want to tell her good news till later. Her
husband, she noticed, was rather more silent than usual, and she began to
wonder if he had already heard that his choir were going to desert him that
night. She could not find any topic of conversation to interest him. But when
tea was over and he was beginning to look at his watch she said:

"Do you know Luke what is going to happen to-night?"

"Yes, I know," he said quietly, "we are to have no choir," He rose as he spoke
and looked at his wife with a smile. "I am not altogether sorry," he said.

"Not sorry? Why?" said Rachel, a little crestfallen.

"Because I think it will be a good object lesson to those members of the Town
Council who attend my church."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean that they will see for themselves the result of their decision to have
public concerts on Sunday evening in the Public Hall. They will miss the choir
and so of course shall I."

Rachel looked across at her husband with a smile.

"I don't think you will miss it much," she said with a little laugh.

"Perhaps not," he answered. "Possibly the singing may be more hearty in

consequence. But I have no doubt that the Councillors will miss it, and I hope
may feel a little ashamed. Nothing really could have happened more
conveniently than a choir strike at the moment, as it is only the third Sunday
after the concerts have been set on foot. If the men were going to absent
themselves it is as well it should be done at once."

Rachel felt a little uneasy.

"But of course you would like a choir if you could get one," she said.

"I don't think so," he answered.

"But," said Rachel, a little breathlessly, "if some girls were willing to come and
sing you would not object, would you?"
Luke had been watching the rain which was coming down in torrents, but at
Rachel's question he turned round sharply towards her.

"I should very much object," he said rising from the table. "It would frustrate
any little good that may come of the strike. I hope no-one intends to fill their
places."

Rachel turned pale. A sudden mad idea of going round to every girl she had
called on that afternoon and asking them not to come crossed her mind, in the
hope that Luke would never find out what she had done. But she put the
suggestion away at once, not only because to do so in such a short time as
she had at her disposal was impossible, but because it would be a cowardly
thing to do. She must confess at once what she had been doing.

"I'm afraid you will be vexed," she said looking him straight in the face. "But I
have got a choir of girls together and they will be at the church to-night."

Luke did not speak but stood looking at his wife, a look that Rachel did not
understand. But it had the effect of making her say steadily, and with dignity:

"I did it for your sake Luke. I knew how much you would feel the loss of your
choir."

"Another time," said Luke slowly, and with a smile that somehow hurt Rachel
more than any number of words could have done, "I hope you will ask my
advice before acting." He moved towards the door.

"Luke, just wait a minute," said Rachel, "If only you had talked over with me
about the choir I probably would have been wiser. But I only knew from Polly
that the men were not coming. I wish, oh I wish you would talk things over with
me. You never tell me anything."

Luke stood with his hand on the door. He looked round at his wife's words.
The sight of her anxious face touched him.

"I am sure that you thought you were doing wisely," he said, "but you see that
my hopes are absolutely frustrated. They will say, if you can get another choir
together so easily let the men off the evening service. You must not be
surprised at my disappointment and indeed vexation. But before you do
anything rash another time ask me, or indeed my mother. She could have
given you excellent advice, and knowing all the circumstances she would not
be so likely to make a mistake."
Rachel rose, she felt now was her opportunity to speak of what had been long
on her mind.

"If you would only talk things out with me instead of keeping me in such
complete ignorance of parish matters," she said with a little sob which Luke
did not notice as his mind was full of his hopes being frustrated. "I can't help
making mistakes when I know nothing. Why don't you sometimes consult with
me?" The effort to speak and yet to say nothing that would give him a hint of
her feelings towards his mother was so great, that she found herself trembling
and leant against the mantle piece for support.

Luke hesitated before answering. If he had said what was at that moment in
his mind he would have reminded her of her unwise action this afternoon,
adding that he scarcely felt she was competent of giving him advice, or indeed
of discussing any subject of importance with him; He had, moreover, slowly
come to his mother's opinion that Rachel was not fitted in any way for parish
work. The home was her sphere and no-one could possibly keep his home
better for him. And if this afternoon's work was a specimen of Rachel's
wisdom, he was thankful to his mother for opening his eyes to his wife's
incapacity although occasionally he had doubted her judgment. But glancing
at his wife as she stood leaning against the mantle piece, and, noticing the
worried anxious expression of her face, he kept his thoughts to himself,
saying:

"You have quite enough to worry you with the housekeeping bills I am sure. I
don't want to add a grain of anxiety."

"But don't you see how much less I should worry if I knew a little of what is
passing in your mind. I often wonder and wonder what you are thinking of
when you sit silent and deep in thought. If you would only tell me sometimes."

He gave a little laugh.

