The new kind of fingering was made the more necessary by the use of all the keys equally; for hitherto only a few keys had been used. The hand and arm were to be held horizontally, the wrist straight; the fingers bent in the natural position assumed by the hand when about to grasp any object. Each finger had to fall without disturbing the others; and Bach devoted an immense amount of labour to make his fingers independent and equal in strength. He could perform trills with all fingers equally well, and could play melodies at the same time with the other fingers. After a finger had held down a note as long as was necessary it was drawn towards the inner part of the hand on leaving the key. The wrist and elbows were kept perfectly quiet. The method was the same for both organ and harpsichord. The keys were not struck but pressed down. Bach raised his fingers so little that their movement was hardly noticeable. They were, however, still passed over one another, as well as the thumb, and in order not to break the legato effect, the finger passed over was drawn back before leaving the key. This method was particularly applicable to the clavichord, one of Bach’s favourite instruments.

He liked the upper row of keys to be shallower than the lower, so that he could slip down from one to the other without change of finger.

Other Fingering Methods

But others were at work on the same ground. Couperin, organist of St Gervais at Paris, published in 1717 his “L’art de toucher le clavecin.” J. G. Walther used the thumb, and has left some organ chorales with this indicated.

Heinichen and Handel also used the thumbs, and bent their fingers over the notes, so that they struck the right ones unconsciously.

Two short pieces with Bach’s fingering in his own hand have come down to us—the rules laid down by his son C. P. Emanuel differ from them considerably—thus Emanuel limits the crossing to the thumb; Sebastian prescribes crossing of fingers as well.

Sebastian, in fact, retained all that was advantageous in the old system and engrafted on it the use of the thumb, etc. His son, who was the forerunner of modern piano-playing, simplifies his father’s rules. His compositions were of a far less complicated nature than those of his father, and he therefore was able to use simpler fingering.

The hammer-like stroke required for the modern piano effectually banished the crossing of fingers over one another, by which pressure only, not a blow, could be obtained. The loss of Bach’s complete method of fingering (which is not adapted for the piano) causes his compositions to be more difficult to the modern player than they were to him, but this does not hold good of the organ, the nature of which remains the same as in his time.

He played equally in all keys, and for this purpose had his instruments tuned in equal temperament, as is universally the case at present. Experiments had been made in this method of tuning by Werkmeister, who died in 1706, and, later, by J. G. Neidhardt.

Equal temperament