The Illusion Of One Hand
By Robert Mitchell
As an artist in an area where several musics meet (improvised, classical, jazz, folk) I am fascinated by not only the overlaps between genres, but also in those who triumphed over adversity to make great music.
The Covid-19 pandemic will remind us for a long time that we really are not in charge. We have to remain vigilant and learn how to adapt in the face of ever new challenges. We must look after the planet more than ever, as we can literally see the clock ticking with each passing season. Reminding ourselves of where we fit in and how we can best fulfill our role in this ecosystem is vital.
Although I have been missing live performance terribly, this period has allowed me to devote more time to composing and practicing, to increase my teaching, research, and study, and to think more deeply about an area I am very passionate about: left-hand-only piano. Don’t leave … let me explain! The resonance with the challenges of these recent times is deep, and in terms of overcoming adversity, I suggest is a prime example of how we can flourish creatively even under extremely challenging conditions.
Left-hand-only piano has a hugely inspiring yet undervalued history of creativity that has resulted in a surprising amount of great music. The stories and figures behind this output should be far better known, as they can be a perfect inspiration for these (or any) difficult times. I am biased as a left hander myself (and yes: it is absolutely a component of my wider interest here). Left-handers have historically been marginalized—in Europe they were considered more likely to commit crime or to be tried as a witch, and deemed incompatible with religious practices in Africa, Asia, and the Far East. This adds weight to the challenge (while there are pieces written for right-hand-only piano, they do not carry the same social, religious and political ramifications in a right-handed-dominant society).
To play an instrument with centuries of history comes with a vast cultural expectation based on established norms. To perform music with a physical (and not just an artistically individual) difference already increases the likelihood of rejection—beginning, for example, with the visual impression of the performer. To actively pursue an artistic path with such a physical constraint is, I believe, a spirit that is critical to present and future challenges—our ‘normal’ has gone, as those who won’t be returning to office work will attest. We have been forced to change. Many of the pioneers in left-hand-only piano were doing this innovative work when the instrument—at least in the West—was a far more popular instrument than today.
Performing and composing left-hand-only was forced upon professional pianists like Count Géza Zichy (who lost his right arm in a childhood hunting accident), Paul Wittgenstein (injury in warfare), Bill Evans (drug usage/misadventure). Conversely, it was a deliberate choice by pianist/composers Leopold Godowsky, Phineas Newborn Jr. (a defiant left hander), Kenny Drew Jr., and the undersung Borah Bergman (please check out all these names if you don’t already know them!). In each case, a limitation led to a search for ingenious solutions. Some examples include:
Godowsky’s incredible arrangements of Frederic Chopin’s Études for left-hand-only,
Newborn Jr’s “Blues For The Left Hand Only” (see below),
Wittgenstein’s three-volume Exercises for the Left Hand (a literal retooling of piano approaches for a single-handed future).
Having had the honor of meeting, chatting with, and later interviewing the wonderful Phineas Newborn III about his father (Jr.) and the whole family’s multi-generational artistic gifts, the following context is important.
When he was a student, Phineas Newborn Jr. had his left hand literally tied behind his back in class by the teacher. As I suggested above, far too many cultures clash with the very idea of left-handedness—and have been cruel in their efforts to try to ‘cure’ it. Although his mother was rightly horrified and livid and marched back to the school to lay down the law—demanding that this treatment never happen again to her son (thankfully it didn’t)—it did seem nevertheless to fuel a determination in the young pianist not only to equalise the abilities of both his hands but to also repay the castigated left hand with a starring role: all by itself.
One of the most brilliant and most unique moments in televised jazz history is the 1962 Jazz Scene rendition of ‘Blues For The Left Hand Only’ (a brilliant tune, regardless of how arranged). Where else has this ever occurred? Recorded originally on the album Piano Portraits (1959—the same year as Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue) and dispatched in a way that would suggest it was a far from rare approach for Phineas Jr, it’s a great piece of music, brilliantly orchestrated, displaying a variety of approaches including multiple voices in conversation. It is full of jazz’s essential multidimensional approach, giving life to melodic line, harmony, bass line, and echoes of a brass section wrapped together in a driving fiery blues mastery, all expressed with a single (left) hand. What amazes me is how undersung this performance remains (and that I did not hear about this sooner than twelve years ago!!). I believe a bigger place for this in jazz and improvised music is definitely warranted. The transcending of form is priceless.
