Performing from Memory: Historical Roots

Abstract

In 1837, the 17-year-old Clara Wieck performed Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, opus 57 from memory. At the time, performing without the score was viewed as arrogant and ostentatious, focusing attention on the performer and the performance and away from the composer and the music. Romantic virtuosity would subsequently sweep through the world of music and performing from memory would inspire awe and endow the performer with almost super-human powers. By the end of the century, a pianist performing with score would become the notable exception. Wieck’s 1837 performance was not the first from memory, but rather represents a seminal moment in the evolution of memorization as a performance practice. This article explores the evolution of memorization as a performance practice, describes the rise in popularity of performing from memory through the 19th century, and how the practice reflects changing philosophies and attitudes in music as a whole. The practice finally stabilizes in the late 19th century, setting the stage for modern performance practice.

Full text

Mishra 1
Playing from Memory: Development of a 19
th
Century Performance Practice
Jennifer Mishra
University of Missouri – St. Louis
mishraj@umsl.edu
Key words: Memorization, Performance Practice, Expertise Development, Virtuosity

Mishra 2
…it is the fashion just now for all our pianoforte soloists to play without notes. But the notion of
concerted pieces being executed by all concerned without notes is preposterous. – H. Sutherland
Edwards
(1876)
1
Introduction
In 1837, the 17-year-old Clara Wieck performed Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor,
opus 57 from memory
2
. At the time, performing without the score was viewed as arrogant and
ostentatious, focusing attention on the performer and the performance and away from the composer
and the music
3
. Romantic virtuosity would subsequently sweep through the world of music and
performing from memory would inspire awe and endow the performer with almost super-human
powers. By the end of the century, a pianist performing with score would become the notable
exception. Wieck’s 1837 performance was not the first from memory, but rather represents a seminal
moment in the evolution of memorization as a performance practice
4
. This article explores the evolution
of memorization as a performance practice, describes the rise in popularity of performing from memory
through the 19
th
century, and how the practice reflects changing philosophies and attitudes in music as a
whole. The practice finally stabilizes in the late 19
th
century, setting the stage for modern performance
practice.
Memorization Pre-1830
1
H. Sutherland Edwards, “The Literary Maltreatment of Music,” Macmillan's Magazine 33 (April, 1876):
558.
2
Joan Chissell, Clara Schumann: A Dedicated Spirit, (New York: Taplinger Publishing, 1983), 46-47.
3
Bettina von Arnim, a friend of Goethe and Beethoven and influential socialite, was openly critical of
Clara’s playing from memory. “How pretentiously she seats herself at the piano, and then without
music! How modest, on the other hand, is Doehler, who placed the music in front of him.” (Litzmann p.
107)
4
Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann (nee Wieck) are the two performers most often credited with first
performing from memory. The 1837 concert represents the earliest documented performance of a
specific piece though Schumann apparently performed her debut concert in 1832 from memory
(Litzmann p. 43).