"Oh well don't worry now any more about this," he said. "It will all be the same
a hundred years hence." Then he added with forced cheerfulness, "It's no use
crying over spilt milk. The thing is done and it can't be helped; and I know it
has been done in kindness. Cheer up dear."

As he left the room Rachel sat down on the sofa. His last words had stung
her.

"Done in kindness!" Why it had been done in the warmth of passionate love.
She had braved the rain coming down in torrents, and had overtired herself
just because she wanted to save him pain and to give him pleasure. And he
had spoken coldly of kindness! She could scarcely bear it. Yet her pride was
too much touched at the moment to allow of tears to come. For the first time
she was sitting in judgment on her husband. Her idol had fallen from his
throne. Had he been what she had fancied him to be he would never have
allowed her to know all that his disappointment meant to him; and she could
have borne it; but now the lack of gratitude on his part for her efforts, mistaken
though they had been, struck her as astonishingly unlike the Luke of her
dreams. It made her feel almost indignant. She felt sure his mother's influence
was at the back of it. All her own tender feelings had disappeared. A cold
pride had taken their place, and unconscious of any emotion she made her
way upstairs to get ready for Church. She did not hurry, and when Luke called
out that they ought to be starting as it was getting late, she told him not to wait
for her. It was the first time they had not walked to evening service together.

Rachel had promised the girls that she would sit with them in the choir and
lead the singing. She was astonished to find herself walking calmly up the
aisle and taking her place in the Choir benches.

The singing went exceedingly well. The girls had good strong voices, and
Rachel's voice, of which the congregation had been in ignorance, filled the
Church. Now and then Luke found himself wondering to whom the sweet and
full voice belonged, and it was only toward the end of the service that he
discovered that it belonged to his wife.
 THE MISTRESS HAD GONE TO BED WITH A HEADACHE,

POLLY INFORMED HIM.

He made no allusion to the absence of the men in his sermon; but when the
service was over and most of the congregation had gone, he thanked the girls
for their help. But Rachel was not there. She did not wait to walk home with
him.
 CHAPTER XIII.
A BOX OF VIOLETS.

Luke was surprised not to find Rachel waiting for him after Church, but as he
made his way down the aisle, he caught sight of Mrs. Stone.

"I was hoping to see your wife," she said. "Is she not with you?"

"No, she must have gone home."

"I expect she was tired after all her efforts this afternoon; I hope she has not
caught cold." They were making their way out of the Church.

"Caught cold," said Luke alarmed.

"It will be a wonder if she hasn't. It simply poured with rain all the time. I knew
it was useless to try and stop her as she was bent on getting up this choir.
What a charming girl you have given us in your wife."

"I only trust she has not done herself any harm," said Luke anxiously. He
hardly heard the praise of Rachel.

"I daresay she is stronger than she looks. I wanted to congratulate her on the
success of her efforts. The choir really sang remarkably well. I was feeling
quite anxious about it as I knew how keen her disappointment would be if it
turned out a failure. I thought it so plucky of her to walk all that way to fetch
those girls."

"How far did she walk?" enquired Luke.

It struck Mrs. Stone that it was rather queer that she seemed able to give him
more information about his wife than he had already; but then perhaps Rachel
had not had time to tell him about her afternoon's work.
"The girls she found up lived all over the town. She must have run part of the
way; that is to say if she got home in time to give you your tea. But nothing
would daunt her. She was so bent on you having a choir to-night. I don't know
many wives who would have taken that trouble even if it had not been pouring
with rain. I thought it very plucky and very devoted of her. But I must leave you
here. Please ask her to run in to-morrow, that is to say if she has not caught
cold, and tell me all her experiences. I don't suppose she has had time to tell
them to you yet."

Luke hurried home full of remorse. So Rachel had been running risks for him
and he had never thanked her, nor asked a single question as to what she
had been doing. All the thanks she had had for her love and devotion had
been severe criticism and vexation on his part. He had felt that she had
needed a lesson so as to guard her against any mistakes she might be
inclined to make in the future; and he had given her the lesson in no tender
frame of mind.

She must be either tired or feeling ill as she had not waited for him; or worse
still, she might be too pained with his criticism of her conduct to meet him as if
nothing had happened between them.

Luke hurried home in no easy frame of mind. That he could ever have willingly
given her a moment's pain was a terrible thought to him.

The mistress had gone to bed with a headache, Polly informed him, but she
hoped that the master would not forget to eat a good supper.

Luke sprang upstairs two steps at a time and opened Rachel's bedroom door.
The blinds were up, and the moon, which had just emerged from a dark cloud,
lighted up the room and was shining full on her face. Luke stood and looked at
her, and as he looked he could not think how he could ever have felt vexed
with her and have spoken to her so coldly and severely.

