Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1903 — Astonishing Musical Statistics. [ARTICLE]

Astonishing Musical Statistics.

in the course of a lecture at the Conference of Musicians in Dublin, Ireland, some Interesting particulars and some astonishing statistics were given relatively to the amount of work accomplished by the brain and nerves in piano playing. A pianist in view of the present state of piano-forte playing has to cultivate the eye to see about 1,500 signs in one minute, the fingers to make about 2,000 movements, and the brain to receive and understand separately the 1,500 signs which it issues 2,000 orders In playing Weber’s “Moto perpetuo,” a pianist has to read 4,541 notes in a little under four minutes. This is about 19 per second; but the eye can receive only about ten consecutive Impressions per second, so that It is evident that in very rapid music a player does not see every note singly, but in groups, probably a bur or more atone vision. In Chopin's “Etude tn E minor” (in the second sot) the speed of reading is still greeter, since it is necessary to read 5,960 signs in two minutes and a half, which is equivalent to about 26 notes per second.

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