Mishra 3
Performing from memory would become fashionable in the mid-19
th
Century, but there is
evidence that musicians prior to the 19
th
century could, and sometimes did, perform from memory.
Handel performed from memory after 1751 because of his blindness
5
, but there is no evidence that
prior to his blindness he had performed without music. Mozart’s prodigious musical memory is usually
documented by the famous story of his transcribing Allegri Miserere, but there are also reports of
Mozart performing from memory during his first extensive tour of Europe in 1763 through 1766
6
. In a
letter dated October 2, 1777 he wrote, “I played quite a bit from memory at Count Salern’s these last 3
days…and at the end the finalmusick with the Rondeau, all from memory
7
.” In the early 19
th
century,
other musicians performed from memory: Spohr in 1811
8
, Böhm in 1816
9
, both Fanny and Felix
Mendelssohn in 1818
10
and 1821
11
respectively, and reports of Paganini playing from memory begin as
early as 1808
12
.
The practice of performing from memory however was not common, nor encouraged prior to
the mid-19
th
century. In 1805, when Czerny was about 14 years old, he would frequently visit Prince
Lichnowsky and play Beethoven’s Sonatas, the Prince calling out an opus number and Czerny performing
the Sonata from memory
13
. Beethoven was not pleased. “Even if he plays correctly on the whole, he will
forget in this manner the quick survey, the a vista playing [sight reading] and, occasionally, the correct
5
Charles Francis Abdy Williams, Handel (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1901), 173-4.
6
Otto Erich Deutsch, Mozart, A Documentary Biography (Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1966), 30
& 41.
7
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Robert Spaethling, Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life: Selected Letters (New
York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 66.
8
Louis Spohr, Autobiography (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, Green, 1865), 155.
9
Eduard Hanslick, Geschichte des Concertwesens in Wien, Volume 1 (Wien: Braumüller, 1869), 231.
10
R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 36.
11
Clive Brown, A Portrait of Mendelssohn (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 78.
12
Stephen Samuel Stratton, Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971),
22.
13
Peter Clive, Beethoven and His World: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001), 81.

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expression
14
” Memorization then was to be discouraged because it eroded sight reading ability, but also
because there was a danger that the music would not be remembered correctly.
To modern musicians, memorization means the faithful production of the notation, but early in
the 19
th
century, when improvisation was a prized skill, this may not have been the case. Paganini
describes a “duel” with a fellow violinist Charles Philippe Lafont in 1816 that may illuminate the attitude
of the performers towards written compositions:
I [Paganini] began with one of my concertos, then Lafont followed with a longish work, and after
this we played Kreutzer’s double concerto… Where the two violins played together, I held
strictly note for note to the written text…. But in the solo passages I gave free rein to my
imagination and played in the Italian manner
15
.
Paganini describes a free attitude towards the written notation; playing in the style of Kreutzer rather
than the notes as written by Kreutzer. Musicians performing in the early part of the 19
th
century may not
have been as faithful to the notes as modern musicians would expect.
The emphasis at this time was placed on improvisation and sight reading; memorization was
dismissed or actively discouraged. Upon hearing a young Beethoven improvise in 1790, Mozart at first
dismissed him, thinking the piece memorized rather than improvised
16
. In 1792, the prodigy of
Kalkbrenner’s son was called into question when during an improvised performance he reportedly
stopped, turned to his father and said “‘Papa, I have forgotten…
17
” But attitudes were beginning to
change. With the rise of the canon and focus on composers and historical compositions, the performer’s
job became a faithful reproduction of the score. Memorization would soon supplant improvisation as
the favored method of showing virtuosity.
14
Alexander Wheelock Thayer, The Life of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Volume 1 (New York: The Beethoven
Association , 1921), 315-16.
15
Geraldine I. de Courcy, De Paganini: The Genoese, Volume 1 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977), 148.
16
“Biography: Beethoven,” The Musical Magazine 45 (September 1840): 292.
17
Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963),
111
.

Mishra 5
Evolution of a Performance Practice: 1830-1860
Performing from memory in public began in earnest in the late 1830s and early 1840s
spearheaded by Wieck, Paganini, and Mendelssohn. Liszt was soon to follow, performing most of his
music from memory by 1840
18
. By the mid-19
th
century there were scattered reports from all over
Europe of musicians playing from memory. During this time, tastes and attitudes towards music were
changing, reflecting the new Romantic ideals. Two changes in particular were key to the evolution of
memorization as a performance practice: 1) the commercialization of music and the public thirst for
virtuosity and 2) the rise of the canon.
With the rise of the middle class in the mid-19
th
century, music became more central to the lives
of the general population; more people had access to music through the concert halls and more people
had time and money to become amateur musicians. When audiences went to the concert hall, they
wanted a show. Romantic virtuosity was all about the musician as the hero
19
. The virtuoso was an
individual with a larger-than-life stage presence who stood out from all other musicians
20
. Traveling
virtuosos such as Paganini and Liszt amazed audiences with technical fireworks
21
and feats of
improvisation, but as the competition increased, a new form of virtuosity emerged. Because the practice
of performing from memory was rare, performers used it as a way to distinguish themselves. One
anecdote describing a performance of a duo by Pixis and Liszt highlights this idea:
Pixis, knowing Liszt’s habit of playing from memory, requested him on this occasion at least to
have the music open before him on the piano-desk, as he himself did not like to risk playing his
part without notes, and he felt it would produce an unfavorable impression on the public if Liszt
18
Alan Walker, Franz Liszt, Volume 2 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987), 285-286.
19
John Irving, “The Invention of Tradition. in The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, ed.
Jim Samson (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 193.
20
Jim Samson, Virtuosity and the Musical Work: The Transcendental Studies of Liszt (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 76.
21
John Rink, “The Profession of Music,” in The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, ed. Jim
Samson (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 67.