At first he thought she was asleep; but then he noticed a tear slowly coursing
its way down her face. Kneeling down by the bed he took her in his arms. No
words were spoken, but the silence said more than any number of words
could have expressed. Both felt that explanations were unnecessary, for
Rachel knew that his action was meant to express both sorrow and remorse
for his want of appreciation of her efforts on his behalf, and her own pride was
conquered by love.

The subject of the girls' choir was never mentioned again between them.
The choir men turned up the following Sunday. They were really attached to
the Church and to their Vicar, and found the concert did not make up for
either; and Luke put the whole tiresome incident out of his mind, in fact it was
crowded out by the hundred and one things that he had to do and think about.

But Rachel did not forget quickly. She had been so shocked and astonished to
find how easily she had felt hard and cold towards Luke when he disappointed
her, that it had frightened her, knowing that in all probability it would be easier
still the second time. She determined that there should be no second time; but
she did not forget. It was borne in upon her that she had idealised Luke, and
had been blind to his imperfections, save in a few small matters, that though
they worried her were too insignificant to count. Faults, though apparently very
few compared to her own, were there; and in order to avoid the constant
sparring she often noticed going on between other husbands and wives, she
realised that she must be careful to give no occasion for it herself in future.
She was determined that what seemed to be an ideally happy marriage
should not become prosaic and loveless, which would inevitably be the case if
love were strained by constant friction. It should not be her fault if they ever
swelled the crowd of unsatisfactory and unhappy married couples.

When Rachel went the next morning to enquire after Mrs. Greville's cold, she
was agreeably surprised at the welcome she received.

"So you filled the empty choir benches last night," she said, after answering
Rachel's questions as to her health. "I have heard all about it from Mrs.
Stone."

"I hope it won't prevent the men from returning," answered Rachel, flushing at
the remembrance of what it had cost her. "It may I fear offend them. I didn't
think of that possibility at the time. I am afraid I was rather rash."

"On the contrary. I was delighted to hear of it, and it will do the men good, I am
sure. I hope Luke was properly grateful," she added laughing.

"He was a little anxious about the consequences of my action," said Rachel. "I
do hope it won't have done any harm."

"Stuff and nonsense, of course it won't. It's the best lesson the choir could
have had. And I think it was very plucky of you, particularly as the rain came
down in torrents. You must have got drenched."

"I did; but it has done me no harm; and I was bent on getting the girls."
"After all," ruminated Mrs. Greville when Rachel had left, "there seems to be
the making of a good parish worker in that child. She will never neglect her
duty, anyhow, because of a shower of rain, which many do now-a-days. I
shouldn't wonder if one day Luke will find her really useful."

The next morning Rachel found a box of flowers awaiting her at breakfast.
She opened it quickly and plunged her face into a mass of violets and
primroses.

"How lovely! How lovely!" she exclaimed. "Come Luke and smell them."

Luke did as he was bidden.

"Are you so fond of flowers?" he asked.

"Fond of flowers! Of course I am and so are you. Don't tell me you don't care
for them or I shall never love you again."

"I like them in the fields; but I can't truthfully say that they ever give me the joy
that they evidently give you; and they mean little to me in the house."

"I don't think I could live without them. The primroses in my garden and the
blue hyacinths are witness to that," she added laughing.

And Luke stood and watched her bury her face again in the flowers and
wondered for the hundredth time however she had made up her mind to leave
all such things.

"They are from Gwen," added Rachel, "and here is her letter." It happened to
be an answer to his unspoken question, if Rachel had allowed him to see it,
but at a glance she saw it was one of Gwen's nonsensical letters.

"I know what you will do when you open the box." she wrote, "you will bury
your face in the flowers and try and imagine yourself in the woods, and when
you raise your eyes they will be full of tears. But apparently Luke makes up for
it all, so I am not going to worry about your tears. He makes up for mother and
me, and Sybil! Not to mention the bluebells in the wood and the scent of the
violets and primroses and everything lovely here. It's all quite amazing to me,
but you would tell me that that is just because I do not know what love is. I
hope I shall never know as I don't want to lose all the things which I now
adore. Don't give my love to Luke, for I don't like him. He's just an ordinary
man, and I thought you would have chosen one out of the common. I owe him
a grudge for taking you away. I do hope he knows what a treasure he has and
is taking care of you, but I don't for a moment suppose that he is. All men are
selfish and certainly Luke is."

Rachel laughed, and as Luke tried to catch hold of the letter to read it,
knowing that it would amuse him, Rachel tore it quickly into pieces and threw
it into the fire, saying triumphantly, "You were just too late. Besides the first
part would have made you so conceited that there would be no holding you,
and the last part so depressed that it would have unfitted you for your work."
 CHAPTER XIV.
DISAPPOINTMENT.

