Ludwig van Beethoven, Fingerübung mit Fingersätzen, Autograph

Beethoven's Fingerings

Beethoven was himself an excellent pianist - he began his career as a virtuoso pianist - and had a great many piano pupils, as did almost all musicians of the time. They not only included the daughters of the Viennese aristocracy and the educated middle-class but also those who were later to become professional musicians, such as Carl Czerny and Ferdinand Ries. Much has been made of Beethoven's teaching methods, of his violent temper and his strictness. Stories which correspond to his image as an incorrigibly hot-tempered person. Accounts by his pupils show that Beethoven placed a great deal of emphasis on technique. He kept returning to the problem of fingerings and the sound produced by striking the keys. There are several examples of fingerings in Beethoven's own hand, e.g. in the Trio op. 70 Nr. 2 or in the autograph score of WoO 39, which he wrote for the ten-year-old Maximilane Brentano. Here you can see two scales with exercises, which have fingerings. In addition, Beethoven has added an explanatory note: "NB: with long or extended passages as much as possible the same fingering." (J.R.)