Mishra 6
should play from memory while he, the composer, had to rely on his copy… So when the time
came, the pianists walked on the stage, each carrying his roll of music. Pixis carefully unrolled his
and placed it on the piano-desk. Liszt, however, sat down at the piano, and, just before
beginning to play, tossed his roll over behind the instrument and proceeded to play his part by
heart….
22
Soon, memorization would supplant improvisation as the favored method of showing virtuosity. The
reason for this lies in the rise of the canon.
In the 1830s audience tastes began to shift. Becoming fashionable were Historical Concerts
23
featuring works of Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven and other “ancient” composers
24
. While
Beethoven’s music never really disappeared from the repertoire, older music from the Classical and
Baroque periods was rarely programmed in the early 19
th
century. Mendelssohn was particularly active
in resurrecting previously forgotten music. The pieces forming the canon became sacred; great works by
great composers
25
. No longer was it acceptable to freely change the works (i.e., improvise around the
notated music) and the practice virtually disappeared from public performance after 1840
26
. Performing
from memory allowed the performer to show virtuosity in a way that was faithful to the musical work.
An 1833 review highlights the shift, with high praise for Mendelssohn playing a note-perfect
performance from memory, leaving improvisation to the cadenza:
The performance of Mozart’s Concerto [in d minor] by M. Mendelssohn was perfect. The
scrupulous exactness with which he gave the author’s text, without a single addition or new
reading [italics original] of his own, the precision in his time, together with the extraordinary
22
William Mason, “Memories of a Musical Life,” The Century Magazine 60 (1900): 770.
23
Colin Lawson, The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1999), 4.
24
Rink, The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, 65.
25
Katharine Ellis “The Structures of Musical Life” in The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music,
ed. Jim Samson (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 347-9.
26
Rink, The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, 68.

Mishra 7
accuracy of his execution, excited the admiration of all present; and this was increased, almost
to rapture, by his two extemporaneous cadences…. The whole of this concerto he played from
memory
27
.
This passage highlights a broader shift in audience tastes. Improvisational skills were still admired, but in
their place (i.e., cadenzas). The notes written by a great master should be played faithfully and the
performer’s job was to bring the composer’s creativity to light, not be creative themselves
28
. In centuries
when there was a desire for new music, sight reading was a prized skill, but in an age that valued a core
of technically difficult masterworks, intense study became important.
However, the practice of performing from memory was by no means immediately and
universally accepted. Because of the attention it brought to the musician, performing from memory
could be a distraction; focusing the audience’s attention on the performer and away from the music.
There are reports, especially in the early 19
th
century of musicians hiding their memorized
performances. For instance in 1844, Mendelssohn arrived at the performance of his Piano Trio No. 1 in D
minor, Op. 49 to find the piano part was missing. Mendelssohn played from memory, but asked that
pages of a score be turned so the audience would not know that he was performing from memory
29
.
Pedagogues would continue to discourage memorization for another half century. In Hummel’s
A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction on the Art of Playing the Piano Forte written
in 1828, he states: “The eye should be fixed on the notes, and the fingers must find the keys merely
through feeling. For this reason, too, learning by heart is to be suppressed
30
.” Even Frederick Wieck,
father of Clara, gave mixed advice on the practice of performing from memory in his 1875 pedagogical
publication Piano and Song. On the one hand, requiring the memorization of 50-60 specially written
27
“Philharmonic Concerts,” Harmonicon (1933): 135.
28
Rink, The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, 65.
29
R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 473.
30
Adolf Kullak, Hans Bischoff, & Theodore Baker, The æsthetics of Pianoforte-Playing (New York:
Schirmer, 1893), 61-62.

