In Posting number 11448, dated 26 Aug 1998 23:30:34
From:         Edward Murray <[log in to unmask]>
Subj: Kirkpatrick et al
 
Mr Murray points out -
 
> And speaking of Wanda, {Landowska]  I believe Kirkpatrick
> studied with her.  Yet you could hardly find two more diverse
> artists.  So much for lineage...
 
Dear LIst and Mr. Murray -
 
Kirkpatrick did indeed study with Mme Landowska in Paris in 1931.  That they
were of differing points of view is ably chronicled in this line "One simply
swallows everything without question and regurgitates privately."
 
Their breakup soon followed Wanda-the-Witch's discovery of a letter, written
by Kirkpatrick, in which he criticized her teaching methods, and their final
interview is charmingly record by Kirkpatrick:
 
"I am sorry I haven't a record of all the extraordinary things she said, but
among them was something like this:  'How can you expect to comprehend the
mystery and complication of that phenomenon which is Wanda Landowska?'  At
this point the dog came in and committed an indiscretion!"
 
(quoted in Larry Palmer's DIVINELY WONDERFUL BOOK "Harpsichord in America - a
Twentieth-Century Revival" copyright 1989, Indiana University Press. Mine is
the First Midland Book edition 1993)
 
Both were great artists to be sure.  I am not positive that the word "diverse"
quite adequately describes their differences in approach to the music of the
harpsichord and to harpsichord playing.  Just check out Landowska hand
position f'rinstance.  That says metric tons.
 
Ken List
also a hopperchord player in
baltimore
 
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