I must mention the combinatory genius of late greats Horace Parlan (who overcame a limited right hand due to polio) and Bheki Msleku (who would simultaneously play piano and saxophone—using one hand for each—having had a childhood accident with his right hand ). While Parlan and Msleku were not strictly left-hand-only players, each overcame overt difficulties to become piano masters. We can add to this growing list the modern brilliance of Nicholas McCarthy, Kenijiro Kojima, and Yuki Negishi, all dynamic exponents of left-hand-only classical piano. I would love to see more improvisers working in this area!
And how incredible is it to have a competition for left-hand-only performers in Japan! With the opportunity to have new compositions for this format featured as well.
In my opinion, a focus on left-hand-only technique should be part of standard piano practice. My earliest studies at the piano were in classical music. As things got more advanced, I would very occasionally come across left-hand-only pieces. But they weren’t being studied. They weren’t even being talked about! Many years later I decided to take the leap (in composing terms) due to a commission from Belgian pianist/teacher Ivo De Greef to write for solo piano for an Antenna 2 broadcast in Lisbon. Keith Jarrett had recently returned to playing after a period of illness and talked about giving his left hand more of the limelight. I thought—as a tribute to Jarrett—I would try to write for left hand only!
Two extremely unproductive weeks followed (served me right!). But I am glad I set the challenge for myself. For me, the ideas needed to be developed only using the left hand. I could not simply compose with two hands and rearrange (it didn’t flow for me and I had not yet experienced being inspired in this format so was determined to keep trying ideas out). A fraught debate between inner-ear imagination and left-hand-only arranging often left me feeling that I was playing and writing for a completely different instrument. It took moments where my ear said “there are enough dimensions working here to stand alone—you are now officially inspired!” Because of course my left hand had been asking me “what do think you are doing?!!” So it needed confirmation from my ears that this mode of being was worth all the difficulty.
As a pianist I have read many interviews about this approach, where hand and ear are in a heightened continuous dialogue. Where I am seated (an octave to the right so the left hand is equidistant from both keyboard extremes), detailed pedaling and the added intensity with which different parts of an arrangement need to be brought out in order for the fullness of the music to work are tough but extremely rewarding challenges. They continue to feed back into all experiences I might have at the piano—whether with one hand or two, and in situations where one hand is busier than the other. I eventually loved having this experience as it has opened up new options for creative expression. For example, while a composition can develop from left-hand-only exploration, it doesn’t have to end up as a one-handed piece.
The resultant composition, REALM, remains a piece I am extremely proud of twelve years later (as much for the process detailed above as for the result).
I emerged from this experience to ask: why are there no single-handed piano pieces in piano exams? I would love to see pieces that involve multiple forms of physical approaches as standard for all instrumental syllabi. This is long overdue and should be central to whatever ‘new norms’ emerge from the period of turmoil we have been in for the last eighteen-plus months. It would be a powerful move if all music education were to engage a wide variety of music that works within and/or ingeniously transcends various physical limits. This can be done at all levels of study, resulting in a hugely positive and creative result. (If there are single-handed pieces in piano exam syllabi anywhere, I would love to hear about and amplify it!)
The powerful determination and creativity exemplified by those making and performing music in a way that is different from the original intentions for an instrument is hugely inspiring at any time. Sadly this appears to be regarded as a hidden parallel world that has existed for far longer than is commonly given credit for. It shows that our creativity is far from exhausted. And that some of the answers to our most difficult challenges may lie in those rich parallel worlds that have been trying to tell us how much more we can do to transcend old or new limitations.
Photo credit: C. Hyde
Robert Mitchell is a British composer, pianist/keyboard player and band leader of Panacea, True Think, and Epiphany3. He has performed with Billy Harper, Steve Williamson, Dayme Arocena, Steve Coleman, and the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, and had compositions premiered by the London Sinfonietta players. He is a Piano Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, a Piano Lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire, and a task force member of Black Lives In Music. His album ‘The Glimpse’ (Whirlwind 2013) is an acclaimed left-hand-only piano solo recording. Robert is a Steinway Artist and winner of a Hamlyn Composition Award in 2020.