Mishra 8
exercises to be learned by heart and transposed while on the other hand requiring students to “fix your
eyes very carefully on the notes, and not to trust to memory; otherwise, you will never learn to pay at
sight
31
”. Mendelssohn, whose memory was prolific, insisted that that his students perform from
notation
32
and Chopin was angry when one of his students intended to play the Nocturne op. 9 no. 2
from memory and did not bring the score. “I don’t want any of this: are you reciting a lesson? I want to
teach you precisely or not at all
33
.” The fear was that students performing from memory would be
inattentive to the details of the piece. In other words, have memory lapses. Avoiding these lapses would
become a major source of concern as the practice became more common.
Solidifying Practice: 1860-1880
During the 1860s and 70s, performing from memory was becoming more common but still
notable and astonishing, especially when young children performed from memory. At this time, entire
programs might be performed from memory or individual pieces – especially Beethoven. The canon was
solidifying
34
and there was now a repertoire that all educated performers studied and repeatedly
performed. For the performer, it was now worth the investment of time needed to learn pieces by
heart. With the repeated performances, audiences also became very familiar with the great
masterworks. The danger was that the performer would have a lapse of memory and the audience
would know. Performing from memory then was the musical equivalent of walking a tight rope; “there
are dangers, hairbreadth escapes, in sliding over such thin ice
35
”. Even Anton Rubinstein and Von
31
Friedrich Wieck, Piano and Song (Boston: Ditson & Co, 1875), 129.
32
Brown, A Portrait of Mendelssohn, 289.
33
Jean-Jacques Eigeldinge, ed., Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by his Pupils (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1987).
34
Ellis, The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, 347-9.
35
“Concert Record,” Dwight’s Journal of Music 29 (March 1869): 6.

Mishra 9
Bülow
36
, who were instrumental in popularizing the practice and performed all of their music from
memory, were not immune from memory lapses
37
.
Performing from memory thrilled audiences, but critics were not yet universally accepting of the
practice.
…this practice, introduced by modern piano virtuosos, such as Bülow, of trusting wholly to their
memory in playing long and difficult Concertos with an orchestra. It may give the solo player
greater freedom as well as greater prominence; but in the latter view it looks like affectation;
for, after all, in such a case the piano is but one part among many, and there would be equal
reason why each and every instrument in the orchestra should play without notes… If one is to
play without notes, why not all? And the Conductor, why should he have any score before
him
38
?
This reviewer writing in 1869 criticized performers who played from memory in much the same way
Clara Wieck was criticized in 1837 and for the same reason: performing from memory drew undue
attention to the performer and away from the music. “Acts of daring belong to the circus, and not the
domain of art
39
.” If the performer did falter, the music and the performance suffered. The following is
from an 1877 review of Rubinstein performing Mozart's Rondo in A minor:
…it is only to be regretted that the habit in which Rubinstein, like nearly all pianists of the
modern school, indulges of playing without notes should have induced in one or two places a
slight want of accuracy in details. This always will be the case; there is not one of our players
who in playing from memory has not, at some time or other, either made a bad slip or broken
36
Von Bülow was a student of Liszt.
37
John Francis Barnett, Musical Reminiscences and Impressions (London: Hodder, 1906), 142.
38
“Concert Record,” Dwight’s Journal of Music 29 (March 1869): 6.
39
Ferdinand Hiller, “Conducting from Memory: A Score!,” Dwight’s Journal of Music 32 no. 11 (August
1872): 329.