That Spring was a crisis in Rachel's life. She felt to have travelled far along
the road of experience since that moonlight night last summer, when she had
thought that she had just married a man who would fulfil all her expectations
and hopes.

She had, as it were, been exploring since her marriage, a new piece of
country, and though she had often rejoiced to find herself on the mountain top,
she had at times to walk in the shade of the valley. It was not quite what she
had anticipated. There were rough places, and disappointing views, and she
had had to confess that the landscape was not all as perfect as she had
thought she would find it.

She took a long time before acknowledging to herself that Luke had
somewhat disappointed her; and when she could hide the fact from herself no
longer, she recognised at the same time that the disappointment was partly
her own fault. She had expected too much from a human being; she had
steadily refused to see any fault in him. But finding he had weaknesses, did
not diminish her love for him in the least; it really enhanced it; and added
something of a tender mother-love to that of a wife. And a time came when
she could thank God that her eyes had been opened, and indeed opened so
slowly that she was able to bear it. For she learnt the truth of those words:

"From the best bliss that earth imparts,

We turn unfilled to Thee again."

In her disappointment she turned to the ONE Who never disappoints, and
Who is "the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever."

Till now she had lived for her husband, and her one absorbing aim had been
to please him; her wish to do God's work in the parish was just to help Luke;
he was the centre of all her thoughts; and she was conscious that her spiritual
life had been hampered and dwarfed by the one consuming wish to be all in
all to him.
The discovery that he could after all never satisfy the hunger of her heart, sent
her back to Christ. Indeed it had changed her view about many things. She
was no longer worried because her husband did not seem to want her help or
think her capable of parish work. If, as it seemed, God's Will was for her to do
simply the duties of her quiet home life, she would do them, not only for the
sake of her husband but for her God, the God Who notices if only a cup of
cold water is given in the name of a disciple for His sake.

The discovery changed also her views as to her mother-in-law. Her

antagonism to her was chiefly due to the fact that she had prevented her from
working in the parish and so becoming a still greater necessity to Luke. But if it
was not the Will of God that she should do that kind of work, why worry and
fret about it? She would just wait till she was shown distinctly what her duty
was in the matter and meanwhile could she be training for the greatest work of
all?

So it is, that our disappointments, if we do not allow them to embitter us, drive
us back to the ONE Who alone can satisfy our restless hungry hearts.

As Spring passed away and the early summer took its place Rachel began to
pant for the sea or country. She felt it difficult to wait patiently till August, which
was the month in which Luke generally took his holiday. She was feeling limp
herself and he was looking tired and worn out and much needed a change.

Although Rachel opened every window in the house, no air seemed to

penetrate the narrow road in which it stood, and it was so small that it was
difficult to get away from the sun. In the morning it filled the dining-room, and
in the afternoon the drawing-room.

At the beginning of June she approached the subject of their holiday. They
were sitting at breakfast and Rachel was feeling the heat almost unbearable.

"Shan't you be thankful when August comes?" she sighed. "Where shall we go
Luke?"

Luke looked up at her across the table, saying quickly, "I'm afraid we can't
very well manage a holiday this year."

"What! Not have a holiday!" Consternation was in the tone of voice.

"You see," said Luke, "our balance at the bank is rather lower than usual. I
can't see how we can afford it."
Rachel dropped her knife and looked at her husband.

"Can you account for it?" she asked faintly.

"I am afraid I can. Since the war every article of food has risen in price."

"Then it's in the housekeeping?"

"Yes, it's in the housekeeping."

"Are we spending more than when you lived with your mother?" Luke's eyes
were on his plate.

"My dear I don't think we gain much by probing into matters," he said
evasively.

"But I want to know the truth," said Rachel persistently. "Is my housekeeping
more extravagant than your mother's?"

"Well as you ask me, I am afraid it is," he said uncomfortably. "But I know you
can't possibly help it."

Rachel was silent. Then she said, pushing her plate away from her, as she felt
she could not eat another mouthful, "I can't think how we could live more
economically."

Luke said nothing. A large electric light bill had come by post that morning. He
did not remember ever having had such a big bill to pay.

"Talk it over with my mother," he said, as he rose from the table.

"No, I don't want to talk it over with her or with anyone, but you," said Rachel.
"We must see ourselves what can be done. Is it in the food? But then Luke,
you know, you must have nourishing things. Your mother has always
impressed that upon me."

"It is not only the food. Look at this," He spread the bill before her.

"Well that is one thing in which we can economise," said Rachel. She would
not let him know how much the largeness of the bill appalled her. "I have
sometimes left the hall light on when you have been out late, in fact ever since
that curious beggar man came one day; you remember about him. It has felt
more cheerful to have the light after Polly has gone to bed. But that can easily
be altered. Then I daresay the coal bill is rather large. Perhaps another winter