A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano

Signed and Copyrighted by Elinor Armer for the Libermann estate. 325 printed by Wesley B. Tanner of Arif Press. Printed on Frankfurt cream in Scotch Roman Type. 88p. 1 plate, a photograph of Alexander Libermann. Decorative cloth cover. Alexander Libermann (1896-1978) was a pianist and educator who taught piano at Mills College, California. He influenced many professional musicians, including pianists William Corbett Jones[ and Lois Brandwynne, and pianist-composer Elinor Armer. In 1984, Armer compiled a series of his lectures into this volume. He discusses his method of playing the instrument and methodology. Central to this are the theories that the keys should be moved using the hand's natural "grasping" motion, and that music-making should be a largely mental phenomenon and pianists should therefore do much of their practicing in their heads.