Mishra 10
down altogether. It would go well if a custom in which more is risked than can possibly be
gained were entirely abandoned.…
40
The argument against performing from memory then was the accompanying memory lapses that altered
the music. The argument for was that the practice resulted in a more expressive performance. “The
musician who plays from memory is as the bird that flies unfettered; the musician, however, who is tied
to his notes, is as the bird that is tied to a string
41
.” But, it wouldn’t be long before attitudes would shift
and the conversation became less about whether to perform from memory and more about how to
perform from memory.
Memorization Pedagogy: 1880-1900
In the 1880s, the practice of performing from memory exploded. No longer were only great
virtuosos and prodigies performing from memory, but seemingly all performers including amateurs
embraced the practice. The shift in attitudes is apparent in reviews that now noted when a performer
used a score
42
. However, the deterrents continued to refer to the practice as a craze
43
, fad
44
, or fashion:
“It has only become a matter of fashion, bravura and report on the side of the artist, and the public has
so accustomed itself to it, little by little, that it now almost feels entitled to demand it
45
.”
As performing from memory became expected, there were more reports of memory lapses. In
later performances, Clara Schumann began using scores
46
and Anton Rubinstein described anxiety over
his memory:
My musical memory…until my fiftieth year was prodigious, but since then I have been conscious
of a growing weakness…. The public has always been accustomed to see me play without notes,
40
“St. James's Hall: Rubinstein's First Recital,” The Academy 261 (May 1877): 402.
41
Karl Merz, Music and Culture: Comprising a Number of Lectures and Essays (Philadelphia: T. Presser,
1890), 154.
42
Alfred Veit, “Pianists and Pianism,” Music: A Monthly Magazine (November 1893): 19.
43
“Royal College of Music,” The Monthly Musical Record 19 no. 225 (September 1889): 208-209.
44
Veit, “Pianists and Pianism”: 19.
45
“The Theory of Phrasing, Memorizing, and Interpretation,” The Etude 4 no. 1 (1886): 202-3.
46
Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963), 238.

Mishra 11
for I have never used them; and I will not allow myself to rely upon my own resources to supply
the place of some forgotten passage, because I know that there will always be many among my
audiences who, being familiar with the piece I am performing, will readily detect any alteration
This sense of uncertainty has often inflicted upon me torture only to be compared with those of
the Inquisition, while the public listening to me imagine that I am perfectly calm
47
.
The musicians handled memory lapses in a number of different ways. Some improvised until the
memory returned, others paused to collect their thoughts or began again from the beginning, some left
the stage to consult a score or even bring the score onto the stage. Pachmann’s memory lapses were
legendary as were the humorous ways in which he handled the lapses.
In the middle of a Sonata [Pachmann] completely forgot where he was in the music. Without
any hesitation, instead of going behind the stage, he went forward and up the aisle. He walked
like a lunatic, staring straight ahead he slowly went to the very back of the hall. There he jumped
on a chair, reached up and stopped a clock and said in a loud voice that the ticking of the clock
had disturbed him. Then he returned to the piano and resumed playing
48
.
The piano and violin were the primary virtuosic instruments of the 19
th
century, and the practice
of performing from memory remains most firmly rooted in these traditions, but conducting from
memory also became fashionable at this time. Though there were reports of Mendelssohn conducting
from memory as early as 1829
49
, it was Von Bülow who popularized the practice in the 1870s and 80s.
But conducting from memory remained controversial long after performing from memory on piano and
violin was commonplace.
47
Anton Rubinstein, Autobiography (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1902), 17-18.
48
Mark Mitchell, Vladimir De Pachmann: A Piano Virtuoso's Life and Art (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2002), 132-133.
49
Peter Mercer-Taylor, “Mendelssohn and the Institution(s) of German Art Musician,” in The Cambridge
Companion to Mendelssohn (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 14.

