Tobias matthay biography template

TOBIAS MATTHAY is one of the most controversial figures in twentieth-century piano pedagogy. Glorified by some and villified by others, he left copious theoretical writings which today are little studied by serious pianists and teachers.

In , Frederick Corder, a composition professor at London's Royal Academy of Music, wrote that Matthay had revolutionized piano teaching and brought British pianism to new heights internationally.

Tobias matthay biography template

By contrast, less than fifty years later, British composer and pianist Alan Bush declared that Matthay was "the ruination" of pianism in England. And despite the fact that the American Matthay Association has flourished nearly continuously since , in , Harold Schonberg, the chief music critic for the New York Times wrote approvingly that modern theorists "ridicule" Matthay's antiquated ideas.

Ironically, for his entire life, Matthay revered science and sought to apply the scientific method to piano instruction, but after World War