Mishra 12
The virtuoso who can execute his solos without music, is right to do so. The perfect command
which he must, in every respect, exercise over his art finds a sort of visible expression in the fact
of his playing from memory…in conducting will the absence of desk and score in any way
contribute to enhance the effect of a composition? Not in the remotest degree. The only thing is
that his apparent virtuosity will increase the personal importance of the conductor in the eyes of
the public—a circumstance not advantageous to the work… [Conductors] have a higher object:
that of presenting in the best light the musical picture confided to them. The more they
disappear as individuals from before the audience, the better. Nothing is a greater mistake than
for a conductor to assume the place of a virtuoso, and attempt to attract the attention of the
public to himself personally. . . divert[ing] their attention from what, in the eyes of a conductor,
ought to be of more account than anything else [the music]
50
.
Von Bülow would continue performing and conducting all performances from memory and even
experimented with a notation-less orchestra at Meiningen
51,52
, but ensembles performing from memory
would remain a rare exception.
As the turn of the century approached, the primary question became how to memorize, shifting
the conversation away from the critics and to the pedagogues. The general feeling was that children can
and should learn to play pieces from memory. Leschetizky
53
, a student of Liszt (who was in turn a
student of Czerny), may have been the first to develop a system for teaching memorization. Many of his
strategies are still in use today. Leschetizky promoted a slow, concentrated mental memorization
process. Learning one bar or phrase at a time carefully before adding another. “Any one with the power
50
Ferdinand Hiller, “Conducting from Memory,” Dwight’s Journal of Music, 32 (1872): 289.
51
Raymond Holden, The Virtuoso Conductors: The Central European Tradition from Wagner to Karajan (
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 26 & 29.
52
“Foreign notes: Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen in Berlin. Bülow conducts from memory,” The Musical
Times 22 (April 1881): 201-03.
53
Malwine Brée, Seymour Bernstein, Arthur Elson, The Leschetizky Method (New York: G. Schirmer,
1902), 57-58.

Mishra 13
of concentration can learn to play by heart – no matter how intricate a composition may be
54
”. During
this time dozens of articles and books written by performers, pedagogues and psychologists on the best
way of memorizing music emerged. One of the earliest step-by-step memorization guides was published
in 1886, probably written by W. S. B. Mathews
55
. The process consisted of chunking the piece into
phrases and memorizing left and right hands separately at the piano. The most comprehensive method
was included in Frederick Shinn’s 1898 book Musical memory and its Cultivation
56
. The book contains
chapters on four types of memory: musical (by which he means aural), visual, muscular, and intellectual.
For more than a century, these four types of musical memory would structure the way musicians think
about their own musical memory.
Practice Stabilizes: 20
th
Century
By the 20
th
century, the practice of performing solo works from memory was entrenched,
especially for violin, cello, and piano. Organists continued to debate the issue
57
, but the general feeling
was that the music was not fully learned and could not be fully interpreted until the piece was
memorized
58,59
. Allen Spencer summed up the opinion of the time:
Only those pianists whose musicianship is broad enough to study their programs in every detail
are worth hearing, and it follows without question that such will always play from memory. Any
departure from this standard can result only in an increase of inferior and mentally incapable
pianists and a lowering of the public performance of our great heritage of master-works to a
degree of emotionalism and insecurity wholly deplorable
60
.
54
Annette Hullah, Theodor Leschetizky (London: J. Lane, 1906), 44.
55
“The Theory of Phrasing, Memorizing, and Interpretation,” The Etude 4 no. 1 (1886): 202-3.
56
Frederick G. Shinn, Musical Memory and its Cultivation (London: Aucener, 1898).
57
H. C. Macdougall, “Playing without Notes,”The Etude 24, no. 11 (November 1906):734.
58
W. S. B. Mathews, “Memorizing and Competent Musical Interpretation,” Music: A Monthly Magazine.
12, no. 134 (January 1905): 35-41.
59
Edwin Hughes, “Musical Memory In Piano Playing And Piano Study,” The Musical Quarterly 1 (1915):
592-603.
60
“Should Recital Music be Memorized?,” The Etude 25, no. 10 (October 1907): 642-643.

Mishra 14
While solo music should be memorized, the consensus emerging was that chamber and orchestral music
should be read
61
. The “etiquette” of performing from memory was detailed in a 1917 article. Orchestral
and chamber music performed with score, sonatas with score (though violin part might be memorized),
accompaniment uses score, solo playing without score unless part of orchestral solo
62
. At this time,
there was not yet the discussion of whether to used notation for modern 20
th
century compositions.
A great deal continued to be published on how to memorize music. Much of the advice came
from interviews with professional musicians
63,64
, but psychologists were also writing on the topic
65
.
Advice echoed 19
th
century themes and revolved around segmenting the music and memorizing in
different ways i.e., aurally, visually, kinesthetically and by analyzing the details of the music (see
Bibliography). The practice was rooted in the 19
th
century canon and continues to be; performing music
from the 20
th
and 21
st
century with notes is generally acceptable.
Conclusion
The practice of performing from memory was not endorsed at a time when sight reading and
improvisation skills were prized. During the 19
th
century, memorization replaced improvisation as the
primary way to show virtuosity as the canon solidified. Audiences could be amazed at the performer’s
ability and still hear their favorite composers. By the mid-19
th
century, many virtuosos performed from
memory and by the 1880s most amateurs had embraced the practice. By the turn of the century, the
practice had stabilized and pedagogues and psychologists had taken over the discussion, debating the
best ways of memorizing music. The conventions in place in the early 20
th
century remain current
performance practice.
61
“Should Recital Music be Memorized?,” The Etude 25, no. 10 (October 1907): 642-643.
62
Robert Braine, “Playing from Memory,” Etude 35 (January 1917): 58
63
James Francis Cooke, Great Pianists on piano Playing (Philadelphia: T. Presser, 1913).
64
Harriette Moore Brower, Piano Mastery: Talks with Master Pianists and Teachers (New York: Frederick
A. Stokes, 1915).
65
J. Leonard Corning, “The Musical Memory and its Derangements (Amusia)” Medical Record 81, no. 2
(January 1912): 51-63.

Mishra 15
Selected Bibliography
Early books & book chapters on memorizing music
William Walker Atkinson, “How to Remember Music,” Memory: How to Develop, Train and Use
it (1912).
James Francis Cooke, How to Memorize Music (Philadelphia: Theodore Presser, 1948).
Henry H. Fuller, “Music,” The Art of Memory: Being a Comprehensive and Practical System of
Memory Culture (St. Paul, MN: National Publishing Co., 1898).
Henry Geehl, Playing from Memory (London: J. H. Larway, 1938).
A. J. Goodrich, Guide to Memorizing Music (Cincinnati, OH: John Church Company, 1906).
Martin Luther Holbrook, “Culture Of The Musical Memory” in How to Strengthen the Memory:
Natural and Scientific Methods of Never Forgetting (New York: M. L. Holbrook, 1886).
C. Fred Kenyon, How To Memorize Music With Numerous Musical Examples (London: William
Reeves, 1904).
Tobias Matthay, On memorizing and playing from memory and on the laws of practice generally
(London: Oxford University Press, 1926).
Karl Merz, “Memory,” in Music and Culture: Comprising a Number of Lectures and Essays
(Philadelphia, T. Presser, 1890).
Frederick G. Shinn, Musical Memory and its Cultivation (London: Acener, 1898).
Joseph Singer, “On Memorizing Music,” in Eye and Ear Memory (Harrisburg, PA: J. P. Downs,
1891).
Wilbert Webster White, “Application to Memorizing Poetry, and Music” in The Natural Method
of Memorizing and Memory Training Based on the Four Laws… (New Haven, CT: 